Review of Osmosis Jones (2001) by Emily S — 10 Aug 2015

Osmosis Jones follows the story of a man named Frank (Bill Murray) who is invaded by a harmful disease under the name of Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) and its up to two cops, one former white blood cell cop named Jones (Chris Rock) And a new weapon to the force under the name Drix (David Hyde Pierce.).

Osmosis Jones is one of those movies that tries to do the thing that Warner Bros was doing with their animation during the late 90s and early 2000s, mixing both the 2-D animation with the live action animated world such as in Space Jam or Looney Tunes Back in Action. This movie though takes a little bit of a bigger, or should I say, smaller approach. This movie rather than being cartoon characters that are full sized and to scale, these cartoon characters are just mere and small and can't be seen by the human eye. The look of the film though is very stylized and gritty, not the human world, but the inside of Frank. The inside of this mans body is beautifully animated and it really does look like what a human body would look like if a utopia was inside of a human. The 3-D animation also blends very well into the 2-D animation and the interesting ideas done with this animation is interesting. For example, when something catches fire, say from Thrax, microscopic little chains appear in the flames to prove the smallness of the flame. I will definitely say this is warner bros animation taking a risk in terms of the darkness and gruesomeness of a lot of scenes in this movie but I won't really spoil those moments for those who haven't seen it.

Now onto the comedy. Really this film is just a buddy cop movie in animated and microscopic form, the two who are complete opposites are put together in a situation that wouldn't really demand it but the two end up starting to like each other and start bonding as friends. Same as in all other buddy cop movies so there isn't much to interpretation in seeing something different so its really all the same jokes you'd see in a normal buddy cop movie just animated. Now there are a few good comedic moments mainly involving Drix at this club called "The Zit" (Take a guess why its called that.) And the running gag of freezing this small little germ constantly by accident when they're trying to get information out of him. But overall the comedy really falls flat in terms of really being anything different from any other generic buddy cop movie.

The main thing that really saves this movie is the acting and voice acting. This movie has some shockingly good voice acting and live acting from Bill Murray and the people he interacts with. Chris rock is decent as Jones and David HYde Pierce does a good job as Drix, but the two performances that steal the show are William Shatner as the Mayor, and Laurence Fishburne as Thrax. Shatner plays this cocky and ignorant mayor of Franks body who is trying to show that the body is in perfect shape when it really is anything but. My dad pointed out a good little similarity between him and the mayor in "Jaws" and the similarity is almost uncanny. The two are pompous and ignorant, and don't care if someone gets hurt they just care about business and publicity and Shatner does a phenomenally good job in this role. But the role that really steals the whole film is Laurence Fishburne as Thrax, MY GOD!!! Fishburne does a phenomenal job as this scarlet virus and he is the main reason just to see this movie. Being able to burn literally anything with the touch of a finger, Thrax has probably one of the most interesting designs i've seen in an animated film. Fishburne also gives Thrax this sense of cool and slyness to him but he can switch from calm and sinister to being just pure off the wall crazy and hate filled, and this is shown in full bloom in the films climax. I also might as well talk about the live action acting. While the acting isn't spectacular in the live action world, Murray does a good job as Frank and works off the daughter character very well enough to keep the films pace going well.

Overall Osmosis Jones may not be the absolute best animated film, but the animation is good, and the film is lead by great voice acting to keep the film going at a steady pace.