Review of Osmosis Jones (2001) by Jamie T — 21 May 2010

A personal favorite; a clever, entertaining, and generally informative transposition of action-film cliches into the inside of the body. The scenes inside Frank's body are great: colorfully animated, exciting, and filled with inventive humor. As is common with animated films, little details are found throughout the frame, with more to be discovered on each viewing (the Hasidic Jew cell, for example). The voice work is also fine: Chris Rock brings his customary spark to the role of Osmosis Jones, the maverick white blood cell, while David Hyde Pierce is ideally prim and erudite as Drix, the cold pill. Laurence Fishburne brings intimidation and command to the virus Thrax, and William Shatner is amusingly sleazy as Mayor Phelgmming. The live-action half of the film is fun, but less compelling. Bill Murray seems to enjoy the role of the slovenly Frank, and Elena Franklin is solid as Shane, his frustrated daughter, but the jumbled script doesn't give them much to work with, and Molly Shannon seems a bit lost as Shane's high-strung teacher. Many find Chris Elliott's bizarre performance as Uncle Bob out-of-place, and it is, to be fair, but he's really something of a hoot. The Farrelly brothers were given the reins of the live-action scenes, and it's been alleged they played fast and loose with the script, giving headaches to the animation department (Tom Sito and Piet Kroon), and it shows at times; the live-action scenes are dotted with bizarre action, like this exchange:

BOB: Your body needs fluids, and lots of them.

FRANK: Is beer fluid?

BOB: What about all that wet stuff in it?

FRANK: I thought that was the beer.

Funny, sure, but somewhat random, and indicative of the mild sloppiness of the Farrelly's scenes. Still, these mildly weak sequences don't ruin the film by any means, and for the most part, it's a great deal of fun.