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Osmosis Jones is a 2001 American live-action/animated buddy cop action film comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers and written by Marc Hyman. The film stars the voices of Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Brandy Norwood and William Shatner, alongside Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott and Bill Murray in live-action roles. It combines live-action sequences directed by the Farrelly Brothers and animated ones directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito. It follows the titular protagonist, an anthropomorphic white blood cell police officer, as he teams up with a cold pill to protect his unhealthy human host from a deadly virus he unintentionally contracted.
The film premiered on August 7, 2001, and was released theatrically three days later. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the worldbuilding, animation, story and voice performances, but criticized the inconsistent tone of the live-action portions and overuse of Gross out. The film was also a box-office bomb, grossing $14 million worldwide against a $70 million budget. Despite the poor financial response, the film became a success on home video and was followed by the animated television series Ozzy & Drix, which aired on Kids' WB for two seasons and twenty-six episodes from 2002 to 2004.
Mayor Phlemming, seeking re-election, doubles down on his junk food policies and ignores warnings about Frank's health in order to go to a Buffalo wing festival. After Frank eats a contaminated boiled egg, his throat becomes inflamed and Phlegmming instructs him to take a cold pill, bringing Special Agent Drixenol "Drix" Drixobenzometaphedramine into the body to investigate the cause of the inflammation. Drix disinfects the throat, inadvertently covering up evidence of the true cause of the inflammation: Anthrax, a virus known as "The Red Death".
Thrax murders the leader of a gang of sweat germs and assumes control. Ozzy and Drix encounter Thrax in the nose, who escapes by inciting a runny nose. Seeing Ozzy's attempts to warn Phlegmming rebuffed, Drix learns from him that he once saw an undetected stomach virus in Frank's stomach and responded by making Frank vomit on Shane's teacher, Mrs. Boyd. This incident led to Frank's dismissal from his previous job, Mrs. Boyd filing a restraining order against him, while Ozzy was suspended for unnecessary force and then demoted to patrol duties in Frank's mouth. Despite this, Drix agrees Ozzy did the right thing, as his actions prevented further damage to Frank.
While Frank visits Mrs. Boyd at Shane's school to ask her to lift the restraining order so he can accompany Shane on the school hike, one of Ozzy's informants — a flu vaccine named Chill — directs him and Drix to Thrax's hideout. Ozzy and Drix visit a nightclub within a large Pimple on Frank's forehead, where Ozzy goes undercover and learns that Thrax intends to masquerade as a common cold and use his knowledge on human DNA to kill Frank in a record forty-eight hours. Ozzy is subsequently discovered and Drix comes to his aid, causing a brawl which culminates in the zit being popped; its pus inadvertently lands on Mrs. Boyd's lip and she angrily rejects Frank's request. In response, Phlegmming closes the investigation, and despite their warnings, Ozzy is dismissed from the police force and Drix is ordered to leave Frank's body.
Thrax survives the zit's explosion and infiltrates the hypothalamus, where he steals a crucial nucleotide, disabling Frank's body's ability to regulate temperature and he starts to develop a fever. Realizing Thrax survived, Ozzy catches up to Drix and the two head to the brain where Thrax uses Phlegmming's secretary, Leah Estrogen, as a hostage and escapes. Frank's temperature reaches and he is hospitalized as his body begins performing a cytokine storm to rid itself of Thrax's infection.
Ozzy and Drix rescue Leah and pursue Thrax, who escapes with the nucleotide by inducing Frank to sneeze him out of the mouth using pollen; meanwhile, Shane arrives at the hospital after hearing her father has gone into cardiac arrest. Drix shoots Ozzy after Thrax and they land on one of Shane's false eyelashes, which Thrax becomes stuck on; Thrax is then killed when the lash falls into a beaker of rubbing alcohol. Ozzy rides one of Shane's tears back into Frank's mouth with the nucleotide, reviving Frank just in time.
Ozzy is welcomed back into the police force, forming a partnership with Drix and beginning a relationship with Leah. Frank commits himself to living a healthier lifestyle and he and Shane go on a hike together. Forced out of office, a now-disgraced Phlegmming becomes a janitor in the bowels and is ejected from Frank's body after ignoring a warning not to trigger flatulence.
Twisted Brown Trucker members Kid Rock, Kenny Olsen, Jason Krause, Joe C. (His final public performance), Stefanie Eulinberg, Jimmie "Bones" Trombly, and Uncle Kracker provide the voices of the fictional band Kidney Rock.
Principal photography on the live-action scenes took place from April 2 to June 19, 2000, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Osmosis Jones was originally rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "crude language" and "bodily humor" in 2000. However, Warner Bros. edited the film to make it family-friendly; and in 2001 when it was released, the film was re-rated PG for "bodily humor".
The film's animated sections were praised for their plot and fast pace, in contrast with the criticized live-action segments. Robert Koehler of Variety admired how the animated and live-action segments intermingled: "most extensive interplay of live-action and animation since Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice wrote its "genre satire" was "almost Jonathan Swift": "disastrous physiopathological stats are fodder for glib newscasts." He thought the denouement surrendered "to the big sleep (in an amazing Ordet kind of way)", concluding "not since David Cronenberg Rabid has a movie used biological vulnerability to such resonant and anxious profit." NYT wrote "the film, with its effluvia-festival brand of humor, is often fun, and the rounded, blobby rendering of the characters is likable. But the picture tries too hard to be offensive to all ages. I suspect that even the littlest viewers will be too old for that spit." Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 and wrote: "Likely to entertain kids, who seem to like jokes about anatomical plumbing. For adults, there is the exuberance of the animation and the energy of the whole movie, which is just plain clever."
The use of Gross out in the film's live-action sequences, as seen in most films directed by the Farrelly brothers, was widely criticized. As such, Lisa Alspector of the Chicago Reader described the film as a "cathartically disgusting adventure movie". Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide praised the film's animation and its glimpse of intelligence although did criticize the humor as being "so distasteful". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly felt that the film had a diverse premise as it "oscillates between streaky black comedy and sanitary instruction"; however the scatological themes were again pointed out. Jonathan Foreman of New York Post claimed Osmosis Jones to have generic plotting, saying that "It's no funnier than your average grade-school biology lesson and less pedagogically useful than your typical Farrelly brothers comedy." Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun praised David Hyde Pierce's performance as Drix, claiming him to be "hilarious" and "a take-charge dose of medicine".
The film also received criticism for its use of the Kid Rock song "Cool Daddy, Cool", the full version of which contains lyrics promoting statutory rape.
The film received numerous Annie Award nominations including Best Animated Feature (losing to Shrek).Kenyon, Heather (January 16, 2002). " Shrek Wins Big At 2001 Annie Awards". Animation World Network. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
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