Remember the old Beano cartoon, The Numbskulls, about creatures controlling your body? Scary Orwellian implications aside, it was a great idea, and here it is, dusted off, and given a live action/animation make-over. Picture a David Cronenberg cartoon. With fart gags.
Its a lot funnier than that sounds. Kids, with their propensity for giggling at anything bodily functions-related, will have a field day. Meanwhile, adults are catered for by an extremely sharp script, stuffed with beautiful touches Mafia-like melanoma cells; a bureaucratic mayor (William Shatner); and top one-liners (Well go down to the haemorrhoids and get you a good lawyer).
Its billed as a Farrelly brothers movie, but Peter and Bobbys influence extends purely to the disappointing live-action segments. There are gross-out moments galore, but it seems like the Farrellys havent got their hearts, or any other bodily organ, in it. Murray is suitably sleazy as the oafish Frank, but is as wasted here as he was in Charlies Angels.
Thankfully, the animated side of things is inspired. Directors Kroon and Sito revel in the sheer scale of their human playground, unleashing a barrage of visual gags, many of which will escape detection until additional viewings. Their larger-than-life, retro-styled animation is reminiscent of an episode of Duckman with higher production values.
Voice-wise, Rock is unusually restrained as the sassy Jones, and Fishburne is memorably nasty as Thrax. But its Hyde Pierces prim, priggish, deadpan Drix a cross between Buzz Lightyear and Frasiers Niles who steals the show. Dr. Empires diagnosis? Go see Osmosis Jones. If sadness symptoms persist, see it again. Its a great work of body.