TNMC

 As animation moves into the 21st century with the likes of "Toy Story," "Shrek," and "Final Fantasy," it is a delight to see that there is still pleasure in viewing traditional animation. Disney still gets it done on a yearly basis, though I'm sure the last thing they needed was for the Farrelly brothers to step onto their turf. But thankfully, for all of our sakes, they did. The result is a new take on one of my favorite '80's movies, "Inner Space," which was a take on one of my favorite books, Isaac Asimov's "Fantastic Voyage." But leave it to the Farrelly's and a host of pretty cool maverick animators to turn an animated film into a series of body humor jokes. The end result is pretty cool.

There are two stories happening at once. Our hero Frank (the huggable Bill Murray) is your typical single dad who happens to be an absolute slob, and it is only because of his health-conscious daughter that he even knows that there's a difference between good foods and bad foods. However, Frank doesn't see any harm in either eating raw unclean oysters or downing a hard-boiled egg that has experienced both the dental hygiene of a monkey and the cleanliness of the floor of a zoo cage. The end result for Frank's error in germ-judgment is that he becomes susceptible to a myriad of fun loving germies who would like to wreak havoc on his unsuspecting body. Which brings us to the story within a story, literally. Inside Frank's body lies, you guessed it, the City of Frank. The City of Frank, just like any common day metropolis, is bustling with activity. Blood cells are busying about, delivering parcels of oxygen to patrons; seedy, nefarious types are hanging out in armpits and zits while plotting insidious tactics; lawyers are residing in the hemorrhoids waiting for a reason to get off their butts, arrivals and departures happen frequently in the stomach airport, and the Mayor Phlegmming (William "Priceline" Shatner) is trying to get reelected by defeating his newest challenger Tom Colonic (Ron Howard), "a regular guy."

When disaster strikes and a virus named Thrax (Morpheus Fishburne) enters the body looking for a few days to kill, white blood cell Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock), the police stations' favorite screw-up and human anatomy's answer to Axel Foley and Martin Riggs, is called into action to find out what's up. To make sure he doesn't fail again, the police chief has brought in via the mayor's request the big stud Drix (David Hyde Pierce), a time released cold pill, to clean up the mess. And so we have our first ever buddy movie that involves car chases in the rectum. Sweet.

The plot is pretty standard fare for buddy movies- the two cops, one maverick, one by the book guy, are placed together on a big assignment. They don't hit it off due to their different upbringings, but then one sacrifices for the other and they realize they have a lot in common. But then, due to immoral politics and such, they find themselves off the case, but take it upon themselves to redeem their good name and save the day (And Frank's life) in the end. If you've seen the "Beverly Hills Cop" or "Lethal Weapon" series, you'll know the plot by heart. However, the fun is in getting there. What the creators of this film have done is design a set that is not bound by reality, yet still adheres both to fundamental laws of nature as well as buddy movie rules. What impressed me most was the thought that was put into the dialogue and the drawn sets. It was the little things like the statue of the founding father of the City of Frank (which is suitably the statue of a sperm) that only flash on the screen for a few seconds, but add lots of sight gags and creativity to the movie. Often times I found myself lost in studying the backdrop, looking for little hidden nuggets, instead of watching the action on screen. It is such creativity and thought that is rare in designing a science fiction set, and I'm encouraged that this one was able to come off so well.

The bottom line is that this is an extremely clever, thoughtful, and funny movie. Adults will likely stay away due to the animation factor, but this movie does allow adults to bring their children to view it. There's no bad language, and the jokes are relatively clean body humor. In fact, coming out of the theater I was struck that this movie would be the perfect idea for a Saturday morning show; the animation doesn't cost a fortune because it's pretty rudimentary by today's standards, you can add countless characters, there's lots of jokes, and it even offers educational lessons on the design of the human body. All in all it is a solid effort and if you can overcome your bias against animated movies, will offer you a pretty good time.

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