A Trip on the Human Body
"Osmosis Jones"

What happens with food in our body as soon as we swallow it? What is the journey of fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and every other component of our daily diet (including Junk Food) after chewing? In what way enzimes and gastrical juices, among many other systems and resources of our bodies, react to medicines and to the food that we "put" inside our organisms?

The producers of the movie/animation "Osmosis Jones" were probably thinking about it when they created the Idea of this film. They might, as well, have watched movies such as "Innerspace" (1987) and "Fantastic Voyage" (1966) that are, equally, actions happening inside the human body, in a trip through a very intimate and particular universe that defines our life.

It is certainly true that we have, nowadays, enough technology to examine the compounds of the human phisiology in laboratories (at least on labs related to private companies or in universities specialized on this particular field of researches; this is what we expect from institutions that really look out for quality and development on their research areas related to techniques and examinations in anatomy).

It is equally true that we can find material published or filmed by those research institutions on video rental stores or in shops specialized on selling VHS tapes or DVDs. This kind of material put us in straight contact with actualized information about Human Body, proved by science (there are qualified productions from BBC or by Discovery Channel).

If there are so many possibilities, why should we spend our time with an american comedy that adds animation features to flesh and blood characters and repeats a success formula used in movies made previously?

One of the main possibilities given to us by "Osmosis Jones" refers to its comical and non-commitment characteristics. When it is "talking" about the human body there is not the use of an achademic form so the movie gets the students atention and introduces the subject to them with no conflicts of interest (it is useful to remember that this movie should be used with middle and high school students).

The utilization of this movie as a resource does not exclude the need of using, at the same time, other tools such as the ones mentioned or any other that can promote debates and reflection on the study process (books, newspaper articles, scientific magazines articles, human body maquettes,...); by the way, the teacher's work must stimulate an interaction among as many resources as the group can find.

It is possible that, if you use some of the ideas presented in the movie, your students will be more interested in informations about their own "cities" or bodies...

The Movie

Frank Pepperidge (Bill Murray, in a role that seems perfect to him) is a janitor in a zoo and father of a beautiful and very smart girl of 13 years old. Diferently from his daughter, Frank is extremely thoughtless about his own health and appearence.

In the beginning of the movie, when he hosts his daughter Shane (Elena Franklin) in a visit to the zoo, Frank commits a major mistake related to lack of higiene. He is eating in front of the monkey's cage and allows one of the chimps to grab his egg. To complete the service he tries to get the egg from the chimps mouth. After getting it from the animal, the egg falls in the floor. It doesn't matter, Frank eats it anyway.

Not even the disapproval of his daughter Shane would make Frank stop eating the egg.

In this point of the story we travel from an external view of Frank to his mouth, we get inside. On it we find out a cell movement (white globules), as if they were human beings, reacting to the infected egg. The system is already informed of the viruses and microbes and is fighting them. The cells keep on moving on their particular world that is known among them as "Frank's City". We find out that the human body is described in the same way as an outside universe, created by the human beings, with highways, skyscrappers, garbage deposits, essential public offices (brains, liver,...), mayor city hall,...

Since Frank has eaten an infected food that affects the daily routine of "Frank's City", there are many actions being taken with the purpose of fighting back the illness. To investigate these problems and to serve as a helpful hand to a medicine taken by Frank was chosen the investigator Osmosis Jones. The medicine itself is a living element called Drix. They are the team of "cops" that should find out which disease entered Frank's body and intends to promote the death of the system that maintains "Frank's City".

For Teachers

1- One of the best possibilities related to the movie "Osmosis Jones" refers to the examination of the characters and inhabits shown in many parts of "Frank's City". Finding out who are the characters and how would they be on books about human body is one of the possibilities. Another study could be made if students were asked to search information about systems and organs presented as parts of Frank's body and relate them to similar ones that appear on the movie.

2- What about developing comparisons between the movie and documentaries about the human body? Paralels can be explored in charts and tables in which the collected information in the resources could be presented. Those charts and tables could be shown in panels and the students would then divulge their results and open for a debate with the other groups and their different conclusions.

3- A fundamental work related to the movie could be made on the subject of personal higiene and alimentary habits. The character Frank (Bill Murray) is the perfect example of what we must condemn (regarding to alimentary habits and personal higiene) and could be the basis to a student's answer to what we can and must do to be feeding ourselves in a correct way and what are the habits that we ought to develop on higiene to avoid diseases.

4- The metaphor developed by the movie that transformed human body in a city could be reversed and could result in a major exercise to be developed by subjects such as history, sociology, philosophy or geography. We could think about the cities in which we live questions such as: what would be like blood circulation? Our cities have intestines? What ressembles the brain in our society? Is our police like white or red globules? What can be compared with infections and illnesses?

João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website Planeta Educação

Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br

Technical Information

Osmosis Jones

Country/Year of production:- USA, 2001
Lenght of time/Gender:- 99 min., Comedy
Director: Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly
Screenwriter: Marc Hyman
Cast:- Bill Murray, Elena Franklin, Chris Elliott; the voices talent of Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pearce, William Shatner e Brandy Norwood.

Links
- http://www.adorocinema.com/filmes/osmosis-jones/osmosis-jones.htm (in portuguese)
- http://e-pipoca.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes_zoom.cfm?id=2781 (in portuguese)
- http://us.imdb.com/Title?0181739 (in english)