smetin
I used to love watching mind-numbing cartoons when I was a kid. Now, at the ripe old age of 25 I thought I had grown up a bit...apparently not. Studying medicine is draining and I needed something in the evening to relax to, so I decided to re-watch a number of cartoons from my youth. I found all the episodes for Ozzy and Drix and was so full of nostalgia that I could not resist myself.Ozzy and Drix takes place in the city of Hector, a teenage human being who literally sets the stage for this show. Ozzy (aka Osmosis Jones) is a white blood cell with an attitude like Will Smith in Bad Boys, whilst Drix (aka Drixenol) is a multi-faceted pill who is also somewhat nerdy. This pair are part of a policing unit in the city of Hector, who are committed to fight invading pathogens. Both have their individual charm and comedic value, which makes their pairing a great one. Despite wanting to watch this show for its ability to let me go on autopilot at the end of a long day, quite the opposite occurred. The episodes themselves are are incredibly clever as they use medical language (in a very basic sense) to form the basis of each storyline. For example, representing the spleen as a literal vacuum destroyer of pathogens was a stroke of genius to enable children to understand its function. Other clever aspects would have flew over my head as a kid, but they do make me chuckle now that I am studying medicine. Having a dog allergen being called 'dander' being one such case.In a world full of cartoons that rely on stupidity to be 'funny', Ozzy and Drix do not and I really respect that. Aside from comedy, some episodes have a truly strong message. "Where's the smoke" is a prime example of this, whereby the basic concept of smoking and its consequences is explained brilliantly. It is these qualities that sets this show apart from most cartoons. However, by the same token, it may have been its downfall. It was too clever for its own good and kids quite simply did not get it. In a sea of cartoons where comedy that relies on stupidity, current trends and violence reign supreme, Ozzy and Drix could not complete. All in all, Ozzy and Drix was a great show (let alone a cartoon). It's a shame it did not continue , because I truly believe this cartoon would have entertained children as well as benefited their minds.
Ithorianjedimaster2
For those who have seen Osmosis Jones, then you probably know the story. For those who haven't, let me spell it out. Osmosis Jones took place within the body of a slob named Frank, who definitely isn't the healthiest man alive. From his intake of junk food and an egg that came out of a monkey's mouth and landed on the floor, he unfortunately catches a virus called the Red Death. Luckily, inside him, he has a courageous, but hilarious white blood cell named, well, Osmosis Jones. Later on, Osmosis meets up with Drix, a cold pill, and together, they stop the Red Death and save Frank, who then moves down a much more healthy road.The movie was a success, but then, before they thankfully went out of business, Kids WB took up the license and made something terrible from a good thing. Meet "Ozzy and Drix", the 'hip' and 'cool' title of the awful cartoon based on the movie, or so it seems. In the first episode, you know something's wrong. The creators must have watched about half an hour of the movie and then went to write the script because here, the show takes place after the movie, but Frank isn't going down his healthy path to redemption, despite the fact that he almost died! Here, he is the same old' slob, maybe even worse, chowing down on hot wings and nachos.Osmosis (I'm not calling him 'Ozzy') and Drix, sad over Frank's gluttony, eventually end up being launched out of Frank's body and go smack into the insides of a teenage boy named Hector. Here, they meet the child-of-a-mayor and the tough police officer Maria, and after they are freed from the crimes of being "outsiders", Osmosis gets that "We can start over!" idea and decides to leave Frank behind to try and lead Hector to a healthy life, something he failed to do with Frank. Unfortunately, that's about all you'll watch because then, the show falls apart.Our favorite white blood cell went from a cool, laid-back character who has a big heart to a pathetic idiot who thinks with his gun and not his head. Same goes for Drix. In the movie, he was a tough, no-holds-barred, and yet very friendly cold pill, but out of a strange twist of fate (and terrible script-writing), Drix has turned into a comic-book-reading, screams-like-a-girl wuss! Sure, he has his capsules, which, if you saw the movie, is Drix's specialty, but here, they are used to net bad guys, freeze the floor to make the bad guys slip and fall, and many other cartoonish ways that would have put Drix from the movie to tears.The episodes are always the same. Germ shows up, causes mayhem to make itself a threat, police try to stop it, get their butts kicked, Osmosis and Drix show up, get their butts kicked, they come up with a plan, they beat the germ, THE END! There is only one episode I actually found to have a very good message, which saved the show from getting 1 out of 10 from me, and that was when Hector began smoking, that's right, SMOKING, and therefore, unleashes Nicotine, Tar, etc. into the body. The bodily duo beat them, as you might expect.The dark, sometimes violent nature of the movie, like the Red Death was slitting the throats of germ mobsters and killing his ways to the brain, made the movie anything but a "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" rip-off and made it into something great. In the cartoon, Kids WB, as you might have guessed, removed all that and turned the violence down, trying to make a good children's cartoon.Ozzy and Drix is a horrible, horrible show. If you thought Power Rangers was repetitive, well, you haven't seen this cartoon. The characters are but childish versions of their former selves, the storyline that supposedly picks up where the movie felt off is terribly done (Frank LEARNED his lesson! He was HEALTHY at the end of the movie!), and Kids WB was able to take an awesome movie and completely ruin it to the point where kids wouldn't understand the medical lingo and teenagers and adults would just shrug, if they were clawing out their ears from the rap, uh huh, RAP theme song and the horrific voices that took the place of Chris Rock and David Hyde Pierce. I'm glad you went out of business, Kids WB. You deserved it! R.I.P. Osmosis.
