Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment
Lenfest Kids: May 2021 Programming
This month we take inspiration from the vaccine rollouts across the world to consider how the human body repairs itself.
One of the things we’ve all learned during lockdown is how the body defends itself from viruses. Vaccines create antibodies that teach the body how to fight off infection. Two of our film selections for this month turn that process into a source of action, adventure, and comedy.
Our live-action film, Fantastic Voyage (1966), follows a team of medical scientists who are reduced to the size of microbes and injected into the blood stream of a patient whom they must save. Osmosis Jones (2001) blends live action and animation to tell a story about an unhealthy zookeeper, Frank (Bill Murray), and an anthropomorphized white blood cell, Osmosis “Ozzy” Jones (Chris Rock), who helps battle the consequences of Frank’s unsanitary lifestyle.
For our classic, we’ve chosen the Laurel and Hardy short, County Hospital (1932), in which Ollie is recovering in hospital from a broken leg. His recovery takes a hilarious turn for the worse when Ollie’s clumsy friend Stan comes to visit!
Image courtesy of MovieStillsDB
County Hospital
Dir. James Parrott, 1932
United States | Not Rated
County Hospital is a Laurel and Hardy short film made in 1932. It was directed by James Parrott, produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ollie is in hospital with a broken leg, Stan comes to visit and ends up getting Ollie kicked out!
Image courtesy of Variety
Osmosis Jones
Dir. Peter Farrelly ‘86, Robert Farrelly, 2001
United States | PG | ages 10+
Mixing live action and animation, the film follows the misadventures of a zoo worker with an unknown malady he contracted after eating an egg contaminated with simian saliva. The responsibility of eradicating this lethal virus falls to a white blood cell cop and a fussy cold-cure pill.
YouTube | Prime Video | iTunes
Image courtesy of scienceandfilm.org
Fantastic Voyage
Dir. Richard Fleischer, 1966
United States | PG | ages 8+
The brilliant scientist Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) develops a way to shrink humans, and other objects, for brief periods of time. Benes, who is working in communist Russia, is transported by the CIA to America, but is attacked en route. In order to save the scientist, who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine is shrunk and injected into Benes' body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off.
YouTube | iTunes | Prime Video
Image courtesy of StudioBinder Blog
Get Creative Project
Rotoscoping is a special effect technique in which live action footage is traced over, frame by frame, to produce realistic action in animation or special effects. It has been used in films as different from one another as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Star Wars.
Try it yourself! Rotoscoping can be done on your Apple and Android/PC devices using an app called FlipaClip. You can learn more about FlipaClip and download it here.
Take an existing video, or shoot a short scene with your iPhone or iPad, and draw over your images to create a rotoscope. We would love to see what you’re up to. Share your work with us here.
Fun fact: Peter Farrelly, one of the famous Farrelly Brothers who directed Osmosis Jones, graduated from Columbia University’s Film Program in 1986.
Please note: We provide MPAA ratings and suggested age range ratings from Common Sense Media for your guidance, but as always, parental discretion is advised.