A superhero blood cell stars in a clever TV hit
Sal Monella is a poisonous gangster hell bent on infection, and a pimple is a power-mad oil gland. That's life--and a quirky twist on salmonella and acne--in the animated world of Ozzy & Drix, part of the WB network's Saturday-morning lineup. This was the first season for what might be called a "smartoon." It was in the top programs among kids ages 2 to 11. And it's coming back this fall.
Instead of battling mystical monsters, Ozzy & Drix cleverly personifies body parts--a muscle cell is a police chief--to teach kids about their bodies. Rather than lecture kids about smoking, Ozzy & Drix turns nicotine into Nick O'Teen, a smarmy villain with long claws that hook into brains and cause addictions. Bad guys like Nick are taken down by the title stars: Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones, a street-smart white blood cell, and Drix, an uptight but intelligent cold pill with a chest full of medicine. White blood cells help fight infection, and Drix is a medicine chest. Get it?
Ozzy & Drix makes a point of tackling "issues that are very real to the day-to-day lives of kids," says David Foster, a Harvard University internist who helps develop story lines for the show. "We hope they take an interest in what is going on inside them." That's why all the action occurs within 13-year-old Hector, who contracts diseases, encounters peer pressure, and even drinks spoiled milk. "This poor kid has been through a lot," says Producer Alan Burnett.
Pun fun. The slap-your-knee, ba-dum-dum humor takes many forms. Ozzy and Drix set up a detective firm behind Hector's cornea--they're "private eyes"--to ensure him a safe adolescence. Blood cells race like cars through Hector's arteries and past a "roadside" billboard reading "Peace for the Middle Ear." There's a rock concert at the Diaphragm Club featuring.
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