Themes: Journey of Self-Discovery, Nothing Goes Right, Obsessive Quests
Main Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie Kurtz, Marley Shelton, Danny Trejo, John Carroll Lynch
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 84 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Jake Gyllenhaal, the young star of the critically well-received October Sky (1999), follows up that film with this offbeat comedy. Gyllenhaal stars as Jimmy Livingston, a teenager with an immune system deficiency who has spent his entire life living in a plastic bubble under the doting, overprotective care of his mother (Swoosie Kurtz). Jimmy is in love with his next-door neighbor Chloe (Marley Shelton), so when he learns that she has left for Niagara Falls in order to be married, he's devastated. He quickly assembles a portable "bubble suit" and sets out on a 2,755.8-mile odyssey in order to stop her and proclaim his affection. Along the way, Jimmy experiences a number of adventures, including encounters with freaks, bikers, rock stars, and a cult. Bubble Boy is a comic riff on the classic TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), which starred a young John Travolta. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Disney's Bubble Boy is a gross-out, irreverent comedy with a core of sweetness, in the style of the Farrelly brothers. Its arrival during a summer full of underwhelming would-be Hollywood blockbusters did nothing to ease its reception. Parents of children with immunodeficiency disorder organized in an understandable, if misguided, effort to protest the film's depiction of the illness as a basis for comedy. Critics lashed out at the film in nearly unanimous disdain for its scabrous mockery of religious devotion and its brazen parade of ethnic stereotypes. Many called it offensive, and worse -- unfunny. Much was made of the casting of physically unusual actors like Verne Troyer (Mini-Me from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) and Beetlejuice (from Howard Stern's radio program). But the real target of the film's admittedly uneven lowbrow humor is the kind of narrow-minded intolerance displayed by Mrs Livingston (Swoosie Kurtz), and the filmmakers' attempt to humanize her by making it obvious that ignorance and fear drive her. Most critics somehow missed the film's essential sweetness, appreciable in the wide-eyed, innocent joy of Jake Gyllenhaal's impressive lead performance. Gyllenhaal, in this film and in October Sky, displays the same kind of likable openness as Tobey Maguire, only with more vitality. The film is only sporadically funny, and it's frequently in poor taste, but it's got energy to spare, and Gyllenhaal's performance gives it a soul. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Composer John Ottman handles the score for Buena Vista's Bubble Boy film. He works with the Hollywood Studio Symphony for the score. There are a total of 22 compositions here, some of the compositions being "Birth of a Bubble Boy," "Girl Next Door," "Potty Mouth," "Phreaks to the Rescue," and "Jimmy Escapes." This is a fairly straightforward soundtrack score for a Hollywood film. Unless you're a Bubble Boy fanatic or an Ottman admirer, you're best off skipping this one. It's a fine score, just nothing too exciting. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Bruce Dukov (Violin), Sid Page (Violin), Richard Altenbach (Violin), Eric Anderson (Piano), Rick Baptist (Trumpet), Robert Becker (Viola), Ronald Clark (Violin), Jon Clarke (Oboe), Wade Culbreath (Percussion), George Doering (Guitar), Arni Egilsson (Bass), Christine Ermacoff (Celli), Phil Feather (Sax (Alto)), Armen Garabedian (Violin), Berj Garabedian (Violin), Gary Gray (Clarinet), Tiffany Hu (Violin), Norm Hughs (Violin), John Thomas Johnson (Tuba), Patricia Johnson (Violin), Alan Kaplan (Trombone), Peter Kent (Violin), Valarie King (Copyist), Charles Loper (Trombone), Frank Macchia (Copyist), Earl Madison (Celli), Carole Mukogawa (Viola), Thomas Raney (Percussion), Michele Richards (Violin), Mark Sazer (Violin), Amy Shulman (Harp), Robert Townson (Executive Producer), Cecilia Tsan (Celli), Ezra Kliger (Violin), Gayle Levant (Harp), Jon Lewis (Trumpet), David Ewart (Violin), Erick Labson (Mastering Engineer), Casey Stone (Producer), Casey Stone (Engineer), Casey Stone (Mixing), Damon Intrabartolo (Conductor), Damon Intrabartolo (Orchestration), James Surell (Copyist), Jennie Hansen (Viola), Alex Wong (Percussion), John Ottman (Producer), John Ottman (Orchestration), Reggie Wilson (Orchestra Contractor), Paul Klintworth (Horn), Rebecca Bunnell (Violin), James Cowger (Copyist), Oscar Hidalgo (Bass), Ruth Bruegger (Violin), Karen Van Sant (Viola)
Jimmy Livingston is a boy born without an immune system. Because of this, he is forced to live in a bubble dome in his bedroom in Palmdale, California (Bubble Boy was filmed in southern California, but in Santa Paula.) For this reason, his neighbors nickname him Bubble Boy. Jimmy's mother, a devout Catholic, only exposes him to Highlights magazine and the Land of the Lost television show for entertainment. When he is a teenager, a girl named Chloe moves in next door. Jimmy is immediately taken with her, even though his mother warns him that Chloe does not seem like the kind of girl Jesus would befriend. Despite his mother's warning, Jimmy and Chloe become good friends. They develop a close relationship. At one point, Chloe tries to come into his bubble, but Jimmy is afraid of contamination and does not let her in.
One day, Chloe visits Jimmy and tells him that she is leaving for Niagara Falls to marry her long-time boyfriend, Mark. She announces that the wedding will take place in three days. She then asks Jimmy if he thinks that Mark is "the one," but Jimmy refuses to answer her. When Chloe tries to give him a gift, Jimmy refuses to accept it. Chloe is upset and decides to exit, leaving the present with Jimmy. Later, Jimmy opens the present, a homemade snow globe that contains miniature models of Jimmy and Chloe sitting on the phrase I Love You. Jimmy realizes that Chloe cares for him deeply. Overcome with guilt for having driven Chloe away, Jimmy builds a mobile bubble suit and sneaks off into the night, determined to stop the wedding.
Throughout his journey to Niagara Falls, Jimmy runs into a wide variety of people, including the Bright and Shiny cult, the Dr. Phreak traveling sideshow circus, Slim the biker and his gang of motorcyclists, Pippy, Pappy, Poonany, Pushpop the Indian ice cream man, and his parents. These people cause many problems for Jimmy throughout his journey but, through a comical chain of events, they help Jimmy arrive at Niagara Falls on time. Jimmy stops the wedding and takes off his bubble suit, allowing him to touch the girl he loves. He collapses and presumably dies. Jimmy's father then forces Jimmy's mother to confess that Jimmy had developed a fully functional immune system when he was four years old, and Jimmy realizes that he is not dead at all. It is revealed that Mrs. Livingston had hidden this fact from Jimmy to protect him from the world. Jimmy forgives her and leaves the church with Chloe. Later, Jimmy and Chloe are married with all of their new friends in attendance. Then, Pippy, Pappy and Poonanny drive the happy couple to their honeymoon.
The Walt Disney Company, Touchstone's parent, was criticized upon its release[1], partly because it makes light of a real-world condition, and partly because of the way religions are depicted.[citation needed]
