I’m always looking for new things to watch. And I will admit I was intrigued and confused when I saw the teaser of Cells At Work. Red blood cell AE3803 and white blood cell 1146 seem to be the main characters in a movie about the inner workings of a body.

I call this a movie, because it is formatted like a movie and has a run time like a movie. But I don’t feel like it is one. The characters are in a setting of a body, because they are cells. And they are given a perspective of having autonomy over their actions, but they are cells with a job to do, and that job is pretty much automatic. 

I’m just going to refer to them as Red and White, because those two are the main characters, err… cells. So Red and White have a run in when they are both little (formative cells?) and Red never forgets White. When they are full cells doing their jobs, Red is a bit clumsy and White is dedicated and no nonsense in his duties. 

The movie does jump out of the body into the real world and we are introduced to the host of the cells, Niko. A high school girl who is trying to keep her dad healthy. Then we go back inside. Red seems to be clueless about everything and when a bacteria invades, she is saved by White. But a rogue white cell becomes cancerous and begins to ravage her body.

There is a very humorous moment where Niko scrapes her knee and all hell breaks loose inside the body leading to a sinkhole developing and platelets showing up to seal the breach and an explanation about scabbing. 

I watched this movie with my brain rapidly fluctuating like a metronome between fascination and confusion. A movie. An Anatomy Physiology teaching video. A movie. An Anatomy Physiology teaching video. A movie. I felt like Faye Dunaway in Chinatown. My sister. My daughter.

And I don’t know what to make of this. Because I don’t get it. This would be amazing to show to kids in school learning about how the body works. But as entertainment? I realize that is an easy answer, I am not the target audience for this. But who is? Who views this as entertainment?

I’m giving it a 5 because I don’t think it was bad. I don’t think it was good. I didn’t get any enjoyment from viewing it, but I did learn a bit about biology. Well, that’s a lie, I knew pretty much all the things they taught in this.