Bubble Boy : Mr. Cranky Rates the Movies : Bubble Boy My only happy memory as a child was watching John Travolta in the 1976 television movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble," a wonderful movie based on a true story that taught us all to appreciate life because here was this boy with a deficient immune system who had to live in a plastic bubble, but who somehow managed to love life in all its splendor. Shortly thereafter, my favorite cat was run over by a drunk ice cream truck driver and I quickly realized that God hated me and that life was really just a swirling cesspool of disappointment, and that if I ever met the real bubble boy, I was just absolutely going to kick his ass.