Cool World (1992)

Wonderful character development!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

If you don't know anything about this, Ralph Bakshi wrote a script that was supposed to be a hard-R rated horror film that mixed animation and live action about a half-toon/half-human monstrosity that goes on a murderous rampage. However, when he came to the set first day of filming, he found that producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. had the script secretly rewritten behind his back to become some "fish out of water" crap that was watered down to PG-13 and forced him to use this script. The script has nothing that connects, nothing is motivated. Things just happen randomly. Often we'll suddenly follow unfamiliar cartoon characters we haven't seen before or since while they do any random thing Bakshi could think of that the producer would let him do. The world building makes no sense. Brad Pitt, playing a WW2 veteran, accidentally kills his mother in a motorcycle accident, and is suddenly brought into the cartoon world for almost no reason. Then, we meet the main character in prison 50 years later drawing that world. But how could the world exist if he hasn't created it yet? Not only that, at one point, they mention the main character killed someone, and no one ever mentions it again. At the end, he suddenly turns into a cartoon superhero out of nowhere. Pitt dies, but that suddenly means that he turns into a cartoon as well. Not even the animation's good. Most of the cartoons lack shading, so they never blend in, and they don't match any of the live action materials or lighting. Often, crappy animation will suddenly play out in the middle of a scene in an attempt to make drawn out scenes feel like something's happening. Needless to say, Bakshi proceeded to punch Frank Mancuso, Jr. in the face. Honestly, the fact that he didn't kill him for using a script like this is charity. It didn't make things any better when Kim Basinger decided that she wanted this to be the kind of movie she could show children she visited in hospitals, and forced them to tone down things even more. Bare in mind, this is a movie where she grinds her ass right against Frank Sinatra, Jr's genitals and becomes human after having sex with Gabriel Byrne. Bakshi's never directed any theatrical film since, and has only done a couple of animated shorts and a live-action Jared Leto-led TV movie. I don't blame him. Apparently he's trying to get another project done, even though as of writing he's 79. Good for him. Meanwhile, Mancuso later produced "I Know Who Killed Me" and won a Razzie for worst picture. Currently he's set to produce Bill and Ted 3. God help us.

Cool World is known, by those few who may be aware of its existence, as the 'other' film in which live action characters inhabit the same realm as cartoons. The more famous one of course is Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a glorious gem of a film that gets the acclaim, notoriety and long lasting attention, as it well should. (We won't speak of a third one involving a certain moose and squirrel that really does earn it's bad rap). Cool World is somewhat maligned as the black sheep of the two, and in some people's eyes (Ebert laid a stern smackdown on it) downright hated on. It's no doubt very different from Roger Rabbit, which is admittedly the better film and the easier one to like and relate to. But this one is brilliant in its own right, at least for me. I love the way it uses a sombre tone with its human creations to throw a unique light on them as soon as the Toons show up. It's quaint and wonderfully inaccessible, with some scenes existing purely of a need to showcase a stream of consciousness type style that doesn't so much halt the proceedings, as give them their own surreal flavor. Brad Pitt is Frank Harris, victim of a jarring post war tragedy and thrown headlong into the cartoon world, eventually finding himself a Detective in their realm. Outside in our world, lonely cartoonist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne is a sly choice for the role) falls in love with one of his creations, a blonde bombshell named Holli Would (voiced and later played in the flesh by Kim Basinger). Holli is as devious as she is gorgeous, and works to use Jack's attraction to her as a conduit to escape into our world. Pretty soon a deafening cacophany of cartoon creatures in all shapes, sizes and colours floods out of their dimension and into ours, creating quite the cosmic mess for Pitt to clean up. It's fun without being too zany, the overblown fuss of the Toons contrasted by a glum human world, reeling from the war and unexpecting of such an event to unfold. Granted, the meshing of the two dimensions isn't given the precise, big budget fanfare and cutting edge methods of Roger Rabbit, but the world building and special effects here are still pure enchantment and offer a dazzling level of entertainment. Pitt is stoic with flinty sparks of boyish charm, Byrne hilariously plays it dead straight, and Basinger is dead friggin sexy. She steals the show especially as Holli in human form, having a ball with the bubbly bimbo trying to keep a straight face in the real world. The Toons in general really are a diverse bunch, ranging from animals to inanimate objects to tiny little formless cutesy blobs and everything in between, filling their frames with a chaotic, detailed miasma worthy of Studio Ghibli. Lot of hate floating around for this one. You won't find any from me, I love the film, and accept it for the adult friendly, experimental oddity it is. Great stuff.

This is my review of director Ralph Bakshi's 1992 live action/animated film, "Cool World." In contrast to everyone else's opinions about this movie, I have to say that to me,"Cool World" is a half-good, half-bad film. There are elements in it that truly do rock, but there are other elements to it that truly do suck. One part about it that's awesome is the animation; sure it doesn't look 100% convincing combined with the live actors, sure there are WAY TOO MANY DOODLES that do absolutely NOTHING for the progression of the poorly-laid out plot, but I do think that all of the animated characters were drawn and colored really well, and the way they were animated is one of the good things other people DO praise this movie for because the hand-drawn visuals really do look great.About Kim Basinger's performance as Holli Would; she did a pretty good job voicing her, I have to say that I was (and still am) impressed with how good Kim's voice-acting was. Yet, when she played the noid Holli,Kim really lagged. I think she was trying to portray how an animated character that's become flesh-and-blood behaves in trying to adjust to life in the real world, but when I watched the movie, the real-Holli performance out of Kim was not convincing at all. Gabriel Byrne's character of Jack Deebs was supposed to be THE main protagonist in the movie, but he was the least developed main character in the history of main characters in film. Brad Pitt (as Frank Harris) was the only actor out of the whole cast who truly DID act. He actually did a pretty good job at portraying this man whose life turned tragic (you'll have to see the beginning of the movie to know what I mean) and how the real world didn't feel real to him anymore, but Cool World did."Cool World" has so many great storytelling/plot elements to it that are either hardly ever explained in the film or just not explained at all. One of these full-of-holes plot elements that isn't explained in full are the mechanics as to how sex between a noid and a doodle ruptures the inter-dimensional fabric between Cool World and the real world (and how noids can spontaneously turn into doodles when both worlds collide). Another one is how the "Spike of Power" artifact really works as far as opening up a portal between both worlds and how it gives noids and doodles the ability to teleport back and forth between them. One more missing plot element: Jack Deebs's whole story. We know that he's been sent to prison for a crime of passion (again, see the movie to find out what I'm talking about), but that part right there could have been elaborated on more. And how exactly DID he get visions of Cool World in order to create a comic book series about it? How exactly was Holli repeatedly bringing Jack there and misleading him to thinking that he's getting visions/dreaming about Cool World? These things really need(ed) to be explained in full, NOT in pieces.All in all, I don't think "Cool World" is a terrible movie at all. It is a good, entertaining movie, but one that's full of holes and only partially complete. Since I see things in this film that need to come out more as far as plot and character development. I seriously hope that there will be a remake of this film sometime in the (hopefully) not to distant future. A remake of a "bad" movie like "Cool World" (doesn't matter when exactly) can actually "save" the film so to speak by making the plot and characters of the original much, much better. For example, the 1986 fantasy film "Troll," directed by John Carl Buechler, opened to mostly negative critical response when it first came out, yet, Mr. Buechler IS remaking it for a theatrical release later in 2012. Another example is the 2003 live action "The Cat in the Hat," which got enormous negative response when it premiered. Now, the studio that made "The Lorax" is planning on doing a CGI remake of "The Cat in the Hat." And often, a remake of a "bad" movie fares a lot better (financially and critically) than the original. That is why "Cool World" is an excellent candidate for a remake because there are a lot of missing pieces to it that can be filled in, can be explained, the characters can still be developed in full, and that will make sense out of the story.

Cool word is a movie everybody hates I do not know y it has a good plot good acting and Kim basinger ;) cool world is and excellent extremely underrated movie but u people who hate it need to do one thing...STOP COMPAREING IT TO ROGER RABBIT!!!!!!! They 2 different movies both good I actually like this better nothing against Roger rabbit but cool provides a journey into another world a wacky zany place where cartoons live some not knowing about human world and have no interest but some do...you will find out all that when u watch it I don't wanna spoil it for u but by all means BUY THIS MOVIE U WILL NOT REGRET!!!!!! It's one of brad Pitts first I cannot describe how good this flick is it's amazing!!!!! It is probably one of the greatest movies ever made an I'm not just saying that I freaking mean it this is a wonderful wonderful great awesome movie I have more lines to fill so I'm gonna use em to try an sum up how great this is great awesome amazingly good will change the way u watch movies!!! Good good good good good so Good