Cool World (1992)

A comic strip femme fatale seeks to seduce her cartoonist creator in order to cross over into the real world.

Director:

Ralph Bakshi

Writers:

Michael Grais, Mark Victor

Stars:

Gabriel Byrne, Kim Basinger, Brad Pitt

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kim Basinger	...	Holli Would
Gabriel Byrne	...	Jack Deebs
Brad Pitt	...	Detective Frank Harris
Michele Abrams	...	Jennifer Malley
Deirdre O'Connell	...	Isabelle Malley
Janni Brenn	...	Agatha Rose Harris (as Janni Brenn-Lowen)
William Frankfather	...	Cop
Greg Collins	...	Cop
Maurice LaMarche	...	Interrogator #2 / Mash / drunken bar patron / Dr. Vincent "Vegas Vinnie" Whiskers / Jack Deebs (super hero version) (voice)
Joey Camen	...	Interrogator #1 / Slash / Holli's door (voice)
Michael David Lally	...	Sparks (voice)
Carrie Hamilton	...	Comic Bookstore Cashier
Stephen Worth	...	Bash (performance model) / Comic Store Patron
Murray Podwal	...	Store Patron
Jenine Jennings	...	Holli Would / Lonette (performance model) / Craps Bunny (voice)

Storyline

When cartoonist Jack Deebs was behind bars, he found escape by creating "Cool World", a cartoon series featuring a voluptuous femme fatale named Holli Would. But the cartoonist becomes a prisoner of his own fantasies when Holli transports Jack into Cool World with a scheme to seduce him and bring herself to life. A hard-boiled detective--the only other human in Cool World--cautions Jack with the law: Noids (humans) don't have sex with doodles (cartoons). However, the flesh proves weaker than ink as Holli takes human form in Las Vegas, staring in a trans-universal chase that threatens the destruction of both worlds. With a splashy combination of animation and live-action sequences, "Cool World" delivers the hottest action around.

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Plot Keywords:

cartoonist | femme fatale | sex | erotica | sexuality | 

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Taglines:

Cool World is such a dangerous place to be in.

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and sensuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 July 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cool World: Una rubia entre dos mundos

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$14,110,600

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bakshi Animation, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min 147 min (workprint)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was originally sold as a "hard-R" animated/live action horror film. The original concept art that Ralph Bakshi used to pitch the film was significantly more disturbing than what ultimately ended up onscreen, and had character designs stylistically similar to those found in Frank Miller's "Sin City". Once Kim Basinger became attached, she and the studio became ambivalent about the kind of reaction the movie would generate, resulting in the studio deciding to "soften" the picture to a PG-rated dark comedy (though the ratings board ultimately gave this a PG-13).

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Goofs

When Frank is examining the crime scene of Nails' 'murder', there is a chalk outline of Nail's body on the ground. However, Holli 'inked' Nails and sucked him into a fountain pen, so there would have been no body to draw an outline around.

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Quotes

Jack Deebs: I'm a cartoonist. I drew all this. I have visions. I translate this.
Frank Harris: You do nothing, man. This place exists with or without you. You believe me, right? I'm not one of your creations.
Jack Deebs: Right. You're not pretty enough.
Frank Harris: Good one. Have a seat.

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Alternate Versions

When shown on the sci-fi channel, the following scenes have been cut:

• When sparks encounters doodle children in the alley he releases little coins with fangs that attacks them, they only show him say "I hate it when she meets guys without telling me".
• While being chased by the popper police, Slash (the baby-like doodle) urinates on them: they only show the popper police get hit by the train
• While waiting for the doodle telephone to get to Frank, Nails bites into his desk
• The sex scene between Holli Would and Jack Deebs has been altered and some footage has been deleted
• After Nails was "penned' by Holli, Frank encounters Sparks and knocks his french fries out of his hand, Sparks responded with "now you can buy me more fries, dick-head", but it was changed to "now you can buy me more fries pinhead"
• At the end, Holli's "pencildick" remark is deleted.

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Connections

Referenced in Recess: Schoolworld (1999)

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Soundtracks

Ah-Ah
by Moby (as Richard M. Hall)
Performed and Produced by Moby
Moby performs courtesy of Instinct Records

User Reviews

The messiest, sloppiest animated film ever made?

I wish to state that I don't mean my review title to be sarcastic. I have a tough time being "cruel" to a movie like this because I was informed beforehand of Bakshi's well-meaning intentions here. I'm not a Bakshi fan, but I appreciate what he has been attempting to do even if I personally don't care for the content of his movies.

While Bakshi certainly has a reputation for creating films that have outraged, offended and (with certain audiences) entertained, he is also known by those who have met him for being someone who indeed genuinely cares about people, wants to use his medium to show how messed up our modern society is and how folks can triumph over the worst of difficulties while trapped within it. The only problem is that he has a tough time communicating with others, both personally and through his films. Somewhere beneath all the X-ratings and reputation, there is indeed (believe it or not) a very caring, sensitive man.

Believe it or not, he had thought of COOL WORLD as a statement speaking out on the dangers of casual sex (his proclamation, not mine). He's trying to point out just how dangerous such actions can be so as to caution his audience about bodily responsibility. And, he had hoped, might even help save lives.

The problem is that his movie is simply a mess. I've been informed all about the insiders' stories regarding what went wrong with this production (apparently there was even at least a couple of extra hours of this movie made!!), including the fact that its storyline was made up as Bakshi went along (a habit he has, I'm told, with all of his films).

The technical flaws, acting and everything else here are by now legendary to the public, so (even though it's certainly not a favourite title of mine) I'm going to instead point out four things I *did* actually enjoy about the movie.

(1) Conceptual designer Barry Jackson's background designs and paintings are absolutely brilliant. People familiar with my own work already know that I've spent a lifetime drawing stuff similar to this sort of "twisted background" style, so I in particular was fascinated and impressed by Jackson's amazing work even if it was emotionally the exact opposite of the sort of atmospheres I create. I actually took the time back in 1992 to call him up and compliment him personally on his material in COOL WORLD; it's that impressive. But VERY dark as it appears in this film, which is as a city imagined in the troubled and desperate mind of a jailed cartoonist.

(2) I enjoy most of the music on the soundtrack: Mark Isham's score is to die for, and many of the songs here are a lot of fun, especially David Bowie's title piece that plays over the ending credits and The Thompson Twins' "Play With Me" which blares over the opening. (An interesting piece of musical trivia here: there is a song called "Mindless" which only credits itself as "Written by Mindless", "Performed by Mindless" and "Produced by Mindless". I wonder who it really is...? Spooky...)

(3) Holli Would is a thoroughly detestable character; many say she has no personality, but that isn't the case. She has one, alright... a selfish, cruel, insensitive personality that doesn't care about anybody or anything else (much less the results of her own actions) as long as she gets her own way. She may be physically more beautiful technically than Jessica Rabbit, but Jessica is by far the more wonderful "ideal woman" of the two in terms of her true blue intentions and personality. So it probably comes as no surprise that there is *ONE* scene in the whole film which *IS* funny; it's at the very end, after the Spike of Power is plugged back where it belongs. For a split second, we see Holli do in shock the most hilariously unflattering take you have EVER seen! Watching her be put through such a hysterical piece of animation after her being so selfish and design-perfect throughout the rest of the film is a delight. ...and finally,

(4) Yes, it is a sloppy film. And so far, I'm convinced it's the messiest film of it's type I've ever seen. But at least it had good intentions, which does place it a mark above other movies out there which were simply offensive dreck without any intentions at all. I may not enjoy the movie and never will, but I do personally forgive Bakshi this film because I know he was trying to say something important for others' sake.