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:

There are two different worlds: The Real World and the Wacky, Animated World. Only one of them will survive.

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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

As a publicity stunt, Paramount Pictures put a huge cut-out of Holli Would on the D of the Hollywood sign. The studio donated $27,000 to the sign's maintenance fund, another $27,000 to the Rebuild L.A. fund (it was just after the L.A. riots), and paid for 2 park rangers to guard the sign 24 hours a day. The stunt angered local residents, who picketed and demanded that the cut-out be taken down.

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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

Holli Would: [to Jack] I guess you can't think and drive at the same time, huh?

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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

References Annie (1982)

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Soundtracks

The Devil Does Drugs
by Marston Daley (as Buzz McCoy) and Frank Nardiello (as Groovie Mann)
Performed by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Courtesy of Wax Trax Records, Inc.

User Reviews

A film that no one really "gets"

In the highly specialized world of liveaction-cartoon mixes (a category which actually has over 100 entries to date!) this high-octane treat is, depending on your POV, either one of the best or one of worst. Although I usually try, in my IMDb reviews, not to go head to head with other reviewers, in this case I want to draw the reader's attention to the earlier review posted here which insisted, absolutely and without wavering, that this was simply a ripoff of Roger Rabbit. THAT is a wonderful real-time example of why no one really gets this film. Let's compare and contrast, shall we? On the one hand, in WKRR, you have one of the most tightly controlled Hollywood productions of all time, with none other than Robert Zemeckis, an A-lister, at the helm. The buzzword here, folks, is control. We may never know all the details of what happened during the shooting of WKRR -- one of my favourites, by the way -- but from history, we can safely draw two reliable conclusions. First, an excellent film resulted. Second, regardless of the first conclusion, no one in Hollywood was particularly interested in doing a sequel, and this is a town where, if someone's wedding footage looks especially promising, at least two agents will immediately start discussing "sequel." Which brings back to COOL WORLD. While I could list dozens of obvious "differences" between the two productions, I will list only one, and then rest my case. Bakshi. I say again, in case anyone missed it. Bakshi. The core difference between Zemeckis at the helm, and Bakshi, is that you hire the former, you unleash the latter. Honestly, you have to wonder if any of the suits had ever seen FRITZ before they greenlighted this deal? I totally love COOL WORLD, but I love it for the completely opposite reasons I love WKRR. ROGER RABBIT is a refined and polished production. COOL WORLD is insane. It should be shown in theatres with rubber walls. The core story is insane (no spoilers -- but Bassinger does something no actress has done before or since, she sells "sexy" both in her live and animated versions) and the animation is so intense that it should come with a warning about operating heavy machinery after you see it. Look, folks, Bakshi is the real deal, a creative genius who never seeks results, only possibilities. If you are fortunate enough to see this film more than once, and really watch the animation taking place in the corners of the frame -- not in the foreground! -- you will see things taking place you may wish you had never seen. And this tradition is not new, by the way. Around the WW2 period, the animators at Warner, to relieve tension, starting sticking odd cells in mainstream toons, and many were never discovered until much later. (In the 60s a smart entrepreneur did a tour with reels of the "banned" Bugs Bunny cartoons!) I said that critics either loved or hated COOL WORLD. I loved it. I think it will stand the test of time.