Cool World (1992)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Ralph Bakshi

Writers (WGA):

Michael Grais (written by) &
Mark Victor (written by)

Release Date:

10 July 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

Tagline:

Cool World is such a dangerous place to be in.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Cartoonist | Sex | Comic Book | Disembodied Head | Cheater

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

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)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and sensuality.

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:10 (original rating) | Iceland:L (video rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Spain:13 | UK:12 (original rating) | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Ralph Bakshi wanted Brad Pitt to play Jack Deebs.

Quotes:

Frank Harris: You screwed us all... for a piece of ass?

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Fantasia (1940)

Soundtrack:

NEXT IS THE E

Who Bonked Roger Rabbit

There are people who fantasise about having sex with Disney heroines and/or Wonder Woman; from the evidence presented here, I would say that Ralph Bakshi is among them. Note that I said, "from the evidence presented here". I'll be the first to admit it's not very good evidence. "Cool World" is badly organised, devoid of passion, and just plain dull. It certainly doesn't FEEL like any kind of window into Bakshi's soul, or anyone else's.

Here's the scenario. There are two worlds: cool world, which is animated, and our own world, which isn't. They exist in some kind of unstable equilibrium which can be disrupted with disastrous, but unspecified, consequences, if - get this for a lark - a person from one world has sex with a person from the other. (Is this like "Species", or what?) The central cartoonist character thus spends most of the time on the verge of having sex with the animated Holli Wood. That's the scenario. (No, it really is.) The PLOT, on the other hand, is anyone's guess.

Many of the sets consist of cardboard cut-outs filmed precisely head on, so as to look like cartoon backgrounds but allow actors to walk through them. A great visual idea, huh? Well, it seems that Bakshi didn't think any further than that; for, as if there weren't enough problems already, you can tell that the actors are walking around very gingerly indeed, obviously aware that their slightest movement might case bits of furniture to wobble or fall over. As for Holli herself - she just doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid. Her Saturday-morning temptress look has straight-jacketed her animators, and she's so sexy-by-the-numbers that she isn't sexy at all. The rest of the film is painfully clumsy and dull and she could easily have been the best thing in it. She isn't.