Cool World (1992)

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nTitle: Cool World (1992)

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nDirector: Ralph Bakshi

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nCast: Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne

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nReview:

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nI remember going to the theater back in the late eighties tonsee Robert Zemeckis’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Now this was an eventnfilm, it was the kind of film that people went to see more than once, it wasnthat entertaining. Also, it was ground breaking in many ways. The technique ofnmixing live action with animated characters had been used before in the past,nbut director Robert Zemeckis used this filmmaking technique in ways that had nevernbeen seen before. I remember being completely blown away by it. Not only was itna successful amalgamation of animation and live action, it was a great story,nwith great actors and to top things off, it had heart. Technically speaking (asnis the norm in a Robert Zemeckis film) it had shots and filmmaking techniquesnthat made you wonder “how in the hell did they shoot that?” Another plus wasnthat the animated characters had personality, these cartoons performed, younfelt like they were alive. I remember being a bit frightened by the ‘Judge Doom’ncharacter played by Christopher Lloyd. Roger Rabbit was a rampant success; itnwon awards and accolades left and right. It’s success gave birth to similarnfilms that hoped to duplicate Roger Rabbit’s success. Don Bluth’s Rock a Doodlen(1991) is one example, so is the low budget horror spoof Evil Toons (1992), SpacenJam (1996) and yet another notable example was Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World, thenfilm we’ll be talking about today. I guess Bakshi saw this sudden interest innanimated films as an opportunity to revitalize his animation career, which hadnbeen dormant up to that point.

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nCool World tells the story (or tries anyways) of Jack Deebsnan ex-con who spent his years in jail creating a comic book called ‘Cool World’.nThe comic book is an underground success, and when he gets out of jail henlearns that people worship him for his comic book. But something weird happens onennight, Deebs somehow ends up inside of the world he created himself! Nevermindnhow it happens, but it does! Not only that, Deebs ends up falling head overnheels for one of his own creations: the super hot ‘toon Holli Would. Some ofnthe toons living in Cool World want to cross over to the real world, so theyncan be truly alive; one of these doodles is sexy Holli. Will she ever get hernwish to cross over to our world?  

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nBelieve it or not, writing a synopsis of Cool World is notnan easy task because the film is a real mess story wise. This film being a messnis not big surprise for me because many of Bakshi’s films are this way, messynand convoluted. In fact, it’s something I’ve come to expect of is work. Checknout Fritz the Cat (1972) or Wizards (1977), two very interesting animatednfilms, unfortunately when it comes to telling their story, they are not verynclear films. But in spite of all that, the animation and the themes of these films makenthem watchable. Unfortunately, Cool World is Bakshi’s sloppiest stab atnstorytelling. Too many questions are left up in the air with no answers innsight. Why do Dweeb and Frank end up in Cool World? Why can’t toons have sexnwith humans? Why is Frank so hell bent on stopping toons and humans from havingnsex? Why is there such a thing as a spear that can make Cool World spill intonour world?  Why does Holli want to go tonthe real world to “feel” when she so obviously feels in the cartoon world? Andnwhy does she want to turn the real world into the cartoon world she was tryingnto escape from? I thought she wanted to be real? Why does Frank’s mother’sndeath cause him to appear in Cool World? And why does he apparently forgetnabout her as soon as he is in Cool World? So many questions and absolutely nonanswers.  This friends is a major flaw innthis movie. Reportedly, this film is supposed to speak about the “dangers ofncasual sex” but honestly, I couldn’t pick up on anything this film was tryingnto say. The film said nothing to me!

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nBut this wasn’t necessarily Bakshi’s fault, the film he hadnplanned was not the film we ended up seeing on the silver screen.  He had a better film planned, more structured.nIn fact, Bakshi’s original concept was something closer to a horror-comedy film.nThe characters were darker, more adult oriented; something closer to FranknMiller’s Sin City. You can actually pick up a bit of that “film noir” vibe innCool World.  Unfortunately after thenstudio decided to finance Bakshi’s film, producer Frank Mancuso Jr. took thenscript and had it changed to the point where it was not what Bakshi hadnoriginally intended. Reportedly, Bakshi was so furious at this that he punchednMancuso Jr. in the face! Don’t know how much truth there is to that story, butndamn, an action like that one could certainly be justified. The studio boughtnBakshi’s pitch for the film, but then they twisted it around until we got thenmessy film we ended up getting. The studio threatened to sue Bakshi if he didn’tnfinish the film, so Bakshi had no choice but to finish a film he really didn’tnhave his heart in making, and it shows. According to Bakshi himself, he endednup trying to have as much fun with the animation process as possible, butnthat’s about it. One look at the film and it’s clear, Bakshi’s heart was not onnthis one. The animation feels unfinished, unpolished, rushed. Now, most ofnBakshi’s animated films have that sketchy nature to them, but here it seemsneven more so. If this was supposed to be “Roger Rabbit on acid” as Pitt said innan interview, the animation had to at the very least be as good as RogernRabbit. Unfortunately, you don’t feel like the cartoons are there with thenactors, you feel like the cartoons were added in. Sadly, what is most importantnin this kind of film -the interaction between actors and animated characters-nwas not pulled off convincingly. This is one of the crucial elements thatnbreaks this film.

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nBut not everything is gloom and doom in Cool World, the filmndoes have a couple of good things going for it. Number one, the background art,nthe way Cool World looks, was pulled off by this great artist known as BarrynJackson. He achieved the twisted nightmarish look of Cool Worlds buildings and architecture;nhonestly it’s pretty cool looking if you pardon the pun. Buildings have mouthsnand faces, the buildings are twisted and contrived…loved it. These paintingsnreally do give Cool World a bit of a horror look, closer to what Bakshi wanted.nThe soundtrack got more praise then the film did, it even includes a DavidnBowie song written specifically for the film called “Real Cool World”, too badnit’s a cool song for such a crappy movie! Another plus in the film is ofncourse, the beautiful Kim Basinger, she just looks stunningly sexy on this one.nI hear she was a big problem during the production, in fact, she was part ofnthe reason why the film was “softened up” to become a PG rated film instead ofnthe hard ‘R’ that Bakshi wanted. Apparently she thought since it was animated,nit would be a film for kids and so she pushed for the film to be more family friendly. It seems she knew nothing of Bakshi’s body of worknwhich always mixed adult themes with animated characters. Still, Basingernbrings the film up with her bodacious curves, her acting, sadly isn’t all that,nditto for the rest of the cast.  This isnone of Brad Pitt’s earliest performances, before he became the super star he isntoday. Gabriel Byrne plays the cartoonist who creates Cool World and falls fornHolli. A pretty decent cast, the problem is that these actors seem to strugglento pull this movie off, the story is so convoluted, it seems even the actorsnwhere having a hard time making it all work.

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nFinal words are that this isn’t a good movie; it’s extremelynhard to follow and doesn’t make an iota of sense. At some point during itsnearly stages, it had something worth doing, but then the producers decided tonbastardize it and make something more family friendly, which they failed atndoing anyways. Holli is too sexually suggestive for this to be a childrensnfilm, she’s always talking in double entendres, always posing in alluring ways.nHell, this story is all about the follies of humans having sex with cartoons?nHow is that the basis for a family friendly film? This film suffers from thatndreadful ailment some films suffer from: it’s a film that doesn’t know itsntarget audience, a malady that many of Bakshi’s films suffered from.  Worst part is that the animation, which isnbasically the big draw with these type of films, is crude. Too bad, because thenfilm offered an interesting concept, it just wasn’t executed very well. Inrecommend this film only to animation/Ralph Bakshi fans, as a curiosity, as anway to see a project gone horribly wrong, but not as a film you will enjoy.

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nRating: 1 1/2 out of 5 

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