Cool World [USA, 1992]

Nine Things about Cool World 

1. This is a silly, creepy, and creative movie by Ralph Bakshi. Since it’s a Bakshi film, you know it will have two things: cartoons and sex.

2. In this case it’s about cartoons that have sex with humans.

3. It turns out that our universe, the Real World, is right next to a cartoon universe, the Cool World. Over there, cartoons are called doodles and humans are called noids.

4. Brad Pitt plays a WWII vet that randomly gets sucked into the Cool World and becomes a cop to stop noids and doodles from having sex.

5. Kim Basinger plays a slutty doodle named Holly Would who wants to have sex with a noid. If she orgasms, she will turn real. No real reason is given for why. Hell, no real reason is given for anything in this movie.

6. Bakshi originally wanted to make a horror movie about a guy that has sex with a cartoon, and makes a deformed baby that wants to kill him. But the movie studio secretly hired the guy that made the “Friday the 13th” series to rewrite the script. He took out the horror themes. Then the studio threatened to sue Bakshi if he didn’t make the movie anyway.

7. Bakshi made the movie, but says it wasn’t worth it. And it’s easy to see why - the resulting movie is a mess. The story makes no sense. Characters just do things. It’s too silly to take it serious, but it’s too dark to be just fun.

8. Visually, the movie is really interesting, though. The mood and setting of Cool World is dark and surreal. There are many animated sequences in the background of scenes that make references to other famous cartoons.

9. Fans of Bakshi, or of fantastic themes in cinema will appreciate the movie. But the studio tried to make a popular hit by walking the thin line between being a kid’s movie and an adult movie; it failed at both.