“Am I dreaming you, or are you dreaming me?” —Holli Would
Today’s quick review: Cool World. Rattled from his time in prison, cartoonist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) gets sucked into Cool World, an animated world of madness and vice that exists parallel to the real world. There he meets Holli Would (Kim Basinger), a seductive cartoon who desperately wants to become real. But when Jack tries to help, he runs afoul of Detective Frank Harris (Brad Pitt), a human who crossed over into Cool World years before.
Cool World is a surreal fantasy movie from director Ralph Bakshi. The movie blends live action with animation as Jack visits a bizarre cartoon world that runs on imagination. Cool World features a unique artistic vision rooted in the medium of animation itself. Its raucous spirit and freewheeling style help it capture the unrestricted nature of cartoons, but its adult content, grotesque art style, and ramshackle plot make it a niche pick at best.
Cool World’s vision will not suit everyone. The setting is a warped city populated by misshapen anthropomorphic creatures, violent criminals, and other shady characters. The inhabitants of Cool World ape the chaos and violence of classic cartoon characters with none of the accompanying joy, delivering humor only in the form of mockery and macabre slapstick. The movie also has overt sexual themes with nothing to temper them or keep them in check.
Even beyond its polarizing content, Cool World has issues. The script does a mediocre job of setting up the world and its conflicts. The audience gets a good feel for what Cool World is like but not the rules governing it, making it hard to tell what is at stake. The movie also has a bad habit of only introducing plot points as they are needed. As a result, the story feels cobbled together and rushed in spite of some promising ideas.
The characters suffer from similar flaws. Frank is the best of the bunch, a self-appointed cop torn between the cartoon world he has come to love and his lingering attachment to the real world. Jack is a swing and a miss, a one-dimensional character who shifts between stunned confusion and lust for Holli. Holli has genuine potential, but the movie can never decide whether she is meant to be a tragic figure, a cold manipulator, or a piece of meat.
Cool World will appeal strongly to a very niche audience. The movie explores the crude side of animation quite thoroughly, and fans of Bakshi’s loose, deformed art style will find the movie to be a rare treat. However, the same qualities that set Cool World apart also make it a poor fit for general audiences. Its odd art style, base subject matter, and badly flawed plot and characters mean that most viewers would be better skipping.
For a much more upbeat comedy adventure about a world of cartoons, try Who Framed Roger Rabbit. For an action comedy that blurs reality and fiction, try Last Action Hero. For a thought-provoking sci-fi movie set in a malleable world, try Dark City or The Congress. For an even more surreal animated fantasy film from Ralph Bakshi, check out Wizards. For a psychological mystery about a writer who retreats into his mind, try The Singing Detective.
[4.9 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104009/). I give it a 5.0 for unique ideas buried in a sea of off-putting content and story issues.