COOL WORLD
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
100 min., PG-13, Animated/Comedy, 1992 Director: Ralph Bakshi Cast: Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt is on a motorcycle with his mom when a drunk driver hits the bike. Pitt's mother is killed but Pitt survives. A cartoon scientist brings Pitt to Cool World, a world of cartoons (where cartoons are called Doodles and humans are called Noids). Several years later Doodle Holli Would (Kim Basinger) wants to get to the Real World (Earth). She brings cartoonist Gabriel Byrne to Cool World to get him to make love to her. If Byrne makes love to her, she will be able to go to the Real World. Pitt, now a Cool World police officer, tries to make sure that Byrne doesn't make love to Basinger.
I found COOL WORLD to be an excellent cartoon and much better than any of the other films by Ralph Bakshi that I have seen (HEY GOOD LOOKIN', STREETFIGHT (originally titled COONSKIN), and I think LORD OF THE RINGS). I fully recommend this film to anybody who has a bizarre or twisted taste in films. This film is, like actor Brad Pitt described it in an interview, "Roger Rabbit on acid." I give COOL WORLD a five on a scale of zero to five. COOL WORLD is rated PG-13 for adult situations, adult humor, and explicit language. No, this is not a nice little animated film to bring your small children to. Because of some of the scenes, this film is also not one to go to if you are easily grossed out. I will not go into details but some of them are really funny (esp. in the cop chase).
The animation in this film is in the traditional Bakshi style, crude but good, which is part of the reason that I tend to enjoy his films. His animation has a style of its own, which some people don't seem to like. Cool World is interestingly designed with its twisting buildings that go up above the clouds and twisting roads that go all over the place. I feel that Cool World was well designed as a cartoon world, especially with all the cartoons on the streets bringing sadistic harm to other cartoons. Maybe one cartoon is chasing another with an axe or a safe falls on a doodle, etc. This is an obvious jab at modern cartoons that are aired on the television.
The way that the sets for the live action were designed were creative. The sets, in Cool World only, were made to look like a cartoon, with only two dimensions. When the camera went sideways on a set, it looked like a piece of paper, flat. I also enjoyed how the live characters interacted with the cartoons, yes I know it has been done many times before but I still enjoy it.
Unfortunately I have to agree with Rick J. Rauser (r.a.m.r. #01431) that COOL WORLD will have a short stay in the theaters. I don't think that for the most part people are still enjoying films like this. Most people, I feel would rather go and see a film like BATMAN RETURNS. I recommend that if you are planning to see this film that you see it soon before it leaves the theaters because it really is worth seeing. I recommend seeing this film in a theater because there is always so much going on on the screen that some of the movie will be lost on a television screen.
The actors do a great job with their roles. Kim Basinger does a great job as Holli Would, a sultry but egocentric person (Jessica Rabbit comes to mind). She just has a way of making the character come to life. Brad Pitt is good as the cop who really wants to be a Doodle. Gabriel Byrne also puts in a good performance as the cartoonist who becomes obsessed with making love to his creation, Holli Would. The wide number of Doodles are great, some nice, some evil; most with a comic twist to them that enlivens them. I also love the sentence on the top of the posters for the film "Holli Would if she could."
Ken J. blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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