NateWatchesCoolMovies Cool World is known, by those few who may be aware of its existence, as the 'other' film in which live action characters inhabit the same realm as cartoons. The more famous one of course is Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a glorious gem of a film that gets the acclaim, notoriety and long lasting attention, as it well should. (We won't speak of a third one involving a certain moose and squirrel that really does earn it's bad rap). Cool World is somewhat maligned as the black sheep of the two, and in some people's eyes (Ebert laid a stern smackdown on it) downright hated on. It's no doubt very different from Roger Rabbit, which is admittedly the better film and the easier one to like and relate to. But this one is brilliant in its own right, at least for me. I love the way it uses a sombre tone with its human creations to throw a unique light on them as soon as the Toons show up. It's quaint and wonderfully inaccessible, with some scenes existing purely of a need to showcase a stream of consciousness type style that doesn't so much halt the proceedings, as give them their own surreal flavor. Brad Pitt is Frank Harris, victim of a jarring post war tragedy and thrown headlong into the cartoon world, eventually finding himself a Detective in their realm. Outside in our world, lonely cartoonist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne is a sly choice for the role) falls in love with one of his creations, a blonde bombshell named Holli Would (voiced and later played in the flesh by Kim Basinger). Holli is as devious as she is gorgeous, and works to use Jack's attraction to her as a conduit to escape into our world. Pretty soon a deafening cacophany of cartoon creatures in all shapes, sizes and colours floods out of their dimension and into ours, creating quite the cosmic mess for Pitt to clean up. It's fun without being too zany, the overblown fuss of the Toons contrasted by a glum human world, reeling from the war and unexpecting of such an event to unfold. Granted, the meshing of the two dimensions isn't given the precise, big budget fanfare and cutting edge methods of Roger Rabbit, but the world building and special effects here are still pure enchantment and offer a dazzling level of entertainment. Pitt is stoic with flinty sparks of boyish charm, Byrne hilariously plays it dead straight, and Basinger is dead friggin sexy. She steals the show especially as Holli in human form, having a ball with the bubbly bimbo trying to keep a straight face in the real world. The Toons in general really are a diverse bunch, ranging from animals to inanimate objects to tiny little formless cutesy blobs and everything in between, filling their frames with a chaotic, detailed miasma worthy of Studio Ghibli. Lot of hate floating around for this one. You won't find any from me, I love the film, and accept it for the adult friendly, experimental oddity it is. Great stuff.

A_Different_Drummer In the highly specialized world of liveaction-cartoon mixes (a category which actually has over 100 entries to date!) this high-octane treat is, depending on your POV, either one of the best or one of worst. Although I usually try, in my IMDb reviews, not to go head to head with other reviewers, in this case I want to draw the reader's attention to the earlier review posted here which insisted, absolutely and without wavering, that this was simply a ripoff of Roger Rabbit. THAT is a wonderful real-time example of why no one really gets this film. Let's compare and contrast, shall we? On the one hand, in WKRR, you have one of the most tightly controlled Hollywood productions of all time, with none other than Robert Zemeckis, an A-lister, at the helm. The buzzword here, folks, is control. We may never know all the details of what happened during the shooting of WKRR -- one of my favourites, by the way -- but from history, we can safely draw two reliable conclusions. First, an excellent film resulted. Second, regardless of the first conclusion, no one in Hollywood was particularly interested in doing a sequel, and this is a town where, if someone's wedding footage looks especially promising, at least two agents will immediately start discussing "sequel." Which brings back to COOL WORLD. While I could list dozens of obvious "differences" between the two productions, I will list only one, and then rest my case. Bakshi. I say again, in case anyone missed it. Bakshi. The core difference between Zemeckis at the helm, and Bakshi, is that you hire the former, you unleash the latter. Honestly, you have to wonder if any of the suits had ever seen FRITZ before they greenlighted this deal? I totally love COOL WORLD, but I love it for the completely opposite reasons I love WKRR. ROGER RABBIT is a refined and polished production. COOL WORLD is insane. It should be shown in theatres with rubber walls. The core story is insane (no spoilers -- but Bassinger does something no actress has done before or since, she sells "sexy" both in her live and animated versions) and the animation is so intense that it should come with a warning about operating heavy machinery after you see it. Look, folks, Bakshi is the real deal, a creative genius who never seeks results, only possibilities. If you are fortunate enough to see this film more than once, and really watch the animation taking place in the corners of the frame -- not in the foreground! -- you will see things taking place you may wish you had never seen. And this tradition is not new, by the way. Around the WW2 period, the animators at Warner, to relieve tension, starting sticking odd cells in mainstream toons, and many were never discovered until much later. (In the 60s a smart entrepreneur did a tour with reels of the "banned" Bugs Bunny cartoons!) I said that critics either loved or hated COOL WORLD. I loved it. I think it will stand the test of time.

HelenMary Brad Pitt and Kim Basinger in the same film, gorgeous - what could go wrong, right? Well, seems as if that leaves a lot open. This was without doubt one of the worst films in the history of cinema. Even Brad struggled, acting opposite 'toons and only him being gorgeous saved him. Kim Basinger, playing a cartoon when she was real, was dreadful, and even Gabriel Byrne was awful. Nothing about this film was a plus except some of the cartoon scenes with Holli Would dancing were good graphics and certainly appealing to men, no doubt.I found all the antics/anarchy by the "extras" 'toons annoying and gross, not to mention pointless, and over all the film was too adult in theme to make sense of how stupid and low-brow, naff and badly done it was. If it was a children's film, it would have worked better but the whole film was based on the premise that 'noids (humanoids) didn't have sex with cartoons and Holli's porn-esque writhing and posing were not suitable for kids. So what was the point? The acting was too bad to make it titillating for adults.It is trying to be Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which was eminently better despite being four years earlier, better drawn and better acted and greatly better toon/human interaction. So it's trying to be WFRR and failing dismally.A dreadful film, saved only by some sexy toon dancing by Holli, Brad Pitt being gorgeous and a cutesy Hollywood romantic ending. Awful film, skipped through a bit of the "filler 'toon mayhem" scenes as wanted it to end.

Neil Welch I love animation. I also love the interaction of animation with live action. And I have often felt that it would be interesting to see animation for adults rather than kids.Enter Cool World.And exit again, rather rapidly. If you didn't see it when it came out, the odds are you probably haven't seen it despite the fact that it stars Kim Basinger (then near the top of her arc of success), Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt (both in the early stages of their careers).The reason why it disappeared, why it practically never shows up on TV, is because it's a mess. A good idea, yes. Eye catching, yes. Decently animated - for the most part, yes. But overall, it is an incoherent shambles, and what you are left with is fragments of memory of what it looked like and a couple of major plot points (Basinger plays a cartoon character invented by Byrne who wants to have sex with him, and, er...). Everything else disappears into a miasma of confusion.It is worth seeking out the background story on what happened.A valiant effort and, perhaps, worth catching just for what it looks like, but a misfire.