Cool World (1992)

[5]

In the last feature film from animator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, Wizards), Gabriel Byrne plays the creator of a comic book called Cool World. And he’s rather infatuated with one of his characters, a voluptuous femme fatale named Holli Would, played by Kim Basinger. Byrne is able to visit Holli in the animated Cool World, but sex between ‘noids and doodles (humans and cartoons) is strictly forbidden — and enforced by a policeman played by Brad Pitt, a ‘noid with a tragic backstory. Rules are, of course, made for breaking and forbidden sex is had, transforming Holli Would into a flesh-and-blood person. She and Byrne transport to real-world Las Vegas, where Holli quests for a legendary ‘spike of power’ at the top of a casino — a device that can make her human forever, but also merge the real world and the Cool World cataclysmically.

As you can tell from my attempt to synopsize Cool World, the screenplay is a hot mess. The plot is too bloated for its run-time and loses its focus at several points along the way. The potential for greatness is absolutely there — within the concept of two realities, characters that have compelling backstories and motivations, and a cast doing their damndest to make the whole thing work. But the story is told too quickly and its dramatic weight is constantly undercut by cartoonish sidebars and interludes. There’s a beguiling aesthetic to the movie, and a lot of good music, too — but the film never stops for a grace note or to catch its breath. It becomes mind-numbing in tone and pacing, and mind-boggling in how loose it plays with its own set of rules.

Cool World reeks of a movie suffering from nefarious studio intervention — an interesting vision that got watered down and on its way to the megaplexes. But it’s worth seeing for its unique aesthetic and a few inspired sequences. Bakshi’s trademark subversion often feels shoe-horned, but I’m not likely to ever forget a shot that zooms into the mouth of a big purple gorilla, through his intestines and out the anus. Brad Pitt and the animated Basinger are pretty easy on the eyes, too.