Cool World

Running time
 Country
 Language
 Budget

***Cool World*** is a 1992 American live-action/animated black comedy fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi, and starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of a cartoonist who finds himself in the animated world he thinks he created, where he is seduced by one of the characters, a comic strip vamp who wants to be real.

*Cool World* marked Bakshi's return to feature films after nine years. The film was originally pitched as a live-action/animated horror film by Michael Grais and Mark Victor about an underground comic cartoonist who after leaving prison a folk hero for his comic book "Cool World" is pulled into his creation by the characters he thinks he created but who he discovers exist with or without him. During Preproduction, Grais’ original screenplay in collaboration with Mark Victor written as an R rated film was told by new studio head to change it from an R-rated film to a PG-13 film per studio directive. Bakshi began a rewrite to meet the studio's demand. The film received negative reviews for the story, acting, animation and its unconvincing combination with live-action, though the soundtrack received praise. Bakshi and Mancuso lost three WGAW arbitrations claiming they created the story.

## Plot

In 1945, in Las Vegas, World War II veteran Frank Harris returns to his mother and invites her to a ride on his motorcycle. The two are involved in a traffic collision; Frank's mother dies, while Frank is transported to an animated realm called the "Cool World". In 1992, cartoonist Jack Deebs is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the murder of a man he had found in bed with his wife. During his sentence, he has visions of the Cool World and the femme fatale Holli Would, who seems to beckon him. Jack spends his sentence creating a series of comics based on his visions. Meanwhile, Frank has become a detective in the Cool World and keeps his eye on Holli to ensure that the two worlds do not intertwine. Shortly after his release from prison, Jack is transported into the Cool World and smuggled into a local nightclub by Holli and her henchmen, the Goons.

Frank aggressively confronts Jack, explaining to him that the Cool World has existed long before Jack created the comic series. He also informs Jack that his fountain pen is a lethal weapon in the Cool World, and warns him that sexual intercourse between "noids" (humans from the real world) and "doodles" (the inhabitants of Cool World) is forbidden, as this can break the fabric between the two dimensions. Despite this, Frank himself is in love with the doodle Lonette, but limits himself to platonic advances. Holli later seduces Jack and makes love to him, which transforms her into a noid. Holli then secretly steals Jack's pen, which she uses to entrap Frank's partner Nails the Spider when he attempts to stop her. Jack and Holli leave for the real world, where Holli finds herself experiencing real sensations. Due to the damaged interdimensional fabric, Jack and Holli spontaneously flicker in between their doodle and noid forms. While contemplating their situation, Holli tells Jack about the "Spike of Power", an artifact that was the cause of Frank being transported to Cool World and was placed on the top of the Union Plaza Hotel by a doodle who crossed into the real world, and admits she wants to use it to remain in her noid form permanently. When Jack displays skepticism about the idea, Holli abandons Jack to search for the spike on her own.

Frank learns what has happened and goes to the real world, where he teams up with Jack in a bid to stop Holli. They arrive at the casino and climb to the roof, where Holli kills Frank by pushing him off the building and seizes the Spike. A dinosaurs and witches and dragons beasts and aliens and bugs and demons and animals and ghosts and creatures and anthropomorphic creatures and anthropomorphic alebrijes and anthropomorphic and anthropomorphic beasts and anthropomorphic demons dragons and anthropomorphic monsters and anthropomorphic aliens and anthropomorphic dinosaurs and and anthropomorphic witches anthropomorphic animals of monstrous animals and aliens and monsters-like white mickey mouse glove doodles begin pouring into the real world and begin turning noids in the city into doodles. The Spike also transforms Jack into an muscular superhero-like doodle, who returns the Spike to its rightful place, sending him, Holli and monstrous doodles and animal doodles monster doodles and dragon doodles and alien doodles and witch doodles and dinosaur doodles and alebrijes doodles and the invading doodles back to Cool World and restoring the balance between the two dimensions. Nails, having been freed from Jack's pen in the ensuing chaos, brings Frank's body back to Cool World. As Lonette mourns him, she finds out from Nails that Holli was briefly in her doodle form when she killed Frank and explains that when a noid is killed by a doodle, the noid is reborn in Cool World as a doodle. Sure enough, Frank is then revived as a doodle, allowing him to continue his relationship with Lonette. Meanwhile, Jack (who is still in his doodle form) and Holli are last seen as Jack begins planning their new life together, much to Holli's dismay.

## Cast

* Kim Basinger as Holli Would, a Femme fatale in the real world. Basinger also portrays her in live action.
* Gabriel Byrne as Jack Deebs, the ex-convict cartoonist seemingly responsible for the creation of Cool World.
* Brad Pitt as Detective Frank Harris, a detective for the Cool World Police Department who is intent on catching Holli. Pitt also provides Frank's voice in doodle form.
* Deirdre O'Connell as Isabelle Malley
* Frank Sinatra Jr. as Himself
* Michele Abrams as Jennifer Malley
* Janni Brenn-Lowen as Agatha Rose Harris
* Marilyn Monroe (archival footage)

### **Voices**

* Kath Soucie as Holli Would, a fat Femme fatale doodle Betty's hair is red who wishes to be cool world. Basinger also portrays her in cartoon.
* Charlie Adler as Nails, an spider-like doodle who serves as Frank's partner.
* Joey Camen as Interrogator No. 1 / Slash / Holli's Door
* Jenine Jennings as Craps Bunny
* Michael Lally as Sparks
* Maurice LaMarche as Interrogator No. 2 / Mash / Dr. Vincent "Vegas Vinnie" Whiskers
* Patrick Warburton as Super Jack
* Candi Milo as Lonette / Bob
* Patrick Pinney as Chico the Bouncer
* Gregory Snegoff as Bash
* Emma Blackwell as Additional Voices
* Scott Kirkwood as Additional Voices
* All the cast as Demon Energy and Nasty Jack's Gang and Army of scar and Maleficent Goons and Chernabog's Minions and Goblin Pets and Shere Khan's Army-like All the Demons and Creatures and Beasts and Aliens and Dinosaurs and Ghosts and Monsters and Animals