Cool World
Cool World (1992) marked Ralph Bakshi's return to feature films after eight years.
The story follows two humans who encounter Cool World – a parallel universe where cartoons actually exist – and tangle with the seductive Holli Would (Kim Basinger), an ambitious animated nymphomaniac bombshell who wants to escape to the three dimensional reality just because of her attraction to the (especially sexual) feelings of humans.
Gabriel Byrne plays Jack Deebs, the comic book artist who created and then is seduced by Holli. Brad Pitt plays Detective Frank Harris, the Cool World cop (who has chosen to stay in Cool World) out to make sure humans don't have sex with cartoon characters, since that act can rupture the fabric between the two universes. The twist lies in the fact that after all these years Frank Harris also has fallen in love with Lonette, a sexy waitress in Cool World.
Deebs was sent to jail for murdering a man he found in bed with his wife. During his prison sentence, he had visions of the Cool World and of the sexy blonde humanoid doodle woman Holli Would. Shortly after being released from prison and returning to his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, Deebs is pulled into the Cool World (which really exists independently of Deebs) by Holli. Holli wants to have intercourse with Deebs so she can become real and feel real things and enter the Real World, but sexual relationships between humans (or 'noids') and doodles (or toons) is illegal in Cool World and Frank Harris keeps a sharp eye on Holli and Deebs, but eventually Holli and Deebs have sex and Holli turns into a real person. Deebs and Holli heads to Deebs's home dimension or universe, but the barrier between the Cool and Real Worlds has been thrown out of balance and Deebs and Holli repeatedly turn into clown-like doodles. Holli manages to find the Golden Spike of Power, which turns her back into a doodle and releases many monsterous doodles into the Real World. Deebs turns into a super-powered humanoid doodle (nicknamed 'Super Jack'), and puts the Golden Spike back into its place; Deebs is stuck, maybe forever in the Cool World, but he has plans to marry Holli.
In the original script for the film written by Ralph Bakshi, Holli is called 'Debbie Dallas', and when she and Deebs have sex, they have a son who is a strange mixture of live-action and animated body-parts. The child hates himself for what his is and what he isn't, and goes to the Real World in order to try to murder his irresponsible father.
In the comic book adaption of the film by DC Comics, Holli Wood was presumably killed when she touched the Spike of Power, and Jack Deebs was trapped in the fourth dimension (a desert landscape).
Cast and Credits
- Brad Pitt
- Kim Basinger
- Gabriel Byrne
- Janni Brenn (credited as Janni Brenn-Lowen)
- Candi Milo
- Charles Adler
- Joey Camen
- Michele Abrams
- Deirdre O'Connell
- Stephen Worth
- Jenine Jennings
- Maurice LaMarche
- Gregory Snegoff
- Michael David Lally
- Paul Ben-Victor
- Frank Sinatra Jr.
- Ralph Bakshi (Director)
- Marty Eli Schwartz (1st Assistant Director)
- Richard Coad (2nd Assistant Director)
- Fernando Castroman (2nd 2nd Assistant Director)
- Bruce Woodside (Animation Director)
- Frank Mancuso Jr. (Producer)
- Vikki Williams (Associate Producer)
- Michael Grais (Writer)
- Mark Victor (Writer)
- Larry Gross (Additional Writing) (uncredited)
- Jon-Michael Preece (Script Supervisor)
- Mark Isham (Original Music)
- John Dickson (additional music)
- John A. Alonzo (cinematography)
- Steve Mirkovich (Film Editor)
- Annamaria Szanto (Film Editor)
- Kelley Dixon (Assistant Editor)
- Bret Marnell (Assistant Editor)
- Neal Romanek (Assistant Editor)
- Michael Corenblith (Production Design)
- Barry E. Jackson (Conceptual Design)
- Malissa Daniel (Costume Design)
- Donna O'Neal (Kim Basinger's Costume Design)
- Cydney Cornell (Hair Designer)
- Rick Provenzano (Kim Basinger's Hair Stylist)
- Jack Freeman (Kim Basinger's makeup artist)
- Emily Katz (Key Makeup Artist)
- Jane English (Kim Basinger's Body Makeup)
- Scott White (Unit Production Manager)
- Gina Shay (Animation Production Manager)
- Gwynne Adik (Director's Assistant)
- Ginger Reynolds-Smith (Producer's Assistant)
- Wendy Renskowski Dale (Assistant Accountant)
- Steve Gordon (Key Animator for Holli Would and Lonette)
- Celeste Moreno (Assistant Character Animator)
- Mercedes J. Sichon (Production Controller: Layouts/Backgrounds)
- Pat Sito (Checking)
- Greg Hill (Layout)
- Thomas McGrath(Layout)
- David Wasson (Layout)
- Louise Zingarelli (Character Design and Layout)
- Milton Knight (Character Design)
- Mark O'Hare (Character Design)
- Lureline Kohler (Key Clean-Up Artist)
- Jon Kuyper(Animation Production Supervisor)
- Chris Schwiebert (Camera Operator)
- Nadia Venesse (Dialect Coach)