Review of Cool World (1992) by That Guy W — 22 Mar 2011

Nothing about Cool World makes much sense. It has a great premise: cartoon characters exist in a universe parallel to our own, and humans and cartoons can cross between them, but if they have sex, baaaad things start to happen. It's weird, but hey, it has potential.

Unfortunately, Cool World is a mess, and an ugly, incomprehensible one at that. The plot makes no sense, and props and plot points are introduced seemingly at random, with absolutely no explanation as to their importance or significance. Also, the effects incorporating live action characters with animated ones look outrageously second rate. For a film made four years after the critical and commercial success that was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cool World looks like the beginnings of an experiment on testing this technique. Even if you ignore the poor live-action/animation effects, the animated world and characters often move so fast, and move in a way that makes no physical sense, that they can't be enjoyed as just regular animation. Their world may be a cartoon one, but it should move with some sort of visual logic within the frame. Here you can't tell where things or characters are coming or going.

Most of the animation is grimy, dark, repetitive and obnoxious anyways, and you start to wonder why anyone would want to draw this, much less watch it. It feels like what R. Crumb and Walt Disney's evil twins would dream up on an acid trip in Las Vegas. It's not fun to watch, and it doesn't feel original.

The one bright spot in the film is Holli Would, the animated character, not Kim Basinger's live action performance. Bakshi must have used rotoscoping to capture the fluidly sensuous movements of the femme fatale. That combined with Basinger's sultry voice work makes for one hell of a character, both to watch and contemplate how she could have become iconic if placed in a much better film than this wreck.

Cool World is a muddy mess of a film that doesn't know what it's about or how to be about it. Are there any rules to this world? If anyone knew while making the film, it certainly didn't show up onscreen. That's a shame, because they're is a great premise and a fantastic character here, but it all gets lost in the incoherence and the ugliness.