Cool World (1992)

Cool World, produced by Frank Mancuso, Jr. and directed by Ralph Bashki, was released in 1992. It's a movie that mixes animation and live action scenes, telling a dark and gritty story. It stars Brad Pitt as Frank Harris, a Noid who becomes a Cool World detective, Gabriel Byrne as Jack Deebs, a cartoonist who thinks he created Cool World, and Kim Basinger as Holli Would. The best way I can describe Holli is an animated whore. I'll get more into the characters later. I bet you'd like to know what the movie is about?

Back in the 1940s, a doodle (cartoon) scientist creates a device to enter the real world, but ends up pulling Frank Harris, a Noid (human), into Cool World. And then we don't know what happens for fifty years. Jump straight to 1992, where we see a dude in prison just randomly get pulled into Cool World and dumped right back into the real world. Yeah, the first 20 minutes of the movie can be a little confusing. Anyway, the prisoner, Jack Deebs, gets released from prison. We find out that he's a cartoonist who created popular comic Cool World...oh, and he killed a guy. I guess it's nice they tell us why he was in prison?

Anyway, we find out in the Cool World that Holli wants out into the real world so she can have all her dreams come true or something... That part of the plot seemed a little thin. She had no real purpose to be in the real world other than to have her dreams come true, but she never really revealed what those dreams were, except to be a whore, but she was doing a fine job of that in Cool World.

So basically, there's one rule in Cool World...okay, there's like random rules, but the only one they make explicitly clear is that Noids and doodles can't have sex. So of course, Holli the whore manages to break that rule with the cartoonist and she convinces him to take her to the real world with him. Then all hell breaks loose. Frank must go back to the real world he doesn't really want to go back to to find a way to stop Holli from moving this power spike that the doodle scientist from 50 years ago created.

Despite the plot having some holes, Cool World is totally cool. The set designs for Cool World (as opposed to the real world) were visually appealing and totally awesome. It's like no toon world we'd seen before, it's all dark and gritty, and even items that look like they could be from the real world are shown at an angle to only be two-dimensional, only adding to the awesomeness of the look. The story itself isn't so bad, it's just not as strong as it could have been, and it has a pretty cool resolution.

Now, let's get down to the characterization, which basically does end up carrying the movie. The thin plot would make you leave part way through the movie if the characters themselves had not been so well developed.

First, there's Frank Harris. Just before being pulled into the Cool World, he had to watch his mother die, just after returning from war. It was tragic. I think Frank carried that tragedy with him, because you always know he's seen too much. He's in a frustrating relationship with a doodle, Lonette, who loves him as much as he loves her. Frank is probably the strongest character in the whole movie, definitely the most fleshed out (no pun intended), and has possibly the best line in the movie: "Be content with the cards you've been dealt." He has a partner on the police force, a spider named Nails. Nails is an idiot, and a typically cartoon one, but he works well paired with Frank.

Next, we have Jack Deebs, the cartoonist. He thinks he created Cool World, but it's always been there. He's fallen in love with Holli. He was in prison for killing a guy. He did make Cool World a comic in the real world. He gets bitch slapped with a stiletto by Holli while driving. There's not really much memorable about Jack Deebs, other than he's somehow the hero. But he's not even on the DVD cover. They have other non-memorable toon characters on the cover, but not the alleged hero. Just Frank, Nails, Holli, the scientist, a random telephone, Slash (who isn't even important at all to the plot), and some other characters I forgot are on the cover...but no Deebs. He is kind of important to the plot, but he's treated more like a prop than a character. There are moments though where you do feel for him, so he's not even that badly developed...just they could have fleshed him out more.

Finally, there's Holli Would. Holli Would is a whore. That's basically the whole summation of Holli. She wants to go to the real world to have all her dreams come true, because she heard Vegas Vinnie did it. She tries to seduce every Noid who's come to Cool World so she can get out, and Deebs is the first to fall for it. Of course, Noid and doodle sex disturbs, as Nails put it, the interworld matrix. She's almost sweet and innocent (if you can ignore her insatiable lust) when she's first in the real world, wanting to experience everything, like a little kid who's seen the world for the first time. With an insatiable lust. Seriously, there is no better way to sum up Holli than "whore". She's also the villain. She does have a very "Through the Looking Glass-esque" line: "Am I dreaming you or are you dreaming me?"

Out of four stars, I would give the movie 2, really, but it was still enjoyable and very, very cool. There should be more sets like Cool World, and more characters like Frank Harris.