Cool WorldDoes art require a creator to exist, or was it always there before being plucked from the ether? Cool World is a hybrid live-action/animated movie about a sexy and ambitious "doodle" (cartoon) named Holli Would (Kim Basinger). She has her sights set on "crossing over" into the world of the "noids" (the real world), so that she can experience what she's been missing in the "Cool World", the home of the doodles. Her plan involves seducing real world comic artist, Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne), into sleeping with her--the oldest taboo on the books in Cool World--while a lone noid police officer named Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) tries to stop her from upsetting the balance between the two worlds and destroying them both.
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Cool World shares many motifs with director Ralph Bakshi's earlier works, especially how the voluptuous Holli is animated in his signature rotoscoped style. The art direction in Cool World is a deliberate hodge-podge of various styles from assorted eras. Cool World merges aspects from the vintage cartoon era of the Forties and Fifties with the underground comix vibe of the Seventies, and a contemporary, industrial rock soundtrack. Holli is the culmination of various erotic characters in comics and animation, including pin-up models and other hyper-sexualized depictions of women. Due to disagreements between Bakshi and Paramount Studios, Cool World was released as a PG-13 movie, which benefits how the scantily clad antagonist is portrayed, using innuendo and seduction rather than nudity to wear down Jack's defenses. Scenes in Cool World alternate between having animated backdrops with live action actors superimposed on them, to those where they interact with two-dimensional cutouts of backgrounds while animated characters are drawn over the scenes, giving the movie a disjointed and chaotic aesthetic. Cool World begins in 1945, and Frank is involved in a tragic motorcycle accident with his mother shortly after returning home from war. He is saved by the experimentation of Dr. Vincent "Vegas Vinnie" Whiskers (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) and his "Spike of Power", and is subsequently drawn into Cool World, where he finds a new life as a cop in this lawless landscape of ink and paint. Holli is a constant thorn in Frank's side, convinced that she can get anything she wants if she can cross over to the real world, despite his proclamations that it is a world better left forgotten. Yet Frank feels the pain of the "oldest law in Cool World" firsthand, because he is in an unconsummated relationship with a doodle named Lonette (voiced by Candi Milo). The Cool World is a wild landscape with buildings that twist into spirals, in a perpetual cross between a neon-drenched urban wasteland and a corrupt simulacrum of Looney Tunes. Jack is recently released from prison for the ostensible murder of his wife's lover, and created a comic book series called "Cool World" during his incarceration. Jack is convinced that Cool World came from his imagination, since he sometimes visits it in his dreams. But the truth is revealed when Holli emerges from one of Jack's drawings while he is in the slammer: Holli has been feeding Jack visions of Cool World to lure him into her clutches.
Holli Would is the real face of Cool World, despite being the antagonist. She is inspired by the likes of Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, although she is less of a sultry chanteuse, and more akin to a stripper--her name sounds like a stage name and even the opening credits recall a pole dancing routine. Holli keeps company with the worst derelicts in Cool World; she smokes a lot, and can knock back a full bottle of booze without blinking. She is a tough party girl who outruns the "poppers" in her phallic-shaped automobile, and spitefully spreads her legs to accost Frank like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Holli's favorite outfit is a skimpy, white, form-fitting miniskirt that suits her sexpot persona, reminiscent of the costumes worn by X-Men villainess turned anti-hero, Emma Frost a.k.a. The White Queen. Holli has modeled her affectations after her idol, Marilyn Monroe, and busts out selections from her musical catalog when the feeling takes her. Holli wants everything, and nothing is ever enough for her; it is this unquenchable urge that propels her to shirk Cool World's taboos, regardless of the danger. Despite Holli's ambition and unrelenting quest for the "Spike of Power", she is unprepared for society's filters in our world, and her ebullience gets on Jack's nerves when he tries to contain her mania. Even after Holli transforms into a noid, she behaves like she did in Cool World--she struts around in provocative outfits with a disregard--acceptable in a wacky cartoon world, but in the real world it makes her a murderous psychopath. Holli is like the kind of "dream girl" guys fantasize about, thinking that everything would be great if they could "have" her. But once they've got her, she turns out to be too high maintenance--not to mention a total loon--regretting their wish coming true.
Recommended for: Fans of a stylish mix of an animated and live-action fantasy about two distinct worlds--the real world and the cartoon Cool World--that collide in a collage of vivid and vibrant imagery. Cool World may be rated PG-13, but the copious sexual innuendo and eroticism in Holli Would means its best suited for older teens or adults.
Holli Would is the real face of Cool World, despite being the antagonist. She is inspired by the likes of Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, although she is less of a sultry chanteuse, and more akin to a stripper--her name sounds like a stage name and even the opening credits recall a pole dancing routine. Holli keeps company with the worst derelicts in Cool World; she smokes a lot, and can knock back a full bottle of booze without blinking. She is a tough party girl who outruns the "poppers" in her phallic-shaped automobile, and spitefully spreads her legs to accost Frank like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Holli's favorite outfit is a skimpy, white, form-fitting miniskirt that suits her sexpot persona, reminiscent of the costumes worn by X-Men villainess turned anti-hero, Emma Frost a.k.a. The White Queen. Holli has modeled her affectations after her idol, Marilyn Monroe, and busts out selections from her musical catalog when the feeling takes her. Holli wants everything, and nothing is ever enough for her; it is this unquenchable urge that propels her to shirk Cool World's taboos, regardless of the danger. Despite Holli's ambition and unrelenting quest for the "Spike of Power", she is unprepared for society's filters in our world, and her ebullience gets on Jack's nerves when he tries to contain her mania. Even after Holli transforms into a noid, she behaves like she did in Cool World--she struts around in provocative outfits with a disregard--acceptable in a wacky cartoon world, but in the real world it makes her a murderous psychopath. Holli is like the kind of "dream girl" guys fantasize about, thinking that everything would be great if they could "have" her. But once they've got her, she turns out to be too high maintenance--not to mention a total loon--regretting their wish coming true.
Recommended for: Fans of a stylish mix of an animated and live-action fantasy about two distinct worlds--the real world and the cartoon Cool World--that collide in a collage of vivid and vibrant imagery. Cool World may be rated PG-13, but the copious sexual innuendo and eroticism in Holli Would means its best suited for older teens or adults.