Cool World

1992 / Director. Ralph Bakshi.

Cool World is a good movie, which could have been great. It's production was troubled and the end result barely reflected director Ralph Bakshi's original concept. It's about a famous comic book artist who finds himself inside his own cartoon universe. Every character he ever created lives inside Cool World as well as an unexpected visitor, played by Brad Pitt. This visitor has spent 50 years inside this place, having been snatched by a cartoon scientist who found a way to bridge the two worlds. Ralph Bakshi is a legendary animator and some of his previous films include Fritz The Cat, Coonskin, Fire & Ice and Lord of the Rings. His style is unmistakable and after a 13 year absence from the industry he returned with Cool World. He pitched it to the studio as a dark and twisted horror story and the studio green lit it. Unfortunately midway into pre-production the producer began to meddle with the film and secretly re-wrote the script into a tamer PG story. Losing control over his vision Bakshi made certain sacrifices, eventually managing to maintain some of it's more risqué elements... UNTIL actress Kim Basinger backstabbed Bakshi and convinced the producer to make it even more family friendly (so that she could take it to hospitals for sick children). The stories about her being a difficult actress are notorious... anyhow, the end result is a film that most people rightfully criticised for being a Roger Rabbit knock-off and that's essentially what it looks like. It's still fun movie but I would love to have seen Bakshi's original concept instead. The animation is great and some wonderful cartooney set pieces and backdrops are cleverly blended into the scenes, enabling human and cartoon interaction creatively. It could have been a classic! 

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