Does anyone remember the greatly maligned 1992 feature Cool World? The film is a weird genre mashup, mixing live-action with animation. It was directed by the renowned animator, Ralph Bakshi, who is known for his distinctive and controversial work on projects such as Fritz the Cat, Fire & Ice, Wizards, and more. Though, while Bakshi is celebrated for his independent, subversive animated visions, the final version of Cool World is not the story he intended to tell.

Despite an impressive cast featuring prestigious actors, such as Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, and Gabriel Byrne, Cool World was unable to rouse audiences and flopped upon its release, still standing as the lowest-rated movie of Pitt’s illustrious career, with a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So, how exactly did this visually spectacular film become such a critical and commercial disaster?

Ralph Bakshi’s Original Vision of ‘Cool World’ Was Far Different

The central story of Cool World follows a young soldier, Frank Harris (Pitt), who has recently returned home from World War II and is in mourning after his mother dies in a tragic drunk-driving accident. However, he is soon dragged into a bizarre alternate dimension filled with strange animated creatures. Many years later, cartoonist Jack Deebs (Byrne) is pulled into the same alternate dimension he had dreamed about, “Cool World,” which inspired his work. There, he is seduced by the animated femme fatale Holli Would (Basinger), who believes that having sex with Jack will make her human and allow her to travel to the real world. Meanwhile, Harris has become a police officer in Cool World, where he remains vigilant since it is against the law for a human to engage with a cartoon or “Doodle.”

Despite this outlandish plot aligning with Bakshi’s other bizarre films, this was never how the director envisioned Cool World. Bakshi originally intended to create an adult horror movie that combined live-action and animation. In a 2004 interview with DVD Verdict, he explained that his storyline involved the cartoonist sleeping with the femme fatale character originally named Debbie Dallas. Their affair results in the birth of a half-cartoon and half-human hybrid child who grows up hating his father and eventually travels to the real world to become a killer, resenting his father for abandoning him.

Paramount quickly bought Bakshi’s pitch but soon distorted his artistic vision with Frank Mancuso Jr., the son of former Paramount Studios head Frank Mancuso Sr., producing the film while imposing his own vision over Bakshi’s project.

‘Cool World’ Suffered From a Chaotic Production

Bakshi claims that Mancuso Jr. mandated script rewrites behind his back, creating the more awkward and nonsensical storyline of the final film. Additionally, Bakshi wanted Drew Barrymore for the Debbie Dallas role but was forced to cast Basinger instead, whose character was renamed “Holli Would.” Basinger and Bakshi also clashed over the film since Basinger wanted to portray more of a Tex Avery-type female heroine. She aimed to create a movie suitable for sick children in hospitals, similar to <em>Who Framed Roger Rabbit</em>, while Bakshi envisioned an adult animated/live-action horror film.

Paramount erred by green-lighting Bakshi’s vision without fully understanding what he sought to achieve. The studio likely wanted a movie akin to the classic film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which also blended live-action and animation styles. However, that was not what Bakshi aimed for with Cool World. The final product illustrates how Bakshi, Basinger, and studio executives were all at odds, resulting in a messy hodgepodge of tonal styles. Despite its adult thematic subject matter, Mancuso Jr.’s changes forced the movie to release with a PG-13 rating, leading to a film that is too edgy and risqué for kids and families yet too obfuscating, nonsensical, and weird for adult audiences.

In a 2017 interview with Cartoon Brew, Bakshi explained how the studio made everything in Cool World look too “cleaned up,” including the bar scene where Basinger sings a duet with Frank Sinatra Jr.. His original idea for that scene involved setting it in “a dirty western bar.” Bakshi desired a dirtier, sleazier film that embraced a more adult thematic style. Unfortunately, producers refused to support the avant-garde vision of someone known for subversive works like Fritz the Cat, Coonskin, and Heavy Traffic, despite hiring him for that very purpose.

Why ‘Cool World’ Flopped

No wonder that Cool World was savaged by critics upon its release. The story becomes nearly incomprehensible in its second half as it evolves into a bizarre action-adventure where characters seek possession of a magic spike that Holli wants to use for ultimate power. However, this spike’s chaotic powers nearly transform everyone in the real world into super-deformed cartoon characters. Some animated Doodles have striking designs yet few come across as fully immersive characters. In contrast, Roger Rabbit or Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit are much more fully realized characters within their zany world.

Cool World, to its credit, features impressive animation sequences and an interesting mix of modern and classic animation styles. In later years, Bakshi admitted to Cartoon Brew that he enjoyed working on the film’s animation style and collaborated well with some artists who got their big breaks from it. However, it’s no surprise that Bakshi never directed another feature after Cool World. For an Oscar-winning actor like Pitt, this film remains little more than a joke at press junkets and a relic of his past he’d likely prefer to forget.