Cool World (1992)

"You screwed us all... for a piece of ass?"
In a desperate attempt of trying to escape life's harsh reality, the famous cartoonist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) decides to create his very own fantasy universe, Cool World. A place filled with danger and excitement, but even more importantly, it features Deebs animated dream woman, Holli Would (Kim Basinger).
And this special lady knows exactly what she wants and do not take no for an answer, something her creator will find out, very soon.

After Fire and Ice (1983) this was to be Ralph Bakshi's big comeback film, backed up with names such as Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt.
Cool World started up as an idea within the horror/sci-fi genre, that featured a vengeful baby who was the evil offrspring of some horrible late night rendezvous gone terribly wrong between an animated figure and a real human being.
And that's it. The idea was more than enough to win over the big moneymen in Hollywood, and as a result, Cool World got both thumbs up waaay up, and Bakshi was back in action.

But things only went one way after the deal was done, and that was waaaay down.
First off, the original movie script ended up getting several heavy rewrites, and which supposedly went behind the back of Bakshi himself, and his reaction to it, was not very positive.
Some rumours even has it, that a big fight between Ralph and the films producer, Frank Mancuso, Jr took place, and this was to be followed up by a lawsuit.
To make things even worse, Kim Basinger was hoping that the film would be made into a more "child friendly" adventure, so litte kids could go and see it on the big screen.
And when it finally showed up at the cinemas, it was universally panned by the critics along with a confused audience who probably expected something completely different, and with the films poor promotion it did not help to ease the damage that was already done and the film ended up as a box-office failure.

Over the years, the film has had a bit of a "comeback", being placed on several "lost-cult" films lists or hailed for its soundtrack that was probably one of the few things the critics seemed to be positive about. 
For me, this film I was just too young to watch back in 1992, but when I saw it late at night in summer of 2001, on TV. I thought it was a really interesting and enjoyable mess, that came with one of the most stunning animated babes I had ever seen with Holli Would and I thought the whole sleazy/retro 40s-50s atmosphere that was Cool World, was really well made.
My big complaint however was that when the film ended up taking a turn into the real world, it felt very rushed and goofy.
Brad Pitt was not very good in the detective part either, and I wished another actor would play it, as he was not very likeable at all, just a douchy, smug character that I cared nothing for.
Gabriel Byrne had some good scenes, or at least with what he had to work with, but the film really is a messy and very chaotic result of a what could have been idea.

Compared to Bakshi and his earlier animated adult classics, such as Wizard (1977) or Coonskin (1975), Cool World is not very impressive, but for those who wanted a more adult themed Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) this might be a lot of fun.
Holli Would sure ain't no Jessica Rabbit. Instead she is a mean megalomaniac, very full of her self, and she knows she's the hottest thing around, and sure knows how to use it in order to get things done her own way.