Cool World

Cool World is a 1992 American live-action/animated fantasy-comedy film directed by Ralph Bakshi, and starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of a cartoonist who finds himself in the animated world he thinks he created, and is seduced by one of the characters, a comic strip vamp who wants to be real.

Cool World marked Bakshi's return to feature films after nine years. The film was originally pitched as an animated horror film about an underground cartoonist who fathers an illegitimate half-real/half-cartoon daughter, who hates herself for what she is and tries to kill her parents. During production, Grais and Victor's original screenplay was rewritten by Ralph Bakshi in collaboration with Frank Mancuso Jr. to change it from an R rated film to PG per studio directive. Reviews praised the film's visuals, soundtrack and mostly the animation but criticized the story and characters, as well as the combination of live-action and animation, which some critics felt was unconvincing. The film would eventually gross only half its production budget.

Plot
In 1945 Las Vegas, World War II veteran Frank Harris returns to his mother and invites her to a ride on his motorcycle. The two are involved in a traffic collision; Frank's mother dies, while Frank is transported to an animated realm named the "Cool World". In 1992, cartoonist Jack Deebs is serving a prison sentence for the murder of a man he had found in bed with his wife. During his sentence, he has visions of the Cool World and the femme fatale Holli Would, who seems to beckon him. Jack spends his sentence creating a series of comics based on his visions. Meanwhile, Frank has become a detective in the Cool World and keeps his eye on Holli to ensure that the two worlds do not intertwine. Shortly after his release from prison, Jack is transported into the Cool World and smuggled into a club by Holli.

Frank aggressively confronts Jack, explaining to him that the pen in his pocket is a dangerous weapon in the Cool World. He also informs Jack that Cool World has existed long before Jack created the comic series, and warns him that sexual intercourse between "noids" (humans from the real world) and "doodles" (the inhabitants of the Cool World) is forbidden, as this can break the fabric between the two dimensions. Despite this, Frank himself is in love with the doodle Lonette, but limits himself to platonic advances. Holli, wanting to become a noid, seduces Jack and has sex with him. Holli becomes human and secretly steals Jack's pen, which she uses to entrap Frank's partner Nails. Jack and Holli leave for the real world, where Holli finds herself experiencing real sensations. Due to the damaged interdimensional fabric, Jack and Holli spontaneously flicker in between their doodle and noid forms. While contemplating their situation, Holli tells Jack about the "Spike of Power," an artifact placed on the top of a Las Vegas casino by a doodle who crossed into the real world, and admits she wants to use it to become human permanently. The Spike would also release the denizens of the Cool World into the real world, as well as turn all noids into doodles. When Jack displays skepticism about the idea, Holli abandons Jack to search for the spike on her own.

Frank learns what has happened and goes to the real world, where he teams up with Jack in a bid to stop Holli. They arrive at the casino and climb to the roof, where Holli kills Frank by pushing him off the building and seizes the Spike. Noids begin transforming into doodles, and a multitude of doodles begin pouring into the real world. The Spike also transforms Jack into an animated superhero, who manages to defeat the doodles and returns the Spike to its rightful place, restoring the balance between the two worlds. All doodles, including Holli and Jack, are transported back to the Cool World. The freed Nails brings Frank's body back to the Cool World. Because Frank was killed by a doodle, he is revived as such, and can pursue his dream of love with Lonette.

Cast

 * Gabriel Byrne as Jack Deebs
 * Brad Pitt as Detective Frank Harris
 * Deirdre O'Connell as Isabelle Malley
 * Frank Sinatra, Jr. as himself
 * Michele Abrams as Jennifer Malley
 * Janni Brenn–Lowen as Agatha Rose Harris

Voices

 * Kim Basinger as Holli Would
 * Charlie Adler as Nails
 * Joey Camen as Interrogator No. 1 / Slash / Holli's Door
 * Jenine Jennings as Craps Bunny
 * Michael Lally as Sparks
 * Maurice LaMarche as Interrogator No. 2 / Mash / Dr. Vincent "Vegas Vinnie" Whiskers / Super Jack
 * Candi Milo as Lonette / Bob
 * Patrick Pinney as Chico the bouncer
 * Gregory Snegoff as Bash