Cool World (1992)

[RichIzzo 0]

Congratulations, Paul & Co: After dozens of movies, you picked a movie I *loved* when I was younger. I thought it was a flawed masterpiece back then; now I consider it a masterpiece of flaws. It's one of those original concepts that, with a better script, could have been at least a decent movie. But the horrific script (not to mention the plotline) dragged the entire movie down.

 

Same with Cool World. It had a lot going for it at first glance: great soundtrack, fun Bakshi animation, and a decent cast at the time. (Brad Pitt was only three years removed from doing a guest role on "Growing Pains".) I remember seeing the trailer for Cool World, and I couldn't wait to see it. The plotline, however, was such a train wreck, it blew up the entire movie. I remember seeing it and being absolutely *stunned* at how bad it was. I didn't see a worse movie, including Ed Wood movies in my dorm, until I saw "Death Becomes Her" on cable years later. (You need to do that one, too!)

 

Regards,

the rev.

[seanotron 2307]

That trailer made you *want* to see this movie?

[RegFranklin 19]

Oh god, half of me wants to see this done, the other half is still suffering PTSD flashbacks from Toys and doesn't want any more of those.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Really seanotron, You know when I watched that trailer, I could not help but think to myself. First rule of cool world, don't talk about cool world. second rule, DON'T TALK ABOUT COOL WORLD! LOL

[erictheded 0]

Currently streaming on Amazon. I recently rewatched this fever dream after finding out my wife had never seen it. It's half animated, half live action, 100% Da Fuck? And hey guess what, it's no Roger Rabbit.

 

Starring:

Brad "Wackadoo" Pitt

"Crazy" Kim Basinger

Gabriel "Let's just get this over with" Byrne

And a bunch of jumbled cartoon things

 

It's like an acid trip on steroids and crack. Also meth. Drugs.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

There's already a pretty lengthy thread for this one.

 

Thread merge powers activate!

[BenjaminW.Piehler 12]

I've never seen this, but when I was a kid my younger sister and my mom rented this and watched it together. They hated it so much they demanded their money back from Blockbuster... who actually gave them a refund.

[hypnotizingchickens 1025]

if it isn't already abundantly clear by the size of this thread, THIS MOVIE MUST BE DONE!

 

as much as I love every one of Bakshi's movies, even this one to an extent, I'm aching to hear some 'Zouks commentary on this film and it's overt sexuality...

 

 

 

this movie always gets comparisons to Roger Rabbit, but what most people don't know is that the concept of a major motion picture with equal amounts of animation and live action was originally Ralph Bakshi's idea... although it had been done before in old Disney movies, but only for a handful of sequences per movie due to how much money it cost.

 

production for his movie Hey Good Lookin' began in 1974, but the film wasn't released until 1982 (sans any previously filmed live action sequences... except for some rotoscoping during a breakdance scene) for budgetary reasons... so you could say this movie was an attempt to finally honor his original artistic vision, despite the fact that Roger Rabbit had already popularized it.

[CPiz 232]

I'm making my case for this one again:

 

Big names (Gabrielle Byrne, Brad Pitt, Kim Bassinger) in a horrible movie.

 

A cartoon HAS SEX with a human and then COMES TO LIFE.

 

The film made back only half its budget.

 

Kim Bassinger won the Razzie for Worst Actress.

 

From Wikipedia: "The concept of the film involved a cartoon and human having sex and conceiving a hybrid child who visits the real world to murder the father who abandoned her. Bakshi (the producer) states that Paramount Pictures 'bought the idea in ten seconds.'"

 

Also from Wikipedia: "Basinger had attempted to rewrite the film halfway into its production because she 'thought it would be great [...] if she would be able to show this picture in hospitals to sick children'"[!!!!!!!!!]

 

Via Wikipedia: "The film's animators were never given a screenplay."

 

I'm not sure about Netflix, etc., but this movie IS available via Amazon streaming; it's free to watch if you have a Prime membership.

 

Paul, I think this one would give you guys a LOT of material.

[Valkyrie9 0]

Like 3 awful, nonsensical movies in one...a real WTF-fest...complete with a baby Brad Pitt, before he could command top billing!

[dask360 126]

I second "hypnotizingchickens" and "Dad Has ADD" with everything they mentioned. So sad this thread died in Jan! When Paul recently said "no one is asking for Cool World" during a minisode, I had to take action. I'm also a huge Bakshi fan, but even with a mild soft spot for this garbage (hey, at age 7 it felt cool), this movie has tons of material to cover. One of the more interesting aspects that I don't feel was covered here is that it was "supposed" to be a huge success. By that, I mean they promoted the hell out it and gave it a huge push (desperation, perhaps?). There were several video game tie-ins, including Nintendo and Super Nintendo, a 4 issue DC comic book prequel, and a 75-foot-tall Holli Would cutout added to the Hollywood sign (which reportedly angered local residents). That's the kind of big hollywood push given to a much different breed of film.

 

Needless to say, I would LOVE to hear your take on this. Radio gold.

[AnnArrogance 2]

OMG, yes, please, guys, do this movie. It is, for lack of a better word, BONKERS. I remember seeing it as a kid thinking it was going to be like Roger Rabbit and walked away emotionally scarred and with a confusing feeling in my no-nos about both Holli Wood and Gabriel Byrne, which pretty much destroyed any hope I had of having a normal sex life as an adult. This is definitely up there in the "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" category.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

When I was a kid I had Junes mindset in thinking there was no such thing as a bad movie. Until I saw this movie, and it robbed me of that innocence.

 

I've rewatched a shit ton of terrible movies from when I was kid, including all four 3 ninjas movies. I have zero desire to ever watch this again, thats how much this movie bugged me when I first watched it.

[DirkMcDonk 2]

 

This is your brain on drugs.

[Royboy 430]

I was just thinking of this movie and wondering why it hasn't been covered by HDTGM yet. I had seen it when it came out on VHS, and was trying to recollect what exactly it was about. But rather than watch the movie, I did something far worse: I read the Wikipedia summary of the plot. It somehow makes even less sense when seeing someone try and lay it all out in eight lengthy paragraphs.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

Bump. One, for the film. Two, for the backstory.

[CaptainAmazing 127]

In another thread I did a list of the kind of movies that REALLY work for this podcast. This one is the kind that was meant to be a major blockbuster because it was a bad ripoff of a way more successful film. See also: Mac & Me, Beautiful Creatures.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Poor Gabriel Byrnes. He's so much better than this movie, and his performance gives the impression that he's well aware of this.

I'm glad Hereditary released to such acclaim, everyone in that movie did a fucking brilliant job. I really liked his performance in particular.

 

It really is amazing that someone watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and thought this was a logical direction to head in to match that success.

[DannytheWall 196]

 

I was thinking about all kinds of animated features for HDTGM, but this live action/animation mix would top the entire list. Legitimately a train wreck that is equal parts fascinating and repellant. Good fodder for Jason's humor, but I doubt June would be on board. I can understand if we all must want to just forget this movie ever happened and maybe it will cease to exist accordingly.   

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I feel like they should have just reached a point where they just gave up and decided to make this into a FMV game instead. 

 

 

 

 

[CPiz 232]

Advocating for this one again. I will not give up.

Cartoon-human Bone Zone.

This film had a Hollywood sign promo. 

 

[SalsaSharky 1]

@CPiz I just posted a request for the director's "follow up" Cool and The Crazy. "John," June & Jason need to do a Bakshi two-fer.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I really dont understand the practice of buying a script and then hiring people to chainsaw it into something else. If theyre going to do something shady anyways why not just hire to moron writers to write whatever watered down version and make it different enough from Bakshi's to avoid the legal hassle. They clearly didnt a give shit about his concept for the movie so why go through all the nonsense of pretending to want to make a movie they didnt want to make. 

[SlidePocket 707]

Next week!