Cool World (1992) Second Chance Review

This is another entry in my Second Chance Review series. This is where I revisit movies I reviewed years ago and see whether time, perspective, or maturity has changed my opinion. Sometimes it does. Sometimes… not even a little.

This time around, I’m looking at 1992’s Cool World, directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt. I watched the Shout! Select Blu-ray for this review.

The first time I saw Cool World was back in 1998, at the insistence of my then-girlfriend. We were in that phase of a relationship where you trade favorite movies. I showed her a bunch of mine. She showed me Cool World. In hindsight, that probably should’ve been a warning sign, but I was young and stupid.

For anyone unfamiliar, Cool World throws a live-action Brad Pitt into a surreal animated universe and makes him a cop whose job is to police the boundary between humans (“noids”) and cartoon characters (“doodles”). The big rule is simple: noids and doodles are not supposed to have sex. Ever. Because if they do, very bad things will happen to both realities.

Naturally, that rule gets tested immediately when the creator of the Cool World comic, Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne), crosses into his own creation and becomes obsessed with Holli Would—yes, H-O-L-L-I Would. Very subtle. He wants to hook up with her, and it’s Pitt’s job to stop him before reality collapses.

Back in my original review, I wrote—and I’m quoting myself here:

“There are bad movies that are bad because they’re simply flawed. And then there are bad movies that seem to go out of their way to be agonizingly awful. Cool World seems to be the latter.”

After re-watching the film in 2026, I can confidently say that assessment still holds up almost word for word.

The technical problems alone are staggering. The interaction between live-action actors and animated characters is awful. Brad Pitt and Gabriel Byrne constantly look past the doodles they’re supposed to be talking to, completely shattering the illusion that they’re sharing the same space. Once that illusion is gone, the entire movie collapses because that illusion is the whole point.

But honestly, that’s not even the worst part.

The plot makes absolutely no sense. The movie never establishes clear rules for how the cartoon world works or why people can move between realities. There’s some vague talk about spikes and energy and destiny, but none of it coheres into anything meaningful. It looks bad, it sounds bad, and you don’t care about the story making the entire experience a chore.

There are occasional inspired moments buried in here, but they’re drowned out by nonstop visual noise. Every scene is overloaded with irrelevant background animation—cartoon characters marching along the bottom of the frame, bashing each other over the head for no reason. Constant movement doesn’t equal energy, and here it just feels exhausting.

Watching Cool World feels like having a seizure while someone scratches a chalkboard for 101 minutes.

This film was supposed to mark Ralph Bakshi’s return to feature filmmaking after Fire and Ice in 1983. Bakshi is a well-regarded filmmaker with a distinctive voice, but this is absolutely not one of his successes. From everything we know, the studio heavily interfered with the original concept, which was reportedly much darker and closer to horror. I’m not laying all the blame at Bakshi’s feet—but regardless of who’s responsible, the end result is a mess.

I’d genuinely be curious to see Bakshi’s original vision, just to know whether a good movie was ever hiding in here. But without that, all I can judge is what’s on screen—and what’s on screen is terrible.

I gave Cool World a 1/2 star out of five in 1998. I’m giving it 1/2 star out of five again in 2026.

Nothing has changed. Stay away from this movie.