Director Ralph Bakshi returned to feature film animation with Cool World, after a decade-long hiatus during which he focused on painting. Bakshi’s last film before the hiatus, American Pop (see entry), was released in 1981, one year before Hey Good Lookin’ (1982, see entry), which had been shelved for seven years, as noted in a 6 Jul 1992 LAT article. Bakshi’s departure from Hollywood, and subsequent move to Westchester, NY, came after several box-office failures, including the aforementioned films, and while his adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (1978, see entry) had been commercially successful, Bakshi reportedly found the experience of making it uninspiring. Bakshi’s return to animation began with a revival of the television cartoon series Mighty Mouse, aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) television network from 1987 to 1988. Bakshi then got the idea to make an animated horror film, and approached producer Frank Mancuso, Jr., who had produced several films in the Friday the 13th series. Mancuso balked at the idea of an animated horror project, but suggested the idea of a protagonist who could not escape his own creations, thus inspiring the storyline for Cool World.
       A 3 Nov 1990 Screen International brief announced that Paramount Pictures Corp. would finance the picture, in which live action elements would be combined with animation, in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, see entry), whose box-office success was often cited as Paramount’s impetus for putting an estimated $28-$30 million behind Bakshi’s venture. In a 19 Feb 1992 HR news brief, Bakshi was quoted as saying the support from Paramount was the best he had ever had from a studio. The budget and freedom Paramount allowed him resulted in an international team of 180 animators of Bakshi’s choosing, working in his unassuming, cinderblock animation studio in an industrial section of Burbank, CA. A 5 Jul 1992 NYT article stated that Bakshi’s previous highest budget on a film was $4 million.
       A 25 Jan 1991 Screen International item reported that Gabriel Byrne was set to star, and principal photography would soon begin in Las Vegas, NV. While the 6 May 1991 Var listed a start date of 15 Feb 1991, the 25 Feb 1992 HR stated that production began one month later, on 15 Mar 1991. Three weeks of location filming in Las Vegas was followed by six weeks of filming in Los Angeles, CA, on soundstages. Las Vegas locations included the Union Plaza Hotel and Casino, where Kim Basinger’s stunt double performed a stunt on a balcony railing twenty-one stories above the ground, scaling a pole to the roof of the hotel in a miniskirt and high heels.
       Principal photography concluded 19 Apr 1991. Post-production and animation followed at Bakshi’s Burbank studio. In the 6 Jul 1992 LAT, Bakshi’s animation was said to be done “the old-fashioned way,” without computers. For live-action sequences, Bakshi had animation backgrounds enlarged photographically, and pasted onto wood, in lieu of blue screen backgrounds. The director described this choice as both economical and artistic, noting that the illustrated backgrounds gave actors a sense of place within a scene. However, according to production notes in AMPAS library files, some blue screen backgrounds were used, as was rotoscope and a custom updated multi-plane camera that created layers of depth into which the live action and animation elements could be incorporated. The 5 Jul 1992 NYT stated that the film took a total of two-and-a-half years to complete.
       In an interview in the Jul 1992 issue of Pulse! magazine, Bakshi described the premise of Cool World as a metaphor for the AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) epidemic. The conundrum affecting the human (“noid”) characters, who are not allowed to have sex with cartoons (“doodles”), was meant to reflect relationship problems faced by people in the AIDS generation.
       A 9 - 15 Jul 1992 Hollywood Drama-Logue brief stated that the cartoon version of Kim Basinger’s character, “Holli Would,” was actually based on choreographer and music coordinator Jenine Jennings, who performed as Holli Would in rough, live-action sequences to be overlaid by drawings.
       According to a 26 Jun 1992 WSJ article, Paramount’s marketing department began promoting Cool World a year before its release, by announcing Bakshi’s comeback at comic book and science fiction conventions. In Apr 1992, to attract the interest of high school students, the studio also attended the National Scholastic Press Association’s convention. A “Cool Concert Contest” organized by the studio gave out prizes of concert tickets and airfare to any concert in the U.S. of a winner’s choosing, and a sweepstakes tie-in with Barq’s root beer infused the studio’s media budget with $1 million, and lasted five weeks. Paramount collaborated with DC Comics on four prequel comic books, also titled Cool World, and, in its most notable promotion for the film, devised a seventy-five-foot-high corrugated metal cutout of the cartoon version of Holli Would, to be placed atop the “D” on the famed Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles for one week, as noted in the 26 Jun 1992 LAT. The cutout was protested by residents of the Hollywood Hills neighborhood surrounding the sign, who feared it would attract visitors and cause traffic hazards on the windy, residential streets leading up to the sign. When the protestors failed to win a temporary restraining order against the cutout, they applied for a permanent injunction against its erection. On 6 Jul 1992, the day the Holli Would cutout was unveiled, an airplane flew a protest banner reading, “Paramount Not A Good Neighbor,” over the site, as noted in the 7 Jul 1992 LAT. Although the Hollywood Sign had been used for advertising before – once for a soft drink, another time to promote the launch of Twentieth Century Fox’s television network – “honorary mayor of Hollywood” Johnny Grant predicted the city would not allow the sign to be altered again. The Recreation and Parks Department allegedly denied Paramount’s initial request, before the studio made its case as a major employer of Los Angeles residents, and pledged $27,000 to the city, and an additional $27,000 to the Rebuild L.A. project.
       Critical reception was poor. The narrative was frequently criticized as nonsensical, and the 13 Jul 1992 HR review claimed the film was “not raunchy enough” to satisfy Bakshi fans, but too lurid for children. On a positive note, several reviewers praised the animation, and HR singled out Mark Isham’s score as a high point. The film opened 10 Jul 1992 on 1,448 screens, as stated in the 22 Jul 1992 HR. After a disappointing $5.5-million opening weekend, Paramount made the unorthodox decision to discontinue print advertising in all secondary markets, despite a 17 Jul 1992 expansion to 152 more screens. Although many exhibitors were surprised, Loews chairman A. Alan Friedberg was quoted as saying Paramount had made a wise business decision after the film’s negative reviews and bad word-of-mouth. A 1 Sep 1992 LAT article listed Cool World one of 1992’s “most notable flops,” with a cumulative domestic box-office gross, to date, of $14.1 million.
       According to a 29 Apr 1993 DV item, an ironworker fell while dismantling the controversial metal cutout of Holli Would atop the Hollywood Sign, suffering several broken ribs and two herniated discs, after scaffolding supporting the cutout collapsed. The worker sued Paramount Pictures for general and medical damages, but the outcome of the lawsuit could not be determined as of the writing of this Note.
       Stunt person Glenn Scott Wilder's name is misspelled "Glen Scott Wilder" in end credits.