YMMV / Cool World

• Animation Age Ghetto: An attempted aversion, which failed thanks to Executive Meddling. The film was still fairly adult like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but some critics argued it should've embraced its adult nature more than it did and that it was held back by the PG-13 rating.
• Ass Pull: At the end of the movie, we learn that if a Noid is killed by a Doodle, then the Noid is reborn as a Doodle. This happens to Frank when Holli kills him. This was never established or even alluded to at any earlier point in the film. It's kind of compounded by how Jack's also transformed into a Doodle, but that just...kind of happens spontaneously.
• Awesome Art: While not to the level of Roger Rabbit, most people agree that the smooth and fluid animation and the imaginative and highly detailed background art are among the film's few positives.
• Awesome Music: Say what you will about the rest of the film, but the soundtrack is very cool.
  • The theme song by David Bowie (might be somewhat divisive among Bowie fans though, largely due to its nature as a predecessor to the style of the divisive Black Tie White Noise).
  • "Next is the E (Long Arms Mix)" by Moby
  • "Play with Me" by Thompson Twins
  • "Sex on Wheelz"
  • "Mindless"
  • "Disappointed" by Electronic, featuring vocals by Neil Tennant.
  • The Devil Does Drugs My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: The main thing most people remember about the movie is Holli Would (and Lonette).
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: A huge chunk of the movie consists of various toons just doing random slapstick for no reason other than that it's there. This is because Bakshi told his animators to do whatever they wanted with the animation in the background.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Holli Would and Jessica Rabbit pairings are very popular on the internet.
  • On the fanvid front, shipping Holli with Thumbelina from the Bluth film is common due to the heavy contrast between the characters.
• Cult Classic: Like just about every other Ralph Bakshi movie, this film has gained a cult following, albeit a smaller one due to the film's infamy.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Both Holli and Jack get this to varying degrees.
  • Holli Would. She is a knowingly attractive woman and acts like a wide-eyed innocent wanting to see the Noid world (ours) out of curiosity like a fairy tale princess and truly caring for Jack. This ignores her true personality of a bratty woman child used to having her own way, being a seductress who is implied to have lured several men over heavily implied decades before tossing them aside- with Jack being the latest pawn to get to the real world, her desires being for selfish indulgent pleasures, and is both a murderous sociopath and hedonist willing to screw over reality in order to get enjoyment- not caring for the consequences and in fact, is annoyed with being with Jack in the end.
  • Jack Deebs. He's depicted as a hapless pawn who is manipulated by Holli (by the fans that condemn her actions) and is a socially awkward man that mistakenly falls for Holli. This tends to ignore how he was a slightly insane murderer who killed a man for sleeping with his wife and his attraction to Holli is just as selfish as hers- being attracted to her physical features due to primal lust. He's only less awful than her in the fact even he wouldn't deliberately screw over reality just out of hedonistic enjoyment and in fact, tries to stop her from making things worse.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Even those that dislike the movie have dubbed Nails the best character.
  • Lonette has quite a sizeable following herself. Being a total knockout who while definitely sultry at times is nonetheless a Nice Girl loyal to her boyfriend certainly helps.
• Evil Is Cool: Holli Would. She is a surprisingly effective seductress with an elegant air, getting her goals with ease, and nearly undoing reality to suit her desires. Being very attractive doesn't hurt matters at all.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Ralph Bakshi originally saw this as an erotic horror film about a cartoonist who has sex with his creation, resulting in a half-human hybrid. His daughter, believing herself to be a freak, decides to take revenge on her father and his universe. Many fans feel that this could have made for a better or at least more creative and interesting film. Sadly, the film was infamously screwed over by the studio, resulting in the film we got.
• She Can Really Act: Candi Milo as Lonette gives a surprising amount of emotional drama and emotional depth of not being able to engage with her lover to what is essentially a Satellite Love Interest to Frank, creating a believable romance between the two in spite of their short screentime. It's due to this and her versatile range, going from Lonette to madcap characters like Bob and the random assortment of Doodles that led to her gaining the most success out of any actor involved in the movie.
  • To a lesser extent, Kim Basinger. She's deliberately awkward and stilted as a human because it's not what she's supposed to be in the first place, with the acting reflecting it; as the Doodle Holli, she plays the role as both a subtle seductive manipulator and switch it on the dime to being a bratty spoiled bat.
• Moe: Nails is a sweetheart and a Friendly Neighborhood Spider who is much tamer and well-mannered than the deranged psychopaths that comprise Cool World.
• Moral Event Horizon: The moment Holli kills Frank, it becomes clear that she's not going to get a happy ending, and that she doesn't deserve one.
• One-Scene Wonder: The unnamed bunny that is seen gambling has only appeared in one scene, where he is seen gambling with Holli's goons, but one of them cheats and gives him snake eyes. He later talks to the police by telling them to chase after them. He is last seen saying that "He won" and a giant bag of money lands on him.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Frank and his mom are a little too affectionate.
• Signature Scene: Holli dancing, for obvious reasons.
• So Okay, It's Average: If you're more forgiving of the more abundant flaws brought on by Paramount not letting Bakshi make the movie he originally wanted to, the film is generally mediocre with a few really good ideas that could have been better executed.
• Special Effects Failure: For how gorgeous the actual animation is, it doesn't really mesh well with the live-action. Most of the animated characters lack shadows and highlights, which makes it look more like they were just slapped onto live-action footage with no composition. ^note This has always been a stable of Bakshi's films, but those films, in particular, were made independently with low budgets, unlike this movie. Combine that with sets that are literally just cardboard cutouts.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: It doesn't help that this was released only four years after Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Bakshi even said it wasn't an inspiration, but Paramount probably only bought his script because they wanted a slice of that movie's pie). The two movies are quite different in the story but do share some striking similarities, including a noir setting and an animated Impossible Hourglass Figure woman in a lead role.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The basic premise of an animated-universe femme fatale seducing a human to escape into the real world could have made a good movie if the script had been better written and had a better idea about the tone and atmosphere of the story.
  • Despite/Because of how much of an abysmal failure this movie was, it raised a lot of questions that were never answered, the aforementioned Ass Pull and knowing the Executive Meddling, would've unleashed a pack of Voodoo Sharks to rival the end's onslaught of toons if given a sequel. We never know why/how Frank and Lonette hooked up other than an obligatory love interest/Pet the Dog, how many guys have been to Cool World since (or even before) Frank arrived since he implied Holli brings men in often, we don't know how often the above Ass Pull has been pulled (or if this explains Lonette's sanity, which just leads to a possible Voodoo Shark, itself,) why/how did the Sex Signals Death Rule come about when Holli and Lonette seem to be the only doable women in all of Cool World and... basically better explanations and more compelling stories brought about by fanfiction writers than those of the writers for the movie itself.
  • There is a brief mention at the end when Lonette says something like, "Do you remember all of those people who get killed by Doodles? They become Doodles themselves", which indicates that it happens rather frequently. But still...
• Ugly Cute: Nails the Spider. Look him up on DeviantArt, and see how many pictures people draw him this way. Being voiced by Charlie Adler also doesn't hurt.
• Uncanny Valley: In spite of already being Darker and Edgier than Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it still has characters that have zany designs. However, it also has very surreal designs that border on being too realistic.
  • The sketch-drawn monstrosities that randomly appear at times, contrasting the more cartoonish doodies. The worst offenders are Holli's doorknob which always pulls its skull outwards when he speaks and the horrors summoned when the Spike is released.
  • Holli is normally conventionally attractive as both a Doodle and live-action, but her spasms into a clown woman give her an unnatural look. Her appearance just before knocking off Frank to his death is a blend of hyper-realism and cartoonish exaggeration that looks unnaturally off.
• Uncertain Audience: Bakshi's original film was a horror film, which was rewritten behind his back into an adventure comedy, one he clearly didn't want to direct nor was he the right person to direct it. Given Bakshi's own humor being more adult and a script rewritten so quickly, the end result is a movie that is a jumbled mess of plot holes and inconsistent tone- going from slapstick comedy to a darker story about lust, insanity, and depression complete with nightmarish imagery.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: The grey bunny seen gambling with Holli's goons appears to look like a male bunny but is voiced by a female, complete with eyelashes.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Some people have managed to mistake this for a Roger Rabbit sequel. Boy, they were in for a surprise. Also happened in-studio, as according to Bakshi, "Kim Basinger had meetings with the producer and me, and thought it would be great – halfway through the picture – if she would be able to show this picture in hospitals to sick children... I'm dead serious." It is also listed on Netflix under the Comedy category.
• The Woobie: You've gotta feel sorry for Nails sometimes. He tries really hard but always seems to mess up. When he tries to stop Holli, he gets captured for his trouble and when he is freed, he finds his partner that went to save him is murdered by the same criminal. Jack does come back as a Doodle, which makes things better.

---