DVD Reviews

Cool World

So, ya say that 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit was definitely neat but not grown-up enough for you? Now, to have all that awesome animation entwined into a more adult oriented story line, that would make a fantastic flick. Darn it all if 1992's presentation of Cool World isn't just that. That's right, isn't, as in: is not. The story jumps into something else so randomly its as though most of it was left somewhere on a cutting room floor. The animated characters (all portrayed through very second rate animation) are an annoying bustle of senseless activity. It all sums up to a rather disorganized mess. Really too bad.

Picture quality reveals a poorly produced transfer. Better than any VHS copy ever produced but still, with all the benchmark transfers in DVD being done out there, this is just unacceptable. The film print is loaded with grain and fluctuating contrast. Black levels are more of a dark grey. Colours seemed quite bright and well rendered.

Soundtrack offers a great improvement. As this did have a pretty hip soundtrack for its time, the musical accompaniment is reproduced nicely. Surrounds were active effectively, low-level could have been more responsive but still proved acceptable. Vocals seemed a little rough and dated.

A still frame, dead silent main menu has unanimated transitions to still frame, dead silent secondary menus. There you can access nothing, not even a trailer. Yikes, did Paramount completely cheap out on this one.

This really could have been a Cool World but Ralph Bakshi's quality and style of animation hasn't changed since the 70's. It just doesn't hold up with today's standards (or even the 1988's Roger Rabbit standards) by a long shot.

Review By Joey Chill