Director Ralph Bakshi looked set to produce an adult version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit with this mix of animation and live action, but somewhere down the line it ran out of steam. Gabriel Byrne is the creator of the comic Cool World, who discovers that his fictional creation actually exists; femme fatale Holli Would (voiced by Kim Basinger) sets out to seduce him so she can become, er, Kim Basinger, and all that stands in her way is Brad Pitt, the human detective of the cartoon world. Although Bakshi has come up with some stunning animated characters, they are not always seamlessly integrated with their live-action counterparts, and the cast hardly looks comfortable with the confusing, unfunny script. For all its adult situations, this isn't a patch on the knowing humour of Roger Rabbit.

While incarcerated for murder, cartoonist Jack Deebs found escape by creating Cool World, a series featuring a voluptuous femme fatale named Holli Would. But the artist becomes a prisoner of his own fantasies when Holli transports Jack into Cool World with a scheme to seduce him and bring herself to life. Hard-boiled detective Frank Harris – the only other human in Cool World – cautions Jack with the law: Noids (humans) don't have sex with doodles (cartoons). However, flesh proves weaker than ink as Holli takes human form in Las Vegas, staring in a trans-universal chase that threatens the destruction of both worlds.