"cool world" marked bakshi's return to feature films after nine years. the film was originally pitched as an animated horror film about an underground cartoonist who fathers an illegitimate half-real/half-cartoon daughter, who hates herself for what she is and tries to kill her parents. during production, grais and victor's original screenplay was rewritten by ralph bakshi in collaboration with frank mancuso jr. to change it from an r rated film to pg per studio directive. reviews praised the film's visuals, soundtrack and mostly the animation but criticized the story and characters, as well as the combination of live-action and animation, which some critics felt was unconvincing. the film would eventually gross only half its production budget.