Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)

"Well, that's a real shame. But, we're not cops and we're not from some charity organization. Sorry lady, we don't protect or serve. This is strictly business."

One word came to my mind after watching this. Unnecessary.

I have been putting off watching the Cowboy Bebop movie for several years now. I'm a huge fan of the show, but I had heard and read so many mixed or negative reviews of the movie online and from friends, that I was hesitant to see it. In the end, though, I figured that any Cowboy Bebop had to be somewhat worthwhile. That turned out to be partially true, but I still find myself disappointed.

To be blunt, the story was completely uninteresting. Each episode of the series was like a (good) mini-movie on its own, so I don't get why giving the creators more time to develop and tell this story, ended up producing something that wasn't nearly as engaging as any given one of the original episodes. It felt like the decision to make the movie came first, and very little effort was put into making a worthy plot to go along with it.

The new characters are uniformly dull, much of the soundtrack was poor (How did THAT happen? Where's the jazz?), and the film as a whole felt disjointed, at best. I tried as hard as o could to like it all, but the most positive description I can give for my experience is "meh".

I'll admit that it warmed my fanboy heart to see Spike, Faye, and the gang in action again. The animation was very good, and some of the action scenes were top notch. But without the great storytelling that we've all come to expect, I'd recommend this to only the most fervent Cowboy Bebop fan. You'd have much more fun in the same amount of time by just watching four of your favorite episodes of the show. 

Fmovies: Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira(Japan, animated, color, 2001) A.K.A. Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door or Cowboy Bebop: The Movie thanks to Bob Dylan's lawyers and the lackwits at Columbia TriStar Films Cast(French dub): Bruno Muellenaerts(Spike Spiegel) Arnaud Leonard(Vincent Volaju) Stephane Flamand(Edward) Shinichiro Watanabe's 1998 series Cowboy Bebop is considered by many to be a classic of animation on television, oozing style, violence and a great jazz-based score from every pore of it's existence. After a somewhat lengthy absence(long enough for Cartoon Network to release an English dub), the Bebop crew return in this fabulous film(released in North America in 2002 to some quite positive reviews from art house critics) that takes an interesting story and expands it in a way the series couldn't, there's some SERIOUS philosophical depth here, not as much as, say, End Of Evangelion, but enough for your average action flick.

Opening with an insanely cool convenience store robbery sequence(replete with memorable dialogue and a cool "fish-eye" framing technique) and not letting up until it's VERY METAPHORICAL and beautifully animated ending. CB:TNT packs on humor, drama, thrills and DEEP THOUGHT by the crateful. You'll laugh, you'll scream, you'll shout "THAT WAS F**KING COOL!!!!", you'll have the distinct urge to crash a lecture on the human psyche! This movie has it all!

Our protagonists are Spike(lazily voiced by a bored-sounding Muellenaerts), a slacking loser of a bounty hunter who harbors an "interesting" past, Jet(I couldn't find a voice credit for the French dub on IMDb), a ex-cop and master of vegetarian cooking, Faye(same as last note), a problem gambler with amnesia and Edward(given a soulfully bizarre lilt by Flamand), an androgynous female hacker with zero attention span and an unholy amount of flexibility(which she spends most of the film demonstrating). After a search for a local hacker with a five million dollar bounty on his head goes horridly wrong, the gang are left in pursuit of Vincent Volaju(Who Leonard lends an inherent amount of spookiness to), a bioterrorist with a military history who supposedly has been dead for the past three years., and really is!

After close to two hours of comedy, violence and mind-f**k plot developments, the end credits roll and you may wedge your way from the edge of your seat. The film entertains on many a level and will more than certainly please fans of the series as well as newcomers. Despite me having the desire to watch it French, the film is best experienced with the English dub(close to flawless, expect minor characters are wooden and there are a few agitating accents) or the original Japanese(despite the "authenticity", I never enjoyed the Japanese voices for the Bebop crew, except Jet) with subtitles in a language of your choice.

Verdict: 100/100, not be missed by anyone who loves action or anime.

i suspect that one of the reasons that this film has such a high score is because it contains two very important words to many anime fans: 'cowboy bebop'. and thus it gets a lot of 10's. but it is because of its title that i cant give it that high a score.

this is an ok film, better then sum (spriggan) worse than others but the problem is that it is going with one of, if not the, finest series of anime ever. the characters are there but the story and the dialogue were not. and this is a real shame. eye candy is fine but there must be more to it than this, especially when compared to the epic story lines of 'real folk blues'.

its ok, but with 'cowboy bebop' that just isnt good enough.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie fmovies. Watching Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is kind of like reconnecting with an old friend. He's got the same sense of humor, the same style and you recognize him, but at the same time, he's matured. Perhaps he's grown sleeker, taken advantage of improved technologies, or perhaps gotten a little wide around the belly.

Everything's back in Cowboy Bebop the movie. Because of the characters and plot as we know it, the movie probably occurs somewhere in the late teen episodes or early twenties episodes of the series, which has a positive and a negative effect. If you've already watched the series, then certain things don't surprise you since you know what happens to the characters later. Furthermore, because this was produced after the series, it also doesn't get to tangle with the central storyline of the series (they mythology), where the series, which was excellent even in the anthology episodes, really shined. On the plus side, it hits where we're most familiar with the series, before things get super serious and with the characters in the state that they spent most of the series.

The story deals with a bioterror threat and the Cowboys get caught up in it, while trying to nab bounties to make a little change while in an urban city. There is no space travel or dogfights in space, but The Movie does take efforts to include a little of everything that the series has had (minus the mythos), so expect to see martial arts, gunplay, dogfights (but not in space), goofing off, hungry characters, Ed being silly and such.

Unfortunately, the story only lives up to the high standard of a stand-alone episode of Cowboy Bebop, but despite the fact that The Movie is considerably longer than an episode, it all flows along smoothly and feels like you just watched a good two-parter rather than an episode that's been dragged out. Nonetheless, since we hardly get into the Cowboy characters, the story doesn't have the same resonance of the stronger episodes in the series. Instead we get to go deeper into a pair of characters for the movie, who have somewhat interesting stories, but aren't strong enough to really carry the emotional heft of the film since they aren't the protagonists.

The art, on the other hand, is still gorgeous and the movie benefits from the widescreen aspect ratio as well as what appears to be an improved budget for the animation, as everything, from backgrounds to characters, are treated with a wonderful level of detail. There are a few scenes involving butterflies that are absolutely beautiful to look at. Furthermore, the sound benefits from a great surround sound mix, adding directionality and heft to the soundtrack. Finally, the score by Yoko Kanno is delicious to listen to and perfectly brings you back into the series while presenting some absolutely stunning new songs in the mix as well.

Overall, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is a fun ride. Although, in the end, it's not as strong (story-wise) as the more compelling episodes of the series, the art, the sound, the music and just getting to spend a little more time again with characters you've come to know and love makes this a thoroughly enjoyable film. Recommended for Cowboy Bebop fans--but you must watch at least most of the series before watching this. 8/10.

This movie was so perfect that it was almost too good to be true. If you are a fan of the Anime, you will LOVE this series. The Anime is without a doubt, the greatest animated series of all time. Everything else is far inferior compared to the greatness that is Cowboy BeBop. So I remember seeing this movie months ago and I set my expectations low because I didn't want to be that disappointed. Boy was I amazed at what I saw! I loved every bit, every aspect of this film. Once again, the Great Watanabe ,Nobumoto and co. have amazed the world of Otaku lovers with this work of sheer brilliance. Amazing production, amazing quality and I just love these people! Oh and I love Bandai, Sotsu, Sunrise. The music in this was astounding, as expected from the super-talented Yoko Kanno. She is in her own domain of musical excellence. The tracks were amazing, and contrary to what a previous reviewer has stated, the opener to this movie is so hip, funky and jazzy that you will want a copy of it and all the other amazing tracks featured in this film. The entire crew did an amazing job! The main characters that we all love, were treated with grace, dignity and were all handled beautifully. We were even treated to new characters that revealed themselves to be very deep and realistic. The script was amazing, so humane and real and yet often at times gush of sheer 'poetry'. The action sequences were a treat and are unforgettable. The animation in this is far superior to that of the series and are so groundbreaking that I feel that no hand-to-hand combat scenes or arial fight scenes have EVER been animated with this sort of amazing quality and sheer realism. They are sight to behold. Again, the crew responsible in this did an amazing job! I can't praise the creators of this enough! As far as the plot, everything seems to flow together smoothly and just as the series, at times, is almost 'artsy' in terms of momentum shifts and 'high and low periods' where everything just seems to fit in perfectly and make perfect sense. Folks, this film is a product that far surpasses anything Hollywood has given us in terms of this genre (non-animated even) for the passed 20 years. This far exceeds anything in terms of entertainment for that time period, IMHO. Granted, the characters and source material was so good that nobody could have ultimately 'messed up' a Cowboy BeBop movie. But still, this movie far exceeded mine and others expectations. When you read all these reviews you must realize that they are not all completely wrong. This movie is very very good, at the very least. Now, I see that some of the later reviewers were more critical of this then they were praising of it. Now, that is just silly, IMHO. I think these reviewers were so overanalyzed this thing to death, that they were only looking for what may be the slightest 'wrong thing' in this movie and decided to expound on them in their reviews. Don't take the very critical critics in here too seriously. These people probably have seen this thing 5 times straight and then after the 6th viewing decided one morning that this movie was not as good as they originally thought it was. This movie is so close to perfect that it would take the most anal of critics or the most yuppy of coffee drinking critics to find something even slightly wrong with this work of art. So, in other words, the critical ones on here are reading too into this and think that this is some sort of arthouse project that must contain some sort of hidden message that reveals the 'secret of

This movie combines style, gunplay, a compelling story, deep characters, detailed visuals, and a wonderful jazz score. A+

To be fair though, you must be at least a little familliar with the series to fully appreciate this movie. The series itself is a masterpiece; in my opinion one of the greatest television series of all time. The dub is a cut above most imported anime. Dialogue is often underapreciated in an animated series, so dubbing companies will be indiscreet with selecting voice actors. Bebop's dub, however, is very close to the original script and the voice acting is quite impressive. None of the jokes or subtleties were lost in the translation.