The Essentials
Name: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Genre: Adventure, Action, Sci-Fi, Detective
Episodes:N/A
Released: September 1, 2001
Based On: Cowboy Bebop TV Series
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Produced By: Sunrise, Bandai Visual, BONES
US Distribution By: Columbia-TriStar/Sony
Major Japanese Cast
Spike Spiegel: Kouichi Yamadera
Jet Black: Unshou Ishizuka
Faye Valentine: Megumi Hayashibara
Edward: Aoi Tada
Electra: Ai Kobayashi
Vincent Volaju: Tsutomu Isobe
Bob: Yutaka Nakano
Rasheed: Mickey Curtis
Lee Sampson: Yuji Ueda
Major English Cast
Spike Spiegel: Steven Jay Blum
Jet Black: John Billingslea
Faye Valentine: Wendee Lee
Edward: Melissa Charles
Electra: Jennifer Hale
Vincent Volaju: Daran Norris
Bob: John Synder
Rasheed: Nicholas Guest
Lee Sampson: Dave Wittenberg
Scores
Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 10/10 (x 1 = 10 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)
Total: 154/180 (85.6%)
Review
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is a movie in which the bounty hunter crew of the Bebop attempt to collect the extraordinarily huge bounty of 300 million on a terrorist suspect after Faye witnesses the terrorist attack and thinks she can identify the man. What follows is a story which is a bit different from the average Bebop episode from the TV series. While most episodes in the TV series were largely action packed or comedy-centered pieces, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie has more of a feel of a detective movie.
The movie does have it’s action scenes as well, and plenty of them, as well as suspense and some hints of romance. However, a good portion of the movie deals with each of the four crew members of the Bebop’s investigation into different aspects of the mystery - from what agent the terrorist used to kill his victims in the terrorist attack, to who the terrorist actually is, why he is doing what he is doing, and what he plans to do next.
I rather felt that the type of stories told in most of the Cowboy Bebop TV series would lend itself better to a movie format, and in my opinion I think I ended up being correct. This movie, if it were watered down into 23 minutes, wouldn’t necessarily be misplaced in the TV series, but it works much better as a movie.
The animation didn’t seem to be all that much improved over the TV series, though there was some improvements. However, I thought the improvements could have been greater considering the movie was released nearly 3 years after the TV series. The music was unexpected in the movie, though still good, with a mix of instrumental pieces and mostly English language vocal songs. Like the TV series, the dub on the movie was excellent.
Overall I would say that the movie is one of the better examples of what Cowboy Bebop could be if given the screen time and writing needed to explore the story instead of being stuck within the continuity and coherence expectations of a TV series. If you enjoyed the TV series, or were intrigued by some of the concepts in the TV series, there’s a good change you’ll like this movie.
First Watched: February 2007
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes
