Year:
2001
Studio:
Sunrise/Bones/Bandai
Feature:
4/5
DVD:
3/5
Feature
A terrorist explosion on a busy freeway infects hundreds of people with
a deadly contagion. Doctors are baffled. Earth government is alarmed. A
300 million Moolan bounty is offered for the capture of the
perpetrator. But nobody has any clues at all. Nobody except Faye
Valentine, who saw the terrorist. With her friends -- Spike Spiegel,
Jet Black, and Edward Wong -- she hopes to find the terrorist and claim
the reward.
Cowboy Bebop was an anime series that ran about 22 episodes. In it,
"space cowboys" are a nickname given to bounty hunters that roam the
Sol system. The series focuses on the motley group of the Bebop,
forever short of cash and long on hope of scoring that big bounty that
will make them all rich. It's a remarkable anime series marked by
complex characters and exciting stories.
The movie comes two years later from the same production team and voice
actors. It's a story set towards the end of the series, an epic tale of
one man's quest to find himself by killing all life on Earth. A complex
mystery involving Mars Gov and the military and perhaps something much
more than Spike and company are equipped to handle. And yet they still
go in becase 300 million Moolan is an awfully compelling incentive.
Because this is a movie with more time and budget, the graphics are
truly impressive. The animation is more detailed with more active cels.
The action sequences are longer and more intricate. Even the background
music has actual songs. It's not just the television series on the big
screen, it's a real production in its own right.
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That said, the
only big problem with the movie is that it doesn't try
to work at introducing the characters. They appear and they're there
and new viewers can pick up some things but a long of other things just
happen without explanation. And that was the intention, because the
story was originally designed for the series. It's probably not a big
problem for most people but it could be a bit frustrating to some.
Cast
I'm sure the Japanese voice acting is great, but I hate reading
subtitles. It's nice to have an English audio track and the American
voice actors are very good. And as a special treat we finally get to
see them in the bonus featurettes.
DVD
There are about 30 minutes of bonus featurettes. The subjects are: from
television to movie, Cowboy Bebop's internationa appeal, one featurette
for each of the four main characters on the Bebop. There are some
concept drawing to actual movie comparisons and character sketches,
both of which are uninteresting. The two music videos are merely the
opening and ending sequences without the credits. Some random trailers
are also included.
Recommendations
For fans of the Cowboy Bebop series this is a must see movie. For other
people it's the same recommendation as for the series: it's good
action/ science fiction, regardless of whether or not it's animated. |