Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

This isn't a terrible movie and if you're a Cowboy Bebop fan I'd say go for it, but don't expect it to be as good as the series. I think the biggest fault with this movie is that it focuses on the wrong things. It take what made the series great and tries to use it again, except by this point that just isn't going to work. Part of the series' charm was the mystery surrounding the characters' backstories and choosing what parts to reveal and what to leave up to the viewer. Heck, the ending is essentially that.The movie, however, does that to an extreme degree. The main villain (it's been a minute so I don't remember his name) is interesting. He has an intriguing motive and personality, though you never fully understand why he's doing it. You don't even really learn much of where he came from. Even the villains of the week from the series got a history. This guy? Not so much. They gave him this interesting characterization and its execution just kind of falls flat for me. He's a bit like Vicious, but it just doesn't work.The Bebop crew isn't the most well-done either. The way they act in the movie and the way they act in the series just doesn't correspond well, and some of their actions don't really make sense. Spike in particular seems a bit out of character. If the movie was more interesting, this wouldn't be a problem. It just gets so boring though. Things happen but there's not enough to really hold the whole thing together. There's long-winded conversations between characters that hardly push the plot and they aren't even all that memorable. It's not all bad though.The animation, fight scenes in particular, has improved. I think they're well done and showcase the action just fine. The final fight between Spike and the villain is one of the best I've seen, even compared to the series. I found that I enjoyed the music as well, though I still prefer the stuff from the series. That's just not enough to warrant a full five stars though. I'm probably being nice with four, but I really did enjoy watching it, however dull some of it was.

Spike Spiegel is no ordinary bounty hunter and this is no ordinary anime movie.I just watched it for the first time in years and right in the middle, just before the amazing sequence on the elevated train, I realized that this is my favorite action movie bar none. Animated or otherwise. This is why I don't go to Mission Impossible movie or the like, because this amazing movie gave me all I ever needed.Just look at the opening credit sequence. What you're seeing is a simple, straightforward portrait of humanity, all done in black and white. The movie takes place on a huge, walled in, terraformed city on Mars, in an age when earth has become a wasteland. Unlike other visionary science fiction movies such as Blade Runner or Brazil, the movie doesn't put us in the middle of a world we've never seen before, but rather into a world where we're supposed to recognize everything. There are reproductions of dozens of great monuments featured, ever crowd scene is a picture of diversity reflecting not only attention to skin tones and facial morphology, but to pop culture trends and symbolism from all the continents.This movie stands just fine on its own, but it does fit into the context of a series which is every bit as important and fascinating. I was so proud when I discovered that you could tell exactly where the movie fits into the tv show's chronology by the fact that (spoiler alert) by the end of the film the button from Faye's top is missing, and in all the later shows of the series she just ties the two sides of the top together.This movie succeeds in so many ways. The art is astounding. It should win awards alone for the sequences shot on Morocco Street. If you've watched a lot of anime, you'll realize that the writing, both in the original Japanese and the English subtitles and audio stream are absolutely top notch, and let us not forget the music. Every time I watch the planes taking off to the song "What planet are you from?"Aficionados of anime may be tempted to think that the animation here is on a tier below, say, Hayao Miyazaki, and certainly the style is different, simpler, in some ways more conventional, and also clearly shot on a much lower budget than Miyazaki has had available to him in the past decades. But just look at the attention to line, the humanity of the crowd scenes, the rich hazy color of the backgrounds, and the attention to detail (note the way the shadow on Spike's cheek ripples during the chase scene with the cops, to indicate the high g-forces—simply astounding) you will realize that this movie stands alongside classics like Spirited Away and Akira at a level of excellence where comparison becomes petty.I believe every aspiring animator and action movie director should watch this movie.

To get the full experience you really need to be familiar with the Cowboy Bebop canon and have watched the Anime series (26 episodes), the film slots into the timeline around episode 22 - 23, that being said, it does not distract from the enjoyment of the movie overall as it stands alone on its own merits and can be watched without prior knowledge of the cowboy bebop universe, highly recommended.

Was supposed to be an English dubbed version but only okayed in a Japanese. Either a faulty disk or a pirate version. Really disappointing, as I bought through Amazon to avoid fake merchandise. No insert inside jewel case either. This is often indicative of a rip off version.

The dub and the sub are on the disc but unfortunetly the person that was responsible for the main menu was a bit sloppy. In order to use subtitles or to listen the dubbed version you have to use the blu ray's menu (while it plays) not the discs main menu and quite a few reviewers were a bit too quick with their review.

This is going to be a review of the case and extra content because I assume that, if you are thinking about buying this show, you've already see it and have decided you liked it enough to purchase the physical copy.The case is nothing special. Holds the disc and has nice artwork, can't ask for much else.There are a lot of extras on the disc. Details that go into each character as well different objects (e.g. the different space ships).This is the best the series has ever looked and is a must buy if the like the show.

This is a decent transfer, but for some reason the default audio track is Japanese. While some may prefer this, they're probably in the minority, as the English dub is absolutely fantastic.