Spawned from the immensely popular TV series, the Cowboy Bebop film plays like an extended episode of the series. The two-hour film even contributes to the original story a bit, despite presenting itself as a run-of-the-mill shoot-em-up action flick. At first (and second) glance, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie doesn't contain much of anything to make it stand apart from other action movies. Looking deeper, it still doesn't. Then again, the appeal of Cowboy Bebop was never a thing that could easily be reasoned out. Like golden delicious apples, chocolate cake, and Led Zeppelin, I just know I like it. There is no why.

The plot of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is placed (chronologically) somewhere in the middle of the series; after the introductions of the estranged scooby gang, and before the end. The setting is Alba City, Mars, which appears to be a weird mix between an Arabian Desert hood and a bustling modern city. In said modern sector, a tanker explodes and kills a bunch of people, except of course for the mysterious man in black that's standing right next to the ill-fated vehicle. Faye Valentine sees his face clearly with her superhuman vision (which all anime characters posess) despite being a good distance from the wreck. She had been cruising about the city in search for her bounty - a hacker with a fascination for 20th Century video games - when she encountered the man, who was identified later as Vincent Volaju, deceased. When a whole bunch of people in the vicinity of the accident start dying, the government begins to suspect bioterrorism. The catch is: they can't find any traces of the supposed bio-agent in the victims' bodies.

Of course, the bounty-hunting Bebop crew have no interest in all this, until a 300 million woolong bounty is tacked onto Mr. Bioterrorist. A few cigarettes, an explosion or two, and a high-speed chase later, chivalrous cowboy and villain face off for the finish! For casual viewers of the film, that's about all there is to it. Always impressive of course is the stylish and expressive approach to telling the story, which is the Bebop trademark. And as with the series, sometimes it pulls off the artsy approach with good results, and sometimes not. A perfect example of this is a scene where the plight of the evildoer is laid out through two simultaneous conversations: one between Spike and a random Arab man who knows everything, and the other between Mr. Bioterrorist and Faye. The first conversation is easy to absorb and accented well by the visuals. The second is a bit hard to take seriously when the visual accompanyment is Faye lying on the floor all tied up.

Faye spends a good amount of time tied up in this film. The fans should be pleased.	Vincent seeks company with his evil robot pumkins of doom.

I mentioned earlier that the film contributed to the story of the series in a worthwhile way. I should clarify that it's Spike's story that was contributed to, by making the villain exactly like him. Vincent was once the tool of an organization and later escaped. He also had ties to a certain female who appears in the film and was also a part of that organization. This would be a mere coincidence to Spike's circumstances, if not for the fact that their outlooks on life are the same. Just as Spike has unfinished business with his past, Vincent does too. The introduction of Vincent to the Cowboy Bebop timeline serves as a nice reminder of what Spike is headed toward. The unfortunate side effect of making a villain so much like Spike is that none of the other characters get much attention. Faye is present only for fanservice, and her real character isn't given any chances to show itself. Ed and Ein fill their normal role of comic relief, but aren't present enough to make a real impression in the film, with regards to the humor or anything else. Jet was wronged the most, having a role in the film that was neither funny nor meaningful. Elektra, the other new character (who seems to know Vincent and is a member of special forces), also gets few chances to reveal who she is to the audience. These kind of character development issues are fairly standard in feature films, though. Being that the film is all about Spike, it keeps its focus pretty well.

The production of this movie didn't see involvment by every animation company known to man as End of Evangelion did, but was expanded to include BONES, a fairly new studio at the time. Director Shinichirou Watanabe and Sunrise studios (the original production team) also made a comeback, of course. The result is what is to be expected from a film production: cleaner, more fluid animation and better detail and effects. The animation for the film didn't exactly surprise me via innovation, but nevertheless was a solid presentation. Watanabe included a Middle-Eastern setting to further his wish that Cowboy Bebop have international appeal, and it mostly works in a positive way.

On the character design front, there's also little but good things to say. Elekra pulls off a good badass military hottie look, and Vincent is designed with the similarities to Spike in mind, albeit a little more rough in appearance. The character desings of the regular cast weren't changed much, except for a slight upgrade of detail.

Musically, the film contains more of that signature Seatbelts magic that graced the TV series. Yoko Kanno returns as composer and keyboardist, for yet another spectacular soundtrack. Speaking of audio, Columbia Tristar went the extra mile to make sure the film sounded good, by including 5.1 surround sound for both the English and Japanese tracks. The quality of the video transfer was equally impressive. Translation quality was a slightly different story, however. I expect an accurate as possible translation when it comes to subtitles, and was disappointed by how overly liberal or incomplete the subtitle translation was at some points. The translation is good enough for the viewer to know what's going on, but could have been far better. Fans of the series' English dub will be pleased to know that the same cast returned for the movie, and put on a great performance. Those who prefer the Japanese track should be happy with the voice acting as well.

The DVD release of the film by Columbia Tristar is chock full of things that Bebop fans should love. The disc extras begin with a set of short features which cover several aspects of the film, from the characters to music to director Watanabe's ideas for the movie. Several of the show's actors and staff members chip in their own stories in these features. Aside from that, there's a myriad of production artwork, trailers for this and other Columbia Tristar home video releases, a storyboard feature, where you can view certain scenes with the storyboards and finished product side by side, biographies of the Bebop crew, and music videos featuring the songs "Ask DNA" and "Gotta Knock a Little Harder" by the Seatbelts. The one gripe I have with this otherwise fantastic set of extras is that Elektra and Vincent aren't included in the character bios. The disc is presented in what would be a nice little package, if not for the horribly contrasting "SPECIAL EDITION" text over a silver bar at the top of the cover. The rest of the cover is stylish and cool, featuring the cityscape of Alba in the background and Faye, Elektra, and Spike in the foreground. The insert features a list of scene selections, and a picture of Spike, Vincent, and Elektra on the reverse side.

Despite being a simplistic film by nature, there's little not to like about this film edition of Cowboy Bebop. With a terrific cast on both sides of the Pacific, amazing Yoko Kanno (TM) music, and a very expensive, high-value production, it should please fans of the series. Heck, even those who haven't experienced the TV series might like it, but I can find better uses of my time than speculating on things outside my realm of experience. I just know that I like it, but you already knew that.

Distributor: Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Creator: Shinichirou Watanabe / Sunrise / BONES
Released: 2001

Plot: B
Character Design: A-
Animation Quality: A
Music: A
Overall: B+