elenora86 - 2015-08-19 19:44:48

Cowboy bebop the movie it's just great. It has like classic 70s action feel to it. The characters are interesting. Now i have to see the Cowboy bebop anime series!

zoey.rolfson - 2015-05-26 22:55:55

Minor spoilers ahead, my apologies.

While the twenty-six sessions of Cowboy Bebop remain some of the most memorable animated experiences of this reviewer's life, the movie left much to be desired and, in this reviewer's humble opinion, did not fit with the tone of the series.

Ok, let's be honest. The flow of visual effects, from the basic animation to the full-on actions scenes, was just as coordinated and smooth as the Bebop we all know. The detail - consider that this film was released in 2001 - is mesmerizing. But the world seems a little different. Instead of moody, film-noir vignettes, most of the film is set in a section of Mars that feels just like New York City on a summer day (ironically, the music seemed to take more of a rock-and-roll influence rather than jazz). The atmosphere of the original series was one of its major selling points, but Cowboy Bebop: The Movie just doesn't recreate the same feel, or craft a new feel with a strong personality of its own. 

What about the personality of the characters? While the series was also centered on Spike, here he's really the star of the show. Yet so much of the charm about Spike came from his interactions with his fellow crew members, who in this film, have really been relegated to supporting roles. The one interesting point to think about in regard to our puffy-haired protagonist is why he decided to keep fighting the main antagonist, Vincent. What does Spike really find so similar about them? Some sort of ennui, a general carelessness or disdain for the people around them? The superfluous man trope? That's an open-ended question, I guess.

Vincent is a convincing character but by no means one of the more intriguing villains of Bebop. It's cool that he explores the philosophical problem of 庄周梦蝶, or Zhuang Zhou dreams of the Butterfly (am I dreaming of the butterfly or vice versa is a problem that goes back thousands of years). But perhaps I dislike him less for the cliche of former-solider-turned-super-villain but more because he didn't really show us anything we didn't see already. And his epiphany a la Joyce at the end just didn't seem...satisfying. 

There's a pretty cliche idiom in Chinese：画蛇添足, or "adding feet to a snake drawing." Bebop was so-near-perfect on its own, the characters so fleshed out and vivid. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie was enjoyable as an action animation, perhaps, but that's the end of my praise.

Anyway, I'm out. See you Space Cowboy.

jayden39 - 2015-04-12 21:35:41

A great new story in the Cowboy Bebop universe. Basically everything the same as we left it, with new characters, villains, black hacker dude. I swear to god I only cried once and that was at the end. It was the soundtrack that did it, too.

rupert.blanda - 2014-08-12 09:42:06

A good move that nevertheless does not compare to an exemplary television series. 

gardner.gulgowski - 2014-01-28 15:21:28

One of the greatest anime films of all time, great animation, soundtrack, and plot. The film introduce to the Cowboy Bebop Series. A Groundbreaking film a must see for anime fans

anya.herzog - 2013-09-18 02:57:22

Critic's Log: Earthdate - March 21, 2012. Review #2: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

It is the year 2071. Halloween is in a few days and the Bebop crew is searching for bounty to find someone who is releasing a deadly virus. The original creators of the virus send a woman named Electra to find the man responsible for releasing this deadly virus. The fate of Mars rests on the Bebop crew.

That is the gist of the Cowboy Bebop Movie.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (also known in Japan as "Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door") was made by two animation studios, those two being Sunrise and Bones, and boy does the collaboration pay off! The success of Cowboy Bebop led to a feature film that is just as good as the TV show. According to some sources, the events of the movie take place in between Sessions #22 and #23. I guess that makes sense, why would the movie take place after the show.

Beside all the technicalities of this movie, I'll explain what I liked and what I didn't like in the movie. First of all, I really like the animation. It looks better than the show and that is because the movie had a bigger budget than the show, but the animation is eye-candy from beginning to end.

The Bebop crew is still the same old bounty hunters you know; there are two movie exclusive characters that are interesting in this movie in which the two are Electra and Vincent. There is a connection between these two, and I won't spoil the rest of it if you haven't seen the movie.

I also appreciate the soundtrack for being a bit different than the show, Director Shinichiro Wantanabe chose an Arabesque atmosphere for the setting and some of the music because he felt it was alien to him and it was not used much in the show. The music by Yoko Kanno is still... Groovy

As far as voice acting goes (from the U.S. Release’s language tracks), there are 3 versions, the original Japanese version (the subtitled version), the English dub, and the French dub. I am not going to comment on the French dub because I am going to make this clear, I am choosing to only comment on The subtitled version and The English dubbed versions of anime shows and films. Since I reside in the U.S., Animes that are released in the U.S. usually get subtitled versions and English dubbed versions. Some contain French dubbed versions but I chose not to comment on the French dubs. Moving on. The Japanese cast and The English dub Cast are both good on their own. Tsutomu Isobe was chosen to play Vincent and Ai Kobayashi were picked to voice Electra because neither of them had very much experience and they were both pretty good. As far as The English dub goes, Daran Norris' role as Vincent was scary good, and Jennifer Hale's role as Electra was good too. Both the subtitled and the dubbed versions are good. I already mentioned in my review of the TV show about that The subtitled version may be overshadowed by the English dub.

If there is one thing I could complain is that the length of the movie may have been a bit too long in length, this could have been worked as a 2-part episode or even 3, but I guess it's nothing to complain about. Keiko Nobumoto's screenplay is good enough for this movie. It's still a good action flick that can be enjoyed with popcorn.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is available from Sony Pictures and Destination Films or whoever is behind distribution.

With that said, The Cowboy Bebop movie is a really fun film; it has kick-ass action scenes and some amazing animation. It may not be necessary to watch with the show, but it is made for the viewers who liked the show. If you liked Cowboy Bebop, you'll probably like the movie too.

I would give this movie a 10 out of 10 if it was really was connected to the show, but is it necessary to watch the film? Well, that is up to you. if I was rating this movie as a standalone movie, I would rate the movie somewhere along a 8 out of 10, But to be fair, since the show's episodes were treated like short films while The movie is obviously a feature-length film that is part of the Cowboy Bebop series (even though this movie was made after the TV show) I'll give it a proper rating for the most part.

I give Cowboy Bebop: The Movie a 9.5 out of 10... it is EXCELLENT! It's not really a masterpiece compared to the show. But it's still awesome,

Feel free to comment below and ask yourself this one question, are you dreaming?

theodora60 - 2013-08-17 12:08:54

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin` on Heaven`s Door is an amazing movie, it takes every thing good about the show and makes it better. The movie is basically like watching an awesome & 2h long episode of the anime.

The story is pretty much the same, some guy causing trouble, got a big bounty on his head, and our fearless bounty hunters go after him. Just like any other episode.

The animation is even smoother are more beautiful than the series.

The sound is as amazing as ever, with lots of amazing jazz OST, and great voice acting, I don`t think I even need to tell you to watch it dubbed, it`s pretty much universally known, that cowboy bebop should always be seen in Eng dub.

The characters are as cool as ever, with this time having a pretty cool antagonist as well.

I really did enjoy this movie, after the ending of the anime I really needed something more to watch, of course as always my enjoyment has nothing to do with the finally score.

Overall, it`s a great movie, a solid 8, and should definitely been watched, even if you are not interested in the anime, you should watch at least this movie, cause thanks to the episodic feel of cowboy bebop you could basically start it with any episode, or even this movie.

P.S. This movie takes place before episode 24

leffler.brooklyn - 2013-05-18 10:39:36

Meant to take place between episodes 22 and 23 of the series, "Cowboy Bebop - Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is just like an extra long episode of "Cowboy Bebop". It's got the same style, same humour, and even the same underlying melancholic feel. The production somehow manages to look even more expensive than the production of old, with the crisp animation shining through especially, featuring some fluid, breathtaking action sequences that's at least as good as anything in the series.Having the "Cowboy Bebop" tag in front of the movie's title is both a blessing and a curse for the movie. The blessing is that it gets to use the great foundation set by the series. In particular, it's always good to see the colourful characters that make up the crew of the Bebop once more. I've grown so fond of them it's like meeting old friends again - they've not changed a bit. This movie is good in much the same way that the average single episode from the series is good - it's just a really well made action/adventure story.At the same time, it's only natural to start comparing this movie against the series... and this is where it falls considerably short. You see, the series is far greater than the sum of its parts - although each individual episode is very good in its own right, they are rarely spectacular with a few notable exceptions, and this movie ain't one of the exceptions. When you add all the episodes together, then you start seeing what makes "Cowboy Bebop" so brilliant - its variety. When you take this aspect away, the whole idea starts to break down. The "Cowboy Bebop" movie is supposed to feel like a longer story, but instead feels more like a normal length story stretched out to be film length - perhaps this is due to the fact that I've come to expect a certain amount of freshness from the series' constant genre switching, and obviously this freshness is lost when it comes to this movie. Still, most of the essence of "Cowboy Bebop" is still here, and it's enough to make "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" a very good movie in its own right... but it just can't match the enjoyment and addictiveness offered by the series. As the final outing featuring the crew of the Bebop, it felt like a bit of an anti climax because it couldn't quite compare with the grand finale of the series. So I would advise other people to watch this before episode 23 of "Cowboy Bebop" and allow the ending of the series to finish the franchise in style.