Review: Cowboy Bebop

Fans of the excellent Cowboy Bebop anime series have been eagerly awaiting the movie, released on Friday in major U.S. cities. The critics seem to like it overall, and, skimming through the reviews, the ones who dislike it seem to do so for the usual reason: it's a cartoon.

First impressions: It's quite good, good enough to show even non-anime fans. Visually very pretty, plot is perfectly adequate, entertaining yet moderately deep, it's about all I ask for in an anime movie: it's fun.

The movie is strongly reminiscent of the animated series - if you lengthened and filled out one of the standard episodes, boom, you've got a movie. All of the Bebop crew are present, which would put it, time-wise, roughly in the middle of the series. Each of them plays a significant part in tracking their latest target, a bio-terrorist who plans to unleash an unpleasant plague on the population of Mars, but as in the series, they work side-by-side but not necessarily as a team, rather as a loose affiliation of, err, cowboys. The plot is simple but reasonably compelling. The antagonist's motivations are laid out; I didn't find them particularly sensible, but, ignoring that, the actions of the characters make sense and everything pretty much holds together.

The movie is significantly prettier than the series. Instead of the computer-generated beauty of Spirited Away, there are quite a few exquisitely drawn backgrounds. Most of the action takes place in a city on Mars which bears a strong - very strong - resemblance to modern-day New York City. Shadows are rendered with great care, leading to a number of scenes where the shadows play as much of a part in the scene as the character casting them. Although the rendering of Martian daylight is not, perhaps, very realistic (Mars is going to get a lot less light than Earth, even if it's massively terraformed...), the artists do take the opportunity to show us several beautiful sunset shots. The movie is worth watching for the art alone, IMHO.

Fans of the series will know that it's known for its jazz (or maybe jazz-like is more descriptive) numbers. The movie still has some jazz, but there's a lot more rock, leading to a more fast-paced feel. The soundtrack is quite good without being overpowering and without losing the feel that "made" the series. The voice acting is as good as the series, which is not surprising.

At least two of the showings in the movie theater I saw it in were sold out. I imagine that won't continue, since this is a bit of a niche market and the movie hasn't been advertised at all that I've seen, but perhaps it will be enough to get a wider U.S. distribution for the movie, and Spirited Away picking up an Oscar shouldn't hurt either. It's worth seeing in the theaters, I think, assuming there's one near you. If you've ever wondered what sort of beating Spike can dish out when he's really upset at someone, this movie will answer that question. :)

Comments

Quibble

[LordSpaz]

My only major dislike of the movie was that the two new characters (the villain and the chick associated with him) were a little underdeveloped - they remained a little unclear to me even after the third viewing. The movie had fantastic action scenes, though, far outweighing any in the series, and as the reviewer says, the art was fantastic.

And this is why....

[DisKurzion]

anime will NEVER become mainstream. As much as I would love to see it happen, I KNOW that the american culture is too pompous and ignorant to let it happen.

People have become way too dependent on what critics say about a movie. They go watch what other people tell them they should, possibly because it costs way to much to see a movie. Critics who diss the movie for poor animation and "Speed Racer" style action obviously never went to see the movie, and instead opted to read some online summary and diss what they do not understand.

So ignore (the vast majority of) the critics, and go see what is a GREAT action movie that actually has a plot.

Its just a long epsiode

[baronben]

While I love Bebop, my biggest problem with this movie is that it was just one long episode. It didn't really do anything new or exciting, they just relied on the tried and true Bebop formula, Spike being cooler then Jesus, good fight scenes, good action scenes, and kick ass music (see the movie for the music if anything, Yoko Kanno is a goddess.)

That being said, most anime movies based on TV shows aren't usually that good. Escaflone the movie was fairly bad, and the Eva movies will never, ever, see a US theatrical release. However, Bebop was still a decent movie, and some of the scenes, such as the last fight scenes with the fireworks and butterflies, just demand being scene in a theater.

Where's the anti-cartoon prejudice?

[bfields]

skimming through the reviews, the ones who dislike it seem to do so for the usual reason: it's a cartoon.

Here are some quotes from those critics:

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail:

The dynamic use of the screen frame is exciting compared to the more tame North American animation fare, but it doesn't hold interest by itself. Unfortunately, the storyline -- a mixture of B-movie dialogue, supernaturalism and technological catastrophe -- feels dashed off and puerile.

Jan Stuart, Newsday:

the script wallows in the sort of solemn existential malaise borrowed from film noir that young people who wear black mistake for hip. The dialogue is blockheaded, and it is delivered by a retinue of bland soap opera voices that seem out of joint with their characters. At nearly two hours, this "Cowboy" is a very long and pretentious ride into the sunset.

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Were it replicated, shot for shot, as a live-action film, "Cowboy Bebop" would be just another unpleasant science-fiction thriller, with the usual mix of salaciousness and violent death. The Magritte sky and the laser-like colors will push this into the winning column for some, while others will be put off by a Speed Racer-like lack of detail in the characters' faces and find the animation novelty wearing thin after 10 minutes.

Maybe you could put down the end of that last quote to an "anti-cartoon" bias? But from the paragraph as a whole its clear that the reviewer thinks the animation is actually the only thing that the movie has going for it.

I don't mean to bash the movie. (In fact, I had to read through a lot of positive comments to get to the above quotes. Sounds like it might be a fun movie!) I just question the article's claim that the reviewers disliked the movie just because it's animated. Seems to me that does an injustice to the criticisms raised, criticisms which are actually repeated by a lot of reviewers, and which have less to do with the medium than with the dialog, the story, and the characters.

--Bruce F.

My Impressions

[enderwig]

First off, I would like to disagree with submitter. I don't think the Cowboy Bebop movie is good enough for "non-anime" viewers since it's not even good enough for people not familiar with the series. The movie spends zero time introducing the four main characters. There is no way of knowing why there such a love-hate relationship between Faye and Spike/Jet. And why does Ein know the next move of Go? Or why does Spike have this whole devil-may-care attitude? Viewers of the series or readers of the manga could easily answer those questions. It's a good anime movie, but it is squarely aimed at the fans of the series.

I enjoyed the music from the movie more than the series. I guess it was more blues/rock-n-roll-like than jazz-like.

In addition, I was amazed with the script and the voice talent. This is coming from a Sub-over-dub guy. It appeared that lip syncing software was used, but this is the first time I thought the script did not suffer from it. I only cringed maybe 3 times at a weird sentence or an abnormal pause in the rhythm of speech. The translation was excellent.

I have watched the series as subs and only briefly checked out the dubs on the DVD's. Major kudos goes to Wendee Lee who actually out performs Megumi Hayashibara as Faye. Her performance really made Faye a multi-dimensional character. Also kudos to Melissa Charles for matching the perfection of Ed by Aoi Tada. "Faye-Faye, Stay Away-way." ^_^

I agree with another poster about Vincent and Elektra, very under developed. The series, in just 25-50 minutes, did a much better job of bringing depth to the "villians." Episodes like the 2-part "Jupiter Jazz" or "Pierrot Le Fou" really made you feel for the story's main character.

From what I've read, the time line for movie is between Session #22 and Session #23.

89 out of 100: For the amazing translation and acting performances of Wendee and Melissa. Points off for underdeveloped characters.

Anthony

This jazzy noir style film is simply elegant!

[DJ_Tricks]

I saw this movie for the first time roughly two years ago when it was released as a digital divx fan sub though the wonders of P2P networks. Its amazing animation even in its lower quality format was amazing and beautiful. But seeing the movie now: after the events of 9-11, make it seem more reflective to the current events of the real world. With scenes of a mars after the destruction of earth and every major World monument from the Twin Towers to the Eiffel tower make the terra formed Martian city a place where every man could be.

The voice acting in the English dubbed movie is simply beautiful each character seams to match there Japanese actor counter part perfectly. The director Shinichiro Watanabe amazed me with his directing in the series but his directing of the movie blew me away. The choreography of the martial arts was amazing. Spike perfect use of Jet Kun Do, the style developed by Bruce lee, was beautiful and fluid. While the Special Forces style of martial arts Shotokan is shown for its hard stiff movements but amazing use of power with little effort. Wanatabe has this eye of such things to make you even sit back and thing you were watching two actual people fighting when he directs each scene out.
I am very much looking forward to his take on the new Animatrix film called "Kids story" due out in May for download.

The movie even though dealing with a biological threat makes you sit back and look at why the villain is doing what he is doing. Seeing even in his madness there is this perfect solid calm of reason. One point in the movie that made me laugh that I didn't think I read in the Japanese version was when Vincent "the villain" is in the car with his hacker associate Leo. Leo is talking while playing on an old game saying back in the old days all you needed as 5 buttons and a great game was how hacking back in the day was easy
Then making a reference to how captain crunch hacked the phone systems with a simple whistle at 2600 hertz. I laughed out so hard that half that didn't get the reference in the theater turned. Funning thing was that it was also the first Friday of the month and right after the movie I was going to a dc 2600 meeting.

Over the entire movie was beautiful but what make cowboy bebop what it is, is right in its title the bebop! The series and movie cowboy bebop with its amazing score and music done by the great Japanese "Female" (I not this because she has over 100 shows and movie under her belt and most people think she is a he) Composer Kanno, Yoko was simply spell binding with its 20's/30's big band jazzy fashion. But Miss Kanno took the movie a different direction pulling songs from newer movies such as the opening song from the cheesy 1989 movie "Earth Girls Are Easy" (Jim carry, Damon Waynes, and Jeff Goldblum). But as the action gears up giving a jazzier feel like we usually have from Cowboy Bebop and then adding a twist of an electronic hard house jazzy sound of the more modern variety but still keeping the typical trumpet/snare drum sounds you typically find in jazz.

Sitting during this movie two times now at the Washington DC premiere at Dupont circle was a joy, nay a privilege. As I sat with fellow anime fans it was amazing to see the non anime fans get the jokes they had in the movie just the same as the full blown "otaku" anime fans. The movie at times seems to go on and on but in a way that even if your ass hurts in the seat the movie makes you want to keep watching and not fall asleep because its stylistic art it's simply beautiful in all ways fluid form. Most of my friends who have seen it simply say it's a 2 hour long episode. But that can be is so far from the truth I realize they have no clue what they are saying. This movie was a salute to an amazing anime series and gives its last Farwell leaving us happy to know that seeing it made us smile and look at things with different perspectives.