Cowboy Bebop - The Movie
With the release of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Spike and his band of bounty hunters face high-tech danger in a future world on Mars.
 | You might think at first glance that this is a standard-fare kiddie anime, with cowboy-space heros out shooting down bad guys, maybe with a cuddly animal and dastardly villans in there. But Cowboy Bebop is actually an amazingly complex, literate movie that also entertains very well. |
The animation is fluid but moody - and the "Mars" city seems to be exactly like New York, complete with different ethnic neighborhoods, the twin towers, the Brooklyn Bridge and more. You're just in the future - 2071, to be exact.
Spike is a bounty hunter, a "Cowboy", and is teamed up with 3 other hunters. You have Jet, the ex-cop father figure; Faye, who bounty hunts reluctantly because she wants to do more with her life; and Ed, a dancing, singing girl who loves to hack. This motley crew sets out to find the criminals who intend to unleash a biologic terror and destroy the world.
But this isn't just a get-the-bad-guys chase. Yes, there are car chases, spaceship chases, gunfights and fistfights. There's a good amount of violence. But there are just as many - if not more - quiet, contemplative scenes where the characters talk about the nature of purgatory, the similarities of dreams and realities, the nature of death. There are quotes from Shakespeare and other literature and an interweaving of symbolism and visual artwork that is just amazing.
Highly recommended for several viewings - and if you're under 15, buy a copy of the DVD to watch again after college, when your head is full of classic literature. You might be surprised to see just how much is layered into this simple save-the-world story.
In addition to the great movie, the DVD is also loaded with special features. There's concept art, trailers, and interviews with the character designer about each of the main characters. For example, Toshihiro Kawamoto explains that Spike's image came from the character Yusaku Matsuda from "Tantei Monogatari".
Full Plot Summary of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie DVD Clips
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