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Whistle Stopper - Cowboy Bebop - The Movie
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List Price: $19.94
Our Price: $9.46
Your Save: $ 10.48 ( 53% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Aoi Tada, Gara Takashima, Norio Wakamoto, Miki Nagasawa, Tsutomu Tareki
Directed By: Shinichirô Watanabe, Hiroyuki Okiura
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9780767894647
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 0767894642
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2003-06-24
Running Time: 114
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not just a cartoon, a new genre itself
Comment: A spacecraft making a crash landing on a highway bridge, a taxi screeching to a stop and the pilot jumping out to say, "Yo, taxi!" symbolizes the situation humor in Cowboy Bebop. This movie, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (as titled in Japan) is set between episodes 22 and 23 of the TV series.
Bebop is the animated tale of 27-year-old Spike Spiegel, a slick Martial Artist and shooting ace estranged from the mafia, and his comrades: Jet Black, a 36-year-old former cop, Faye Valentine, a 23-year-old gambler on the run from her debts, Edward, a 13-year-old girl hacking genius, and Ein, a Welsh Corgi dog that was given above-average intelligence in lab experiments.
The setting of the movie is Mars in the year 2071. Mars, along with the other planets in the solar system, has been terra-formed into an Earth-like planet after a cosmic accident forced a mass emigration from Earth to other planets in the system. Smoking, Jazz and Cup Ramen still exist, while space travel blurs the distinction between living in space and living planet-side.
This ragtag bunch of "cowboys," or bounty hunters, travel the solar system in a spacecraft carrier ship, the Bebop, taking on often near-fatal missions to locate and apprehend dangerous "bounty heads" as they struggle to stay fed and keep their ships in good repair.
The antagonist, a former subject of military experiments which they all seek to find and stop, is bent on the destruction of human life on Mars through a nanovirus plague. A test vaccine made him immune, but also gave him amnesia and dreamlike hallucinations.
In Bebop, story and music are always linked. The movie is named after Bob Dylan's song. Yoko Kanno, a prolific composer of game and anime music, wrote the soundtrack for both the TV series and the movie. The TV series is mostly set to bebop, while the movie takes a rock beat.
Anime, the style of animation that director Watanabe Shinichirou chose for both the TV series and movie, is made up of stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence and sex. Some may say this is "just a cartoon," but with the violence, dirty words and bad habits of the characters, this is definitely not a cartoon for kids. For the mature viewer, intelligence put into the script, imagination into the art and virtuosity set to playing the music, transforms that classification into, to borrow a line, "a new genre itself."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Anime, Better If Your A Fan
Comment: Just like the series, this is a very stylish movie. The action is good and the story is just as good.
If you have never watched the series you will still enjoy this movie, but as with all movie lead offs, you will enjoy the characters that much more if you have watched the series.
The music is great. I actually want the soundtrack for this movie.
Definitely a fun ride. Get the popcorn out and sit with some friends to enjoy this one.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Nifty
Comment: I had heard about this from a friend and really enjoyed the animation and the story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A movie for Bebop fans
Comment: Some people might get it and some people won't, which by the way has an official title (Knockin' on Heaven's Door). This movie definitely caters to a certain sophisticated kind of science fiction. In a way I think the movie is a bit imbalanced in regards to settings and soundtrack, but the story is rock solid. Keep in mind this is anime and this movie is done in a very Japanese way. Cinematic Japanese techniques I mean... not your standard anime clichés.
What I mean by Japanese cinema is certain things are done to draw you in the movie like for instance scenes having a lack of any background music when you would usually hear some or more attention to details such as day-to-day life. These techniques really help draw you in the world the movie sets out to create. American films are sorely lacking in these kinds of theater experiences. Fortunately Cowboy Bebop isn't. It's not an action movie, but when the few action scenes do come on get ready to be blown away.
You are really drawn into the settings. I really like that in a movie. The only problem is the Bebop universe is a bit dual natured... a little too dual natured for my tastes. You start the movie flying in from space with some really whiz tech and everything. Then when you hit the planet everything is as if you're in almost modern-day time. Pretty much the only time you see anything sci-fi looking is when the airplanes come out, which by the way is not only cool ships but some of the most exciting scenes in the movie.
I have to tilt my head in confusion over the soundtrack. The first part of the movie has some trendy rock music going, which isn't all that impressive for the movie if you ask me. It just didn't fit right. However there are scenes that have your classic Bebop frenzied jazz. Now that's a better fit!
I can't really say this movie is just for the Cowboy Bebop fan, as it seems to have enough background information to keep the new viewers from being left out. If you like being drawn into a movie, with all of its sights and sounds, then you find such a movie here. If you action buffs and be patient enough the movie will aim to please you too. I will admit this movie is not for every sci-fi fan, but it's worth watching for the experience.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bebop - underwhelming
Comment: After renting this (I was so glad I didn't buy it) I thought: "Nan-dai?!" This movie smelled like a bloated episode, and the ending of an invincible villain who finally became "vincible" was way too slick for me. Yeah, it had an assortment of characters, but they didn't relate to each other, and they all seemed to be "free agents" out to make a quick buck. It just seemed determined to mix as many themes as possible: Middle Eastern; Western; babes; Blade Runner; etc. Barf, barf,
Give me Fifth Element any day.
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Editorial Reviews:
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As the eagerly awaited Cowboy Bebop feature film reunites the original director, screenwriter, composer, and vocal cast, it's not surprising that the film plays like an expanded TV episode. What should be the routine capture of a two-bit hacker by Faye escalates into a deadly game of cat and mouse, as Spike and the gang struggle to prevent the evil Vincent Volaju from murdering every human on Mars. Director Shinichiro Watanabe handles the action sequences with his usual panache. Inside the sinister Cherious Medical research facility, Spike fights a beautiful agent, using a push broom in a series of maneuvers Jackie Chan might envy. The climactic duel between Spike and Vincent plays against innocent yet eerie images of a Halloween carnival, recalling the amusement park setting of episode 20, "Pierrot Le Fou." Knockin' on Heaven's Door will delight fans of the series and provide an excellent introduction for the uninitiated who want to know why Cowboy Bebop is so popular on both sides of the Pacific. (Rated R: violence, brief nudity, minor profanity, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
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