MovieFreak.com - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Special Edition DVD Review

Mars, 2071. A tanker truck blows up on Highway One and a deadly viral infection is released with the explosion. The Bebop crew - Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Ed - are instantly after the culprit when a reward of W300,000,000 is announced. But the case grows more mysterious as the cold-blooded Vincent Volaju, who supposedly has been dead for ten years, seems to be the prime suspect. Conspiracies and secrets better left alone are uncovered, while Vincent's reign or terror is nowhere near over.

I have never seen the Cowboy Bebop series (26 episodes), but it’s not required. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie works just great on its own. Shinchiro Watanabe (also director of two segments in The Animatrix; "Kid’s Story" and "A Detective Story") directs this feature animation from a script by Keiko Nobumoto.

The synopsis above is fairly linear and doesn’t give much insight into what is really explored in the film, but that’s a good thing because I don’t want to spoil anything. The cool thing about my experience is that I watched the anime feature without knowing anything about the series or the film (I didn’t see the trailer either). After the end credits roll, the only word I can describe Cowboy Bebop with is "cool," and I don’t mean it in a generic sense. However, "smart" is also very fitting. I’ll give you some examples of why these words apply.

First of all, the story is engaging. Its portrayal of the events is quite realistic. The characters, bounty hunters in this case, are interesting to watch and follow on their respective investigative paths (Spike is the most interesting, Vincent is second). The script is also very strong. The events in the film take place between episodes 22 and 23 (for your reference). The English-language dialogue is much more concise and cooler than if you would watch the film with the subtitles. Despite several slow moments (or scenes), most of which take place during the investigation, Cowboy Bebop moves generally fast. That is to say the action is also fast-paced, in addition to being exciting and superbly animated. The animation is fantastic, really. The whole team of animators and animation directors are incredible for the animation here mirrors the look of the real world to a great extent.

All the above elements make for one exciting ride. Cowboy Bebop is my first anime feature experience, which is why I will now seek out more films like this one.

Columbia Tristar presents Cowboy Bebop in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The transfer for this anime flick is nice. Colors are spread out nicely, but color detail is not too consistent. Dark tones are pretty fair, although I noticed a few instances of grain and dirt. There's also a bit of edge enhancement visible. The image quality is decent. Overall, Cowboy Bebop's video presentation is decent, but nowhere near as good as Spirited Away.

Columbia Tristar presents Cowboy Bebop in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. This track is fairly decent. The sound effects make a formidable and constructive impact. Dialog scenes are clear and easy to understand, but they come off a little quiet. Yoko Kanno’s score and the original music make this a fun presentation. Surround usage is not really all that engrossing as the rear speakers remain inactive most of the time. The front speakers emit enough noise, however, to make for a pretty decent presentation.

Of course, Cowboy Bebop is also available in the Original Japanese Theatrical Version soundtrack, plus a French soundtrack.

The Making of Cowboy Bebop – This main attraction of the special edition is divided into six behind-the-scenes chapters. "From the Small Screen to the Big Screen" (4:50) discusses the differences and changes between the series and the Cowboy Bebop big screen update, featuring interviews with director Shinichiro Watanabe, Spike’s Japanese voice talent, English ADR director Mary E. McGlin, and two of the English voice talents (characters Jet and Faye). This featurette and the other five include behind-the-scenes footage and clips of the film side-spliced with some of the interviews.

"International Appeal – What’s Not to Like?" (7:00) examines the appeal of the series in its international and broader sense, but really discusses the characters in a broad spectrum. As with the previous featurette, this one also features interviews with several cast and crew members. "Spike: A Complex Soul" (7:18) reflects on Spike Spiegel’s character traits and design. Watanabe and the character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto explain some of their feelings and choices about and for the main character. Providing backup comments are the Japanese and English voice talents for Spike. As a whole, the information about the character is focused and valid.

"Faye: Intellectual Vixen" (6:35) is basically the same as the one above, except the focus is on Faye. The information here is also focused and descriptive. "Ed: Resident Eccentric" (6:45) reveals that the character originally intended to be a boy and the decision to make Ed a girl came at the very last minute. The information here is not really that interesting, unless you’re really involved with the characters of the show/film. You can probably guess what the featurette "Jet: No Ordinary Dad" (5:00) discusses. All in all, these six featurettes are very well produced and the style in which they are presented is pretty neat and fitting (considering the subtitles required to understand the Japanese cast and crew).

"Storyboard Comparisons" focus on four specific scenes, including Scene 3 (The Virus), Scene 6 (The Moroccan Bazaar), Scene 15 (Ed finds Lee) and Scene 17 (Spike confronts Vincent). There are also "in-depth character profiles" for Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein. The "conceptual art galleries" are broken down to the following, characters, aircrafts, automobiles, monorail and accessories. Rounding out the extras is the film’s Theatrical Trailer plus bonus trailers for Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis, Bad Boys II (teaser), I Spy, Memories, Steam Boy and xXx. On a side note, I think these special features are a bit too thin to warrant a special edition label. Nevertheless, a compact DVD.

You can select to view the film with optional English and French subtitles. The DVD’s main menu is animated to a nice background and tune. All sub-menus include a background still over music. The 115-minute feature is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

Cowboy Bebop is a fun anime feature with lots of action, explosions and intrigue. It’s just a cool and smart experience, featuring top-notch animation. The video quality is pretty good and the audio presentation is fairly decent. The making-of segments are a great addition to the special features, but don’t necessarily warrant a special edition label. All things considered, Cowboy Bebop comes recommended. Highly recommended for fans of anime (consider me one from today).

THE MOVIE	8
THE VIDEO	7
THE AUDIO	7
THE EXTRAS	5
OVERALL (not an average)	7