Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)

A terrorist explosion releases a deadly virus on the masses, and it's up the bounty-hunting Bebop crew to catch the cold-blooded culprit.

Directors:

Shin'ichirô Watanabe, Tensai Okamura

Writers:

Keiko Nobumoto (screenplay), Hajime Yatate (based on the story by)

Stars:

Beau Billingslea, Melissa Fahn, Nicholas Guest

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Spike Spiegel (voice)
Unshô Ishizuka	...	Jet Black (voice)
Megumi Hayashibara	...	Faye Valentine (voice)
Aoi Tada	...	Edward Wong (voice)
Yûsaku Yara	...	Hoffman (voice)
Kazuhiko Inoue	...	Shadkins (voice)
Jûrôta Kosugi	...	Harris (voice)
Kinryû Arimoto	...	Captain (voice)
Hidekatsu Shibata	...	Colonel (voice)
Yûji Ueda	...	Lee (voice)
Nobuo Tobita	...	Murata (voice)
Rikiya Koyama	...	Steve (voice)
Ai Kobayashi	...	Elektra Ovirowa (voice)
Jin Hirao	...	Antonio (voice)
Toshihiko Nakajima	...	Carlos (voice)

Storyline

The year is 2071. Following a terrorist bombing, a deadly virus is released on the populace of Mars and the government has issued a 300 million woo-long reward, the largest bounty in history, for the capture of whoever is behind it. The bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Bebop; Spike, Faye, Jet and Ed, take the case with hopes of cashing in the bounty. However, the mystery surrounding the man responsible, Vincent, goes deeper than they ever imagined, and they aren't the only ones hunting him. The original creators of the virus have dispatched Electra to deal with Vincent and take out anyone who may stumble on the truth behind him. As the hunt for the man with no past and no future continues to escalate, they begin to question what about the world is reality and what is a dream as the line between sanity and insanity becomes more apparent.

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Plot Keywords:

based on manga | terrorist | explosion | neo noir | based on tv series | 

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Taglines:

Are you living in the real world?

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is set close to 2071. This means the Dr.I Dreidecker seen towards the end is over 150 years old.

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Goofs

Numerous grammatical and spelling errors on computer screens (this was a loose translation by the Japanese crew).

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Quotes

Spike: It's just that he was all alone. Always by himself. Never anyone to share the game. A man who lived in dreams, that's who he was.

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Crazy Credits

As the credits roll we see Aruba City during the rain and several of the characters from the film.

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Alternate Versions

Some DVD versions have the textless opening and ending credits. The opening credits completely fill the television image instead of only about half the image.

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Connections

Referenced in Chris Stuckmann Hilariocity Reviews: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (2014)

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Soundtracks

Musawe
Vocals by Hassan Bohmide
Music Composed by Yôko Kanno

User Reviews

The Greatest Anime Movie Ever for the Greatest Anime Series Ever.

This movie was so perfect that it was almost too good to be true. If you are a fan of the Anime, you will LOVE this series. The Anime is without a doubt, the greatest animated series of all time. Everything else is far inferior compared to the greatness that is Cowboy BeBop. So I remember seeing this movie months ago and I set my expectations low because I didn't want to be that disappointed. Boy was I amazed at what I saw! I loved every bit, every aspect of this film. Once again, the Great Watanabe ,Nobumoto and co. have amazed the world of Otaku lovers with this work of sheer brilliance. Amazing production, amazing quality and I just love these people! Oh and I love Bandai, Sotsu, Sunrise. The music in this was astounding, as expected from the super-talented Yoko Kanno. She is in her own domain of musical excellence. The tracks were amazing, and contrary to what a previous reviewer has stated, the opener to this movie is so hip, funky and jazzy that you will want a copy of it and all the other amazing tracks featured in this film. The entire crew did an amazing job! The main characters that we all love, were treated with grace, dignity and were all handled beautifully. We were even treated to new characters that revealed themselves to be very deep and realistic. The script was amazing, so humane and real and yet often at times gush of sheer 'poetry'. The action sequences were a treat and are unforgettable. The animation in this is far superior to that of the series and are so groundbreaking that I feel that no hand-to-hand combat scenes or arial fight scenes have EVER been animated with this sort of amazing quality and sheer realism. They are sight to behold. Again, the crew responsible in this did an amazing job! I can't praise the creators of this enough! As far as the plot, everything seems to flow together smoothly and just as the series, at times, is almost 'artsy' in terms of momentum shifts and 'high and low periods' where everything just seems to fit in perfectly and make perfect sense. Folks, this film is a product that far surpasses anything Hollywood has given us in terms of this genre (non-animated even) for the passed 20 years. This far exceeds anything in terms of entertainment for that time period, IMHO. Granted, the characters and source material was so good that nobody could have ultimately 'messed up' a Cowboy BeBop movie. But still, this movie far exceeded mine and others expectations. When you read all these reviews you must realize that they are not all completely wrong. This movie is very very good, at the very least. Now, I see that some of the later reviewers were more critical of this then they were praising of it. Now, that is just silly, IMHO. I think these reviewers were so overanalyzed this thing to death, that they were only looking for what may be the slightest 'wrong thing' in this movie and decided to expound on them in their reviews. Don't take the very critical critics in here too seriously. These people probably have seen this thing 5 times straight and then after the 6th viewing decided one morning that this movie was not as good as they originally thought it was. This movie is so close to perfect that it would take the most anal of critics or the most yuppy of coffee drinking critics to find something even slightly wrong with this work of art. So, in other words, the critical ones on here are reading too into this and think that this is some sort of arthouse project that must contain some sort of hidden message that reveals the 'secret of life' or something.

In conclusion, if you are true BeBop fan, you will absolutely LOVE this movie to no end! If you are not a BeBop fan (as if those even exist) but love anime, you will still find this movie to be utterly amazing. If you do not appreciate any animated films whatsoever, you will still find this movie to be the 'exception' for it will be far superior to anything you have ever seen in years (non-animated wise). This movie was excellent in every aspect and is truly memorable in every way.

Bottom line, see this movie and prepare to be entertained.

Details

Official Sites:

BONES [Japan] Funimation Films [United States]

Country:

Japan USA

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

16 May 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heavens Door

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$234,429, 6 April 2003

Gross USA:

$1,000,045

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,007,903

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company, Bones, Destination Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1