Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003) (AKA
Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira, Knocking on Heaven’s
Door)
I don’t get Anime. I don’t like
Anime. I’m not even sure that “Cowboy Bebop: The Movie”
is Anime. But I do know that even though it has an
interesting story and some really intriguing cinematic
moments, it’s far too long to hold the interest of
the uninitiated. At almost 2 hours, the film becomes
taxing in its final half.
The “Cowboy” in the title refers
to the bounty hunters that act as main characters
in this sci-fi story set some 70 years in the future.
Using spacecraft and hovercraft to navigate a world
that looks much like our own (and by our own, I mean
Japan), young “cowboy” Spike seems to be aided by
his mentor Jett, a female named Faye and some sort
of irritating juvinile named Ed. Ed is a girl we are
informed in a rather homophobic scene. Ed actually
seems more like the amalgamation that occurs when
a human fornicates with a Pokemon. It doesn’t really
matter what Ed is because, more than anything, Ed
is annoying as fuck.
“Cowboy BeBop” runs as a 30 minute
animated show on cable’s “Cartoon Network,” usually
on the block of programs set aside for grown-ups called
“Adult Swim.” This 100 minute plus feature film is
one continuing story and, although it goes on far
too long, it does have some merit as a narrative.
It seems a virus has breaks out after a tanker truck
explodes on a crowded freeway that kills its victims
in a whole new. Figuring out just what the virus is
leads our cowboys to finding out who created it. As
a mystery, it’s pretty standard sci-fi action stuff
(the kind of film you’d expect Schwarzanegger to star
in).
But “Cowboy Bebop” is Matrix-inspired
when it comes to its visual sense. There’s even the
old bullet flying past a head in ultra-slo-mo scene
here. At times the visual palette of the film is astounding.
A scene where two guys watch a movie at a drive-in
is later exposed in a wide-shot as one of the most
futuristic and cool drive-ins (really a fly-in I suppose)
to ever be seen. Some of the animation and imagination
here is simply awesome.
But the film can just as easily
be typical and lame. A scene where Spike goes to jail
seems to go on forever. It doesn’t help matters much
that the animation used here is strictly low-budg
Asian junk. We’ve seen it all a million times before.
There’s a still frame and it is used for over 15 seconds
while dialogue drones on or there’s a still frame
of a face with only animated moving lips carrying
on a conversation for what seems like minutes unending.
Like the animation, the story, and
the characters, the music here can be equally hit
and miss. The score seems to be credited to some outfit
named Seatbelts (perhaps a person named Yoko Kanno)
but I’m not totally sure they (he/she) created all
the songs in the film. For what it’s worth, the only
song that truly struck me as amazing was a Phillip
Glass oriented piece that is used twice in the film.
The first time it underscores a slo-mo gunfight on
an elevated train which accentuates that cinematic
moment to wondrous effect. Just as easily, however,
the music can be typical and rather simplistic sounding
score music. The theme sounds like a sample off of
a Beck song.
I’m not sorry I checked out “Cowboy
Bebop: The Movie.” It’s far superior to most of the
junk that passes as entertaining animation these days.
I just wish a little more effort would have been put
into some of the scenes and perhaps a little bit more
time had been spent editing the film down to a palatable
chunk.
Note:
Directed by Shinichero Watanabe
(who also directed the TV series).
Fans of “Cowboy Bebop” say that
this film fits between episodes 22 and 23 of the series.
The film is also already available
on DVD.
