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Cowboy Bebop's maiden voyage to the big screen is a rousing success of anime action, style, and jazz -- much in the tradition of what made the original television show so popular. Occurring between Episodes 22 and 23 in the series, The Movie finds Bebop's crew of misfit bounty hunters attempting to halt a former soldier's plot to destroy the population of Mars with high-tech bio-weapons. The movie essentially plays as an extended episode of the show -- character introductions are even dispensed with, making the whole experience a bit more for insiders. At first it seems that director Shinichiro Watanabe isn't taking advantage of the grander movie format to reach a wider audience or expand on the series' soap opera story line involving bounty hunter Spike, archenemy Vicious, and love interest Julia. But as the film progresses, Watanabe focuses on the series' underlying philosophy and expands its themes of life, death, and dreams -- and what they mean to the enigmatic Spike. Cerebral stuff aside, the best fan service here is the cool perfection of the Bebop formula. The action is hefty, the style is unrelenting, the wit comes in volumes, and as always, it's scored to a bopping soundtrack by Yoko Kanno. In an era when the transition to movies can leave producers crossing their fingers, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie successfully takes the plunge with grace and panache. Would you expect anything less of a space cowboy? Tony Nigro

All Movie Guide

The popular animé series Cowboy Bebop gets its own feature-length film with the aptly named Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Set in the late 21st century, it jumps into the series' story line just prior to its conclusion, with the bounty hunting crew of the interstellar craft Bebop chasing a hacker aboard a tanker into a major city on Mars. As crew member Faye Valentine closes in on the tanker, she witnesses its catastrophic explosion, which soon appears to be a viral terrorist attack as the death toll continues to mount in the days following. Furthermore, Faye caught a glimpse of the person responsible for the blast and is thus the only surviving witness of the crime. After the government puts out a large bounty for the perpetrator's capture, the Bebop gang -- slacker Spike Spiegel, former policeman Jet Black, and hacker girl genius Edward -- begin their own hunt for the mass murderer, who is eventually revealed to be one Vincent Volaju. Vincent, it turns out, was the lone survivor of a governmental medical test and now seeks revenge by unleashing the same microscopic robotic virus used in the tanker explosion on the unsuspecting city. The Bebop crew must scramble to prevent Vincent from carrying out his plan, as well as try to locate an anti-virus to counterattack the effects of Vincent's virus. Released in both dubbed and subtitled cuts in the United States in 2003, Cowboy Bebop - The Movie premiered in Japan in 2001. Ryan Shriver

Product Details

• UPC: 043396090552
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Japanese, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français
• Time: 1:54:00
• Sales Rank: 17,644

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Cowboy Bebop: the Movie / Metropolis
• Kaena: the Prophecy / Cowboy Bebop: the Movie
• Metropolis / Cowboy Bebop

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