Set on Mars in the year 2071, COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE is based on the much-loved animated television series by Japanese director Shinichiro Watanabe. As the film begins, Spike (Steven Jay Blum) and his gang of gypsy vigilantes are roaming the city, looking for trouble when Faye (Wendee Lee) witnesses a bioterrorist attack. Hovering above the city in her spaceship, she sees a man fleeing the scene. Over 500 people die in the attack, and the city offers a monetary reward for any information. The gang jumps at the opportunity. They decide to branch out, each using their own tactics to research the tragedy. Spike slinks through Chinatown, being led by shady underground characters. Faye traces the image of the man she saw back to military files. And the young Ed (Mellisa Fahn) and her dog Ein do some handy computer research. Meanwhile Jet (Beau Billinglsea), holds down the fort, worried about the gang. When the criminal Vincent (Daran Norris), is identified, with a connection to Spike's love interest Elektra (Jennifer Hale), the real action begins. COWBOY BEBOP is a visually dramatic film that combines several styles of illustration into one beautiful, cohesive animated environment. The Mars of this film is a combination of cities: New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and many more. Viewers are compelled to identify monuments and familiar structures, while the terrorist theme hits fearfully close to home.
Only the most prestigious or artistically accomplished Japanese animated movies are shown in cinemas — so there's little justification for the theatrical release of this flatly drawn and tediously plotted futuristic thriller, the spin-off from a supposedly popular TV cartoon. Clocking in at a seemingly interminable two hours, this Martian chronicle has a small group of bounty hunters trying to thwart a dastardly bio-terrorism plot. Despite a late-21st-century setting, this action fantasy has an odd, out-of-date look that's seemingly influenced by gritty Hollywood cop movies. Indeed, the film's sole stimulating sequence is a monorail shoot-out which owes a large debt to The French Connection. Forsaking the computer-generated trimmings that often visually enliven the genre, neither the irritating characters nor the pedestrian pacing will appeal to anyone other than devoted anime{acute fans.
