Direcor: Shinchirō Watanabe
Writer: Keiko Nobumoto
Studios: Bones, Bandai Visual, Sunrise (Bandai)
Watched on: 01/09/2024
Watched on: 01/09/2024
Review contains ***SPOILERS*** for Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (aka Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door)
Ratings:
This film isn't just a classic because it's iconic or significant - it's an an absolute scorcher of a film. I finally got round to watching it and can't describe it as anything less than fantastic. Of course, the film (and Cowboy Bebop overall) does not need mine or anyone else's seal of approval but I'm at least glad to part of the club.
Obviously, we have to start with animation, and it is incredible. It's got all the brilliant quality and style of the main series, with maybe about 10% extra added on top*. Everything that moves does so convincingly as a solid object with believable volume and mass; that includes the characters, the big and small spacecraft, the guns, the props, even quite a few elements of the backgrounds. As the main series did, the film really shines during the fight scenes. They're so much fun and both well choreographed and well directed - we always get a perfect shot to emphasise the dynamicism or the impact of every blow. Practically flawless other than having limited animation for practically all of its speech. I can't knock it for that, really, it's sticking to its roots. I'd give it a 9 for animation, noting that the only film I know that has better animation is Akira (which I also rated as a 9 but could easily change to a 10 tbh).
The plot was actually very good, in my opinion. Far better than the overarching storyline of the series, or any of the individual episode stories. The main aim of the villain isn't quite clear but he's clearly mad enough to want to infect a bunch of people for no reason. Everything else is great, from how the conspiracy is uncovered, how we get to piece it together bit-by-bit and even the mechanics of the story are pretty much airtight. It also did a great job of leading us into each fight or interesting sequence. So no complaints (and I'd also add that the plot for James Bond 'No Time to Die' is incredibly similar).
Touched on it a bit in the animation section but the storytelling is great too. All the shots are framed really well for interesting and clear scenes. This is especially true for scenes where there isn't a lot happening - we'd often have a bird's eye view of the characters, then a shot of the background, then a focus in on a small detail etc. Always kept it visually interesting and showed off the great work of the artists and animators (drawing large crowds of people moving across the horizon line in dramatic perspectives really is not easy!). Also, in true Cowboy Bebop style, the uptempo jazzy soundtracks not only help to distinguishing Cowboy Bebop's quite unique identity and style but also just add so much appeal to it. You can't help but get excited in those big moments.
Not sure if this is a storytelling point but will just add it - the 'fan service' is way too much. As always, I can appreciate this is what they had to do to increase its mass appeal and of course, Faye is pretty much designed to be eye candy for people who want to ogle cartoons but 2 things: 1. it was far too gratuitous in my opinion and was compounded by the fact that Faye had shit all to do as a character except fail and get assaulted for the sake of the plot. 2. The scene where Vincent has her tied up/semi-conscious is far too forceful to be considered sexual. My problem with it, is that the directors present it as fan service when really it should be treated as terrifying and violent. When this guy's threatening to rape her, we don't need to see her boobs flopping out of her shirt. To me, that's a clear decision that you want it to be sexy, rather than horrifying, which is a shitty decision.
Lastly, characters. Possibly the only element of this film that isn't super strong. There's nothing wrong with the characters. They're all very appealing, interesting, well designed and play their parts very well throughout. However there isn't much of a journey for any of the characters, especially not the main cast. I guess this is because the movie has to fit in somewhere within the series, so it's understandable. At the very least, if they didn't develop, they did learn throughout the film, which is what you need for the narrative to continue, so it definitely didn't detract from the enjoyment of the film.
I don't think I've stressed enough just how good the animation in this film is, as is very well known, over 20 years after its initial release. But I'd just like to re-iterate one last time that the animation in this fim is absolutely stunning and it's worth watching just for that. Even if you only watch the shootouts and fight scenes.
Also, a quick shoutout to Ghibliotheque who put on the screening of the film in IMAX, which was incredible. Hopefully lots of similar events from them in the future.
Overall conclusion: this film is fantastic and lots of fun and I'd say it warrants the undivided attention of animation nerds, however is also just so cool and visually appealing that anyone would enjoy it.
*Just went back and watched a few scenes from the series and think I was giving it a bit too much credit it my memory. The movie has SIGNIFICANTLY better animation. The series animation is maybe a 7 at best.
