Yes, the original title is “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” I’m using the Americanized title to denote the fact that what I saw was the dub release.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, let me tell you about the movie release from one of the more celebrated anime TV series in the last, oh, whatever period of time you prefer.

The movie takes place between episodes late in the series timeline (for reasons obvious to anyone who’s seen the end of the series), and plays much like a (very) lengthy episode itself. All of the classic elements show up here, from hand-to-hand combat and aerial dogfights to windy philosophizing and bitch-and-moaning. Of course the talky bits are drawn out impossibly long, while the cool action bits are about the same length as they’d be in a regular episode. The talky bits are cheaper to animate, I suppose.

The plot? A wacky messed-up bad guy wants to do very bad things, and since there’s a bounty on his head the intrepid (and wildly ecclectic) Bebop crew go after him. As usual, the main story is Spike’s while the other characters bob and weave around him. Jet grumbles about how unappreciated he is, Faye staggers from disaster to disaster in that fanboy-baiting little outfit of hers, and Ed… is Ed. You know it’s a bunch of misfits when the genetically-engineered Welsh Corgi is the sane, well-adjusted one of the group.

Side note: Why did they change the song? Ed’s supposed to sing Pi, not… whatever that gibberish was. *sigh*

Another side note: I couldn’t help being amused at the teasing of the aforementioned fanboys. For an instant it seemed as if we’d get to see Faye-Faye’s ta-tas on proud display, and yet… denied. (And a vast groan rose up from the male members of the audience. Heh. Yeah, I said “members.”)

So how does the scoring go? You get ten points for it being Cowboy Bebop in all of its Beboppy glory. You lose one and a half points for philosophical mumbo-jumbo where real dialog and plot could have been. You lose another point for making a charicature of poor unappreciated Jet. Another one-point-five points are lost when Faye is used more as a damsel in distress than quirky femme fatale. One full point comes back for the clever use of those three old guys.

If you love Cowboy Bebop, or if you generally like action-oriented anime, you should see this movie. If you really love Bebop, you’ve probably already seen the movie and don’t need me to tell you what to do. If you’re sort of indifferent to Bebop or other forms of anime, find a way to see the series first and then, maybe, watch this movie. It’s good. It’s just not the greatness that we might have expected.
Cowboy Bebop Movie Site