In Feb. 2002, some fancy footwork in Yokohama by our good friend Yukio-san, landed ANS a copy of the Japanese DVD release of Knockin On Heaven's Door just few days after it hit the streets in Japan. This translated into one of the first English language reviews of the disc online or in print. Believe it or not that review still draws some of the heaviest hits on the site. Thanks to some fancy footwork from another quarter it seems we're about to do the same thing with the planned June 24th Special Edition release of Cowboy Bebop The Movie from Destination Films.
As a newcomer in dealing with American anime releases, Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment stunned a goodly portion of fandom when it was revealed they had decided to pickup and distribute the films Metropolis and Cowboy Bebop in theaters and home release venues. Here was a big name Hollywood studio moving into to possibly give anime a huge boost, allowing far more people to view 2 of the most popular and developed works to come out of Japan in recent years. With both, it's my opinion that CTHE was positioned to offer a far wider exposure for the works with already established distribution channels than if it was to come from the dedicated American industry proper. And that's not to rag on the efforts of the industry who have made some serious headway with releasing and distributing films in many cases totally independant of partnerships with big name distributors.
From that jaunt, moving into the DVD. A bit of a disclaimer here at the outset. Hesitantly I had 2 other DVD releases by my side here during the review: The Japanese release of the Cowboy Bebop Movie and CTHE's release of Metropolis. The Japanese disc to compare with the release from the country of origin and Metropolis to compare with CTHE's previous Anime home format offering. I say hesitantly because I'm not sure if any comparisons drawn between these 3 releases (one coming from the Japanese market) amount to any value truly substanitive. You're dealing with different products at different pricepoints, also bebop is being released under the destination films banner where Metropolis was carried by CTHE proper, finally there is the obvious R rating Bebop carries VS Metropolis's PG-13. That said, between Region 1 and Region 2, the areas for me personally where one takes an advantage over another tradeoff in more than one area, likewise there are some differences in the way the Bebop DVD is being handled compared to CTHE's Metropolis DVD. We'll note them a little later:
Specifications:
Cowboy Bebop The Movie DVD lists a running time of 115 minutes Sound Tracks are Original Japanese Theatrical Version and English Dolby Digital (5.1ch) and French Dolby Surround, DVD is single sided dual layer, Wide Screen Version preserving aspect ratio 1:85:1 with Digitally Mastered Audio & Anamorphic Video - Mastered in High Definition, retail is $26.95. Extras include "From The Small Screen To The Big Screen" featurette, "International Appeal" featurette, "Spike: A Complex Soul" featurette, "Ed: Resistant Eccentric" featurette, "Jet: No Ordinary Dad" featurette, textless OP (Ask DNA) and ED (Gotta Knock A Little Harder) "Music Videos", Conceptual Art Galleries (Caracters, Aircrafts, Automobiles, Monorail, Accessories), Four Storyboard Comparisons, Trailers (including Memories and Steam Boy), Interactive Menus, Scene Selections.
As far as packaging goes Cowboy Bebop The Movie takes an obvious step down from Metropolis which retailed at 1 dollar more and had elaborate gatefold decorated case and feature packed "pocket" DVD. Region 2 dominates in this arena with clear amaray case, cool original Kawamoto art on chromafoil sleeve and ISSP supplement book but costing 3 times more at 7,800 yen more money can be put to print type features which can be quite costly. On disc however we have several changes over Region 2 which leads toward a big plus for the American release which is jam packed with A/V supplemental material and fluid menu interactivity. As fans may remember, director Shinichiro Watanabe personally selected 39 titled chapter marks for the Japanese DVD. This list has been trimmed down to 28 selectable scenes on the American disc but it appears that the actual chapter marks and even titles as they are listed have been retained to some degree.
As for the movie content, it's 100% the same as the Japanese release reviewed previously. Of course with English subtitles and audio here I was able to grasp more of the plotline and character dialogue which reafirmed for me the high degree to which the film's plot and characterizations remain faithful to TV. The English dub track was especially solid for a film, no disapointments there.
Video and Audio quality wise, this release gets the thumbs up over the Japanese version in both feature and quality departments. Dolby Digital 5.1 English track carries over all quality points we mentioned the first time around.
All Stories, Graphics And Material © Anime News Service Unless Otherwise Cited
Questions,Comments,News Submissions