Cowboy Bebop the movie also know as Knockin' on Heaven's door was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and was released in Japanese cinemas on September 1, 2001. Watanabe said in an interview that he wanted to use more difficult technical effects to create a live action look in an animated film. He also said he wanted to incorporate an Arabic atmosphere into the film; Watanabe even travelled to Morocco to gain inspiration. There were two other guest directors used to create segments in the film: Hiroyuki Okiura directed the opening and Tensai Okamura directed the western film-within-the-film. Because these two segments were very different from the rest of the movie and due to the time constraints Watanabe decided he would use people he could trust to film them.
The movie takes place between episodes 22 and 23 in the TV series. Whilst the crew of the bebop are taking a well deserved break a bombs explodes in the middle of traffic. And when the victims of this terrorist attack start to come down with a mysterious virus the authorities put out a 300 million Woolong bounty for anyone who captures the criminals behind the virus. As with every job the crew of the Bebop take on all is not what it seems and they are thrown into the deep end once again.
I really liked the movie some critics thought that the movie was too long but I on the other hand thought it was just the right length. I also like the fact that the creators decided to slot the movie in between the episodes of the TV series instead of creating a movie to end everything. I find that a lot of the movies that are created to act as an ending to a series tend to let you down. I really liked the action sequences in this film and I really do think that Watanabe did achieve a live action feel to this animated film. For those of you that have not watched the series you can watch this movie without watching the series first, but I would recommend that you watch the series at some point as you will be missing out on such a good series. I would also like to point out that while researching for content to write this review I came across a photo of a poster for a live action movie of Cowboy Bebop. Needless to say I was shocked and horrified at the same time, and spent some time trying find out if a live action film had been made. I can report that no live action movie has been made. I don't think I would like it if a live action movie was created for this series but I also don't think I would be able to stop myself from watching it (kind of like when you drive past a horrific car crash).
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