No angst-ridden teenagers, no whiny schoolgirls—just four space cowboys and a data dog looking for their next bounty to the tune of jazz music. With a combination of high production values, intelligent writing and a mature attitude, COWBOY BEBOP has established itself as a modern day anime classic, exuding more than enough style and class to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack.

With its theatrical release, titled KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR, the world of BEBOP and its rag-tag band of bounty hunters were given the royal big-screen treatment. For most of us who weren't as fortunate to watch it in theaters in Japan, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR is now available as a region 2 DVD release. Since our sneak preview of the theatrical release delved into the movie's premise, this review won't go into great length about the story. Suffice it to say, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR offers everything that made the TV show so great, and more.

When a stolen tanker truck explodes on a busy freeway and the chemical spill kills more than 500 people, the Martian government places an unprecedented W300,000,000 bounty on the terrorist. Enticed by the reward, the Bebop crew investigates the case, and eventually they link the cargo of the tanker truck to a pharmaceutical corporation. Furthermore, the driver of the truck appears to be a military officer named Vincent—problem is, according to official records, Vincent has been dead for several years.

Meanwhile, festivities for Halloween are in full swing, and the terrorist has decided to crash the party. According to legend, Halloween once started as a festival for the ascension of souls to Heaven's Door, and the psychotic Vincent plans on doing exactly that. Of course, everyone's invited.

Unlike ESCAFLOWNE, the BEBOP movie doesn't attempt to recreate the universe. Instead it tells a previously untold adventure that takes place between episodes 22 and 23 of the TV series, using the characters we're already familiar with. While Jet and Faye get their due during the investigation, most of the screen time goes to Spike, and he handles everything from gunfights to dogfights to hand-to-hand combat with ease. The new characters, the enigmatic Vincent and the beautiful Electra, prove to be worthy opponents for Spike in both armed and unarmed combat, and the result is some martial arts choreography that easily puts other fighting anime shows to shame. Of course, it wouldn't be BEBOP without the trademark humor, and when Ed and Ein aren't contributing to the investigation with their sharp insights, they're up to their wacky antics as usual.

The animation and sound of the movie is excellent, pushing the already high production values of the TV show even further. Kawamoto's characters look exactly the way we remember them, which is a good thing, while the ships and environments are given a subtle yet tangible boost by the movie's animation and sound. The Swordfish II in particular shines during the movie's dogfight where Spike uses cunning and skill to outmaneuver and splash three military fighter jets, and the aerial combat scenes easily rival the action of MACROSS PLUS.

All this goodness is presented by a 16:9 anamorphic transfer that is both sharp and vivid, with few compression artifacts, and good color saturation and black levels. There appears to be a small bit of edge enhancement, but it's mostly unnoticeable while watching the movie. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is decent, with good separation across all channels. I haven't yet been able to watch the "compilation" discs that were remixed in 5.1, so it was a treat to watch a BEBOP feature with surround sound for the first time. The musical score, composed by prodigy Kanno Yoko, factors heavily into the experience of the movie and deserves a separate review of its own.

The lone gripe I have is not with the film proper, but with the DVD menu design and the lack of extras. This seems to be a department where Japan hasn't caught up with Hollywood yet. Animated menus may take extra time and effort, but one doesn't have to go to the level of MGM's extravagantly animated DVD menus for 007—even a moving background using existing footage would've been a marked improvement. The extras are equally sparse, consisting mostly of trailers and the opening/ending without credits. Would a director's commentary or a character art gallery been too much to ask?

Of course, these nitpicks about DVD features do not in any way detract from the enjoyment of the movie itself. The trailers describe the movie in words such as "hard-boiled" and "Hollywood," and KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR definitely delivers on both counts with aplomb. Unfortunately, neither a theatrical release nor a region 1 DVD seem likely anytime soon in North America, so if you have a region-free player, rush to the nearest import store and order your copy of the region 2 disc right away. COWBOY BEBOP: KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR is high-quality entertainment, and it'll probably be the last we see of the Bebop crew for a while.