Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

There's something to be said for watching an animated movie not with the eyes of a child, but with those of a turned-on grownup.

Los Angeles Times by Charles Solomon

Demonstrates how exciting and vital contemporary animated filmmaking is in Japan. The characters may not move with the fluidity of their American counterparts, but the story unfolds with a sinister grace that any live-action director might envy.

Empire by Staff (Not Credited)

Has something for everyone.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

Isn't exactly adult animation but it's more complex and ambiguous than the usual Hollywood live-action blockbuster, and just as splashy.

Chicago Tribune by Patrick Z. McGavin

Magnetic, beautiful stuff.

L.A. Weekly by David Chute

There are so many good ideas at the visual level that you can't help wishing the narrative elements had been more cleverly worked out.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

It certainly fulfills all the conventions of the genre: sci-fi premise, noir stylings, martial arts, snarky dialogue.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

The atmospherics are wonderfully dark and film-noirish, if overly violent.

Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten

These visual techniques also serve to emphasize the Japanese anime fetishes for violence and female body parts -- you can always count on a gun or a breast to be in the foreground' but I'll take this opportunity to again stress that this is an adult cartoon.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

With all due respect to Japanese animation fans and pop-culture enthusiasts, life may be just too short to plunge into the busy world of Cowboy Bebop.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

If you want state of the art anime that comes within spitting distance of escaping the limits of its genre, this might be your cup of bootleg sake.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Brisk, engaging story.

Dallas Observer by Luke Y. Thompson

When the action sequences work, they work well; the climax cribs heavily from 1989's "Batman," but improves on Tim Burton's finale.

Portland Oregonian by Kim Morgan

It's a stylish work, seeping with brilliant animation and potentially interesting characters that didn't need so much time to establish themselves. It's worthwhile, but it's a good thing there's a television show to refer to.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

Overlong, overplotted and underdrawn.

Village Voice

Americanized through western showdowns, shadowy film noir, gangster shootings, sci-fi, Bruckheimer explosions, slapstick, and soaps, Bebop aims to transcend its own genre by emulating all genres, and it falls short only in the melodrama.

Film Threat by Eric Campos

Good news is that most of the marvelous English dialogue cast from the Cowboy Bebop series has returned for the film. The bad news is that the heart and soul of the series hasn’t.