"Cowboy Bebop - The Movie" marks the welcome return of hip adventures of the title-giving spaceship with the groovy headhunting crew: Spike, the mysterious martial arts expert, Jet, a cyborg ex-cop, Faye Valentine, the sexy pilot with the gambling problem, Ein the brainy dog, and hacker wonder kid Edward.

The TV series, available on DVD and showing on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim," was delirious fun with whacky story lines, winning characters, and relentless space action set to an eclectic soundtrack. The show was fun because of its sense of limitless possibilities. Hey, it's drawn: anything goes.

The movie, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, does its best to adapt the formula for the big screen. The show's brand of hip sitcom humor still works well as the crew lounges around the spaceship in dire need of "woolongs." Dialog and dubbing are both handled very well, and so is the animation. The rich designs and colors are a pleasure to watch.

The problem is the story, which is not nearly as compelling as the better TV episodes. After Faye witnesses a tanker explosion, a bounty is taken out on a mysterious bio-terrorist, and the Bebop's crew sets out to save the world (in this case, Mars.) The trademark lyricism and jarring juxtapositions of wild action to funky music are few and far between as Spike gets bogged down with tedious detective work and the rest of the crew languishes without much to do at all. At almost two hours, the strangely planet-bound James Bond plot unfolds just like you'd suspect, only slower.

Fans might dismiss this criticism as minor quibble and will probably enjoy the arrival of their heroes on the big screen anyway. Newcomers, however, would do better getting warmed up with the TV episodes. "Cowboy Bebop - The Movie" isn't bad, but it could have been great.