Riding Bean

Riding Bean follows the exploits of Bean Bandit, a cocky professional driver, his partner Rally, and his super modified car as he tries to make money, avoid the cops and still have morals!

Bean Bandit is a professional courier, the best there is. In classic TV fashion (a la Dukes of Hazzard, Blues Brothers etc), he dodges the cops with some wild driving while trying to save the various days. He goes by the professional name "Road Buster", and drives a totally custom
super car, Buff, plated in battleship armor with 730 hp (!).

He gets some help from his partner Rally, who could be called the Business Manager of the team. Also the crack markswoman and gun nut.

Percy, the detective on the Road Buster case, has it in for Bean, and makes largely futile attempts at stopping him with the help of the (again, in Classic TV Fashion) inept police force. Even his new super sports car won't help.

Bean Bandit is a tough, macho driver, with his (titanium-mesh weave, overlaid with kevlar reinforced) leather jacket (and all other clothing) and tough as nails attitude. He has a soft spot, which is exposed (and exploited) later in the movie. Bean doesn't carry a gun, but LOVES his car, Buff the Roadbuster.

Rally Vincent is Bean's partner, a weapons expert and business manager, arranging new deals, and blowing things away. Also waking Bean up when the need arises.

Buff is Bean's car, a cherry red sporty customized job. Check out the liner notes from Animeigo :

"Buff the Roadbuster is a completely customized vehicle, based on a Porsche chassis and a Corvette Stingray engine block (either '71 or '72). It's only really fantastic pieces of equipment are the wheel-spikes (reminiscent of "Mach Go! Go! Go!," better known to Americans as "Speed Racer"). Buff is covered in 5mm battleship steel armor plate, with windows that are a combination of bulletproof glass and Lexgard plastic.It also boasts both four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, and has a top speed of over 300kph, with engine performance in excess of 730 horsepower. The technology for everything except the aforementioned wheelspikes supposedly exists today. It gets lousy mileage; that, coupled with the fact that the estimated cost to build Buff (in 1989) was about US$1,000,000, is one reason Bean's rates are so high."

Percy is the humour comic relief cop, a determined and angry cop who will do anything to stop Bean and his car.

The animation in Bean attempts to capture the adrenalin rushes of urban car racing and police chases, tough subject matter in an animated movie.

Bean does a reasonable job of it, but at points the driving scenes appear unrealistic and the illusion of motion is not completely convincing. This doesn't detract much from the movie as a whole, but is worth mentioning.

All other animation in the film is great, characters are well animated and lively, scenes and backdrops are all well executed.

The japanese voice acting for Riding Bean is first rate, and completely believable. None of the voices are exaggerated. The voicing is not a consideration factor of the movie, ie, you won't be thinking "what a strange voice" at any point.