Both seasons of Ghost in the Shell:  Stand Alone Complex are excellent works and they easily rate on my Top Ten Anime Series of All Time list (as well as DVDTalk's top ten anime lists for the years (2004, 2005) that they were released.)  Deeply plotted, excellently animated and with likeable characters who change and evolve over the course of the show, the show is a high mark in anime that has garnered both popular and critical acclaim.  With anything popular though, there's the lure of making a quick buck by putting out a lot of product.  The producers at Production I.G. haven't been able to totally resist that either.  First they put out the solid but outrageously expensive Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex Official Log DVD/Guide Book, and now they've released Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man, a direct-to-video movie.  This feature condenses the Laughing Man story arc that ran through the first season of the show down to 2 ½ hours.  Helmed by series director Kenji Kamiyama, this is a very good edit of the story, though it still isn't as engaging as the entire series.

In the not too distant future, most humans are augmented by cybernetic implants.  These implants make people faster, stronger, and more powerful.  No longer do you have to spend excruciating hours in the gym to get the perfect body, you can just order one.  Crime is still prevalent in this future society, and the criminals are now much more powerful.  In order to combat these criminals, a special division of the police, Section 9 has been created.  Manned with state of the art cybernetically enhanced officers Section 9 handles the cases that no one else is equipped to.

Section 9 has their work cut out for them too.  The Laughing Man has shown up again after a six year hiatus.  He is an amazing hacker, with the ability to hack into people's cyber implants and literally alter what they see.  He can commit crimes in crowded places and no one can identify him afterwards, as he did when he first emerged six years ago.  When The Laughing Man threatens the Superintendent-General, Section 9 takes the threat seriously and opens up their own investigation into the criminal.  They spend a lot of time sifting through the mountains of data and interviewing suspects about this mysterious villain, and they think they have tracked him down.  But with someone as skillful at gaining access to computer systems as The Laughing Man, can the police even be assured that the records they are accessing are accurate?

Made up from the original series with a few extra lines of dialog sprinkled through to link the scenes, this movie does a great job of telling the Laughing Man story.  Though some things have been left out naturally, the plot still retains its multilayered quality and it's quite a fun ride.  There's action, intrigue, and most of all a lot of mystery.  Since the animation was directly lifted from original series, this movie looks just as impressive as the show.

The bad thing is that this edit leaves out just about all of the 'stand alone' episodes that gave the series its heart.  Those installments also had a lot of character development and while the movie doesn't ignore that aspect of the series, there just isn't enough time to cover everything.  Some of those 'stand alone' episodes were among the best the show had to offer, such as the time that Batou is assigned to see if a boxer he idolizes is really behind a string of cyber thefts.

Even though it is condensed, this isn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  If this movie had come out first and then the series expanded upon it, I would have been really pleased with this disc.  As it is, the fact that it's a glorified clip show make it seem like a step in the wrong direction.
 

Audio:

The viewer has the choice of viewing this program with either an English dub (a 5.1 DTS mix and DD 2.0 track) or in the original Japanese (DD 5.1 and 2.0.)  There is good use of the full sound stage on the 5.1 tracks, giving the show a very encompassing feeling.  Music and incidental effects come from all angles surrounding the viewer, but these never become overpowering.  There isn=t a trace of hiss or distortion, and everything is very clear and crisp.  I viewed the show in both English and Japanese, and I had a preference for the original language, but the English dub sounded great as well, with the voice talent doing a good job.  There are optional full English subtitles or just subtitles for the signs and song lyrics.

While the audio sounds great, there is a problem.  For some odd reason the original English dub cast didn't return for this movie.  For those who listened to the English dub of the TV series this is pretty jarring.  While some of the voices are similar, like the Major's, others don't sound anything like the original English cast member.  Batou's voice is particularly grating when compared to the original.

Video:

Like the TV series, the video on this movie is stellar.  The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen video was encoded from a high definition master and is just about flawless.  The colors were excellent, blending gracefully from shade to shade without any signs of banding or aliasing.  The picture was sharp and the definition was first-rate.  This is a great looking show.

Extras:

The entire second disc is given over to extras, but there wasn't much there.  The featurette, Stand Alone Complex Archive, is a 30 minute interview with director (of both the movie and show that it was created from) Kenji Kamiyama by Atsuko Tanaka who voiced Motoko Kusanagi.  He talks about how he condensed the show, the writing of the original series and even the Tachikomas.  Speaking of the little tanks, there's also a Tachikoma-narrated section in this featurette on how the original series was scripted and created.

The only other items on this second disc are a series of trailers and an episode of Tachikomatic Days where the lil guys try their hand at ADR recording.

Final Thoughts:

This is a really good movie.  The only problem is that the series is better.  It's richer and there's more character development.  I'm not really sure who this is aimed at either.  Fans of the show already know the story, and people who weren't interested in the highly touted series are unlikely to pick this up.  It seems like a cheap way to cash in on the series success.  The fact that there are very few extras on this two disc set only reinforces that belief.  If you've seen the first season of Ghost in the Shell:  Stand Alone Complex there's no reason to watch this.  If you haven't, go out and get the series.  I guess this would be good for someone who wants to see what all the fuss is about, but doesn't want to spend the time watching all 26 episodes.  If you fit into that category this would make a good rental.