The animation was a tiny bit better in the movie. But its basically the same bebop.
The series varies, but on a whole is pretty good. Its a universe similiar to Firefly with humans from earth having colonized many planets and in the process reverted in the frontier to a western existance. It also revolves round a unlikely crew of unique characters aboard an old used and worn out ship.
I guess you can say that Bebop is like an animated version of Firefly.
Also the OAV series has a great story arc. And each character has a nice arc too.
Its a very popular choice amoung anime fans.