Underrated Gems: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

 

            So when creating the Bat-month schedule, I initially forgot that the month had one more week. With that, you guys are getting two Batman animated films that I watched growing up. For now, I will talk about the caped crusader’s first animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. SPOILERS will appear in the review.

            To give a short background on this movie, I have to talk about the animated series the movie is based around. Batman: The Animated Series is considered by many to be one of the best animated series ever. It resembled the old Superman shorts from Paramount and Fleischer Animation Studios. By giving Batman a noir and art deco feel in Gotham City. It felt very mature without it feeling adult. It’s surprising that it was geared towards kids, such as myself when I saw it syndicated on Cartoon Network.

1.      Story

The film mirrors the series since it feels like an extended episode. So the film starts off as Batman breaks a gangster meeting. One of them escapes and encounters a new vigilante, The Phantasm. While never named in the movie, it kills the gangsters one by one. Leaving many including the police to believe that Batman is responsible. Thankfully, another subplot deals with Bruce Wayne’s youth when he was dating via flashback.

The use of the flashbacks shows how Bruce wanted to maintain a normal life and being a vigilante. We see a very personal look on Bruce that we’ve never seen so far during the Tim Burton films that came out earlier. Kevin Conroy voices and he does a great job playing Bruce Wayne. This is probably the most emotional we've seen Bruce in any Batman film. Until he gets triggered by Superman when he says his mother's name. 

What I didn’t like was how Batman’s main villain, The Joker, was used. Mind you, Mark Hamill voices the clown prince of crime so perfectly. I felt it was too convenient that he was the bodyguard for the gangsters that were hustling Andrea’s father. No joke, there's a scene where Batman took a photo from Andrea's apartment, he notices one of the gangsters looking like The Joker by drawing a smile.  I feel that it is my main complaint, I would’ve want it where Batman is going against the new vigilante without being hold back by an established villain.

2.      Bruce and Andrea

While the best moments include Batman. The scenes that have Bruce and Andrea are just tragic. It feels refreshing to see Bruce Wayne be happy. I feel that in a sense of fate either a thunderstorm or a swarm of bats always have to knock the couple from being realized. Aside from that, when they are their alter-egos, they are near similar.

 For Batman, the reason he fights crime is that he doesn’t want to see another young boy lose his parents as he did. For Andrea, she dons the costume to kill the gangsters who murdered her father. The scene where Bruce finally dons the batsuit shocks his butler Alfred in horror, as he looks nearly like the Phantasm. As I mentioned, it would’ve been better if they both met more than once. 

3.      Why did it bomb?

To say that Walt Disney animated films dominated the nineties is massively an understatement. Warner Bros. animated films struggled severely in making a profit. The movies they released were mixed in terms of reception. Both Mask of the Phantasm and The Iron Giant are beloved by many but, were marketed so poorly that they bombed financially. Warner tried to match Disney’s princess formula with Quest for Camelot  and Thumbelina but failed miserably.

            Lastly, it was requested that at the last minute Warner wanted the film to be released in theaters. Which is another reason why it bombed. I feel that it should not have been marketed to kids. At least to a teenage or young adult audience. Hell, it opened with the Warner Family Entertainment logo with Bugs Bunny. Talk about a tone shift times ten.

4.      Overall

With that being said, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is probably the best Batman film in animation and live action. It manages to show a personal Bruce Wayne being tortured with a life he wants to have but can't. It’s an animated film that deserves to be watched and is a great companion piece to the DC Animated Universe.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm gets a four out of five.