The first and the best Batman animated movie.

Take evertything Batman TAS offered us before this and make it even better. Originally rleased in cinemas to a more "mature" audience, this movie was just plain awesome.

Arguably the greatest Batman movie to this day, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" is an animated movie that takes Batman back to his dark, gritty origins. Up until this point the Batman franchise seemed to have forgotten it's roots and what...
[+] Read Full Review

Arguably the greatest Batman movie to this day, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" is an animated movie that takes Batman back to his dark, gritty origins. Up until this point the Batman franchise seemed to have forgotten it's roots and what Batman was all about. This movie takes us back to what the creators of Batman first imagined.
Don't let the PG rating fool you, this is no kids movie. This is a movie with no happy ending. This is a movie without hope. This is the Gotham that Tim Burton wanted to create, the Gotham that the TV series could never show us. This is the real Gotham City. The movie shows us the dark side of Gotham from the very beginning and very rarely lets up. Surprisingly the movie has it's moments of intense violence. People don't just get roughed up, people get beat to hell. People don't just get injured, they die. The depth of the setting aside, what makes this movie what it is , is the story and the characters that drive it. The stories main motif is that of Bruce Wayne and his struggle with identity as many circumstances start to change the course of his life. Almost half the story is told through flashbacks, but is not to the point where one would be confused. Another nice touch to see the writers put in is Batman being an actual detective rather than a hero. The characters in the movie are for the most part well voice acted, but in some places lines are poorly delivered and come off as corny rather than bad writing. The only other flaw in the movie is that only a select few scenes seemed to have aged poorly as the animation is clearly flawed in parts. However it's nothing that hinders the enjoyment of the movie.
All of these thematic elements come together perfectly to create the most believable setting to date in a Batman movie to date. Not only does the dark Gotham work perfectly, but the bleak story goes a long way for us to feel pain when Bruce Wayne feels pain and helps up feel happy in those few moments when Bruce is satisfied. To top it all of we have some of the best Character from the Batman franchise all present. All of this turns into a noir-masterpiece of a movie that can be appreciated by anyone who has seen or heard of Batman.

Batman Mask of the Phantasm is an awesome movie, along with all the dcau movies. The epic was placed in theatres originally. Phantasm was an awesome character idea and shows improvement in depth, and this is btas we are talking about. This movie...
[+] Read Full Review

Batman Mask of the Phantasm is an awesome movie, along with all the dcau movies. The epic was placed in theatres originally. Phantasm was an awesome character idea and shows improvement in depth, and this is btas we are talking about. This movie id most definetly worth the 10 dollars the dvd costs.

The model of what a animated action cartoon based on a TV show. Simply just take what you have and use the medium to take it a step up, and this does it.