Batman: The Animated Series- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Review

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Starring: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Dana Delany
Directed by: Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski


In between my season reviews of Batman: The Animated Series from my television blog, I thought I'd take the time to review the first time this version of Batman made the jump to the big screen. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was originally supposed to be a straight to VHS release, but it was pushed for a theatrical release at the end of 1993. There was very little advertisement for it, and as a result, was not the big box office success it could have been. Since then, the film has garnered a huge following as an underrated animated classic. After watching it, I can definitely see where that statement holds merit. Think about it, the show is one of the best animated shows in existence, so as long as the directors and animators kept it in the same style as the show, it would be a hit no matter what kind of story they gave to us. With a heightened budget, this really felt like a proper film based on the animated series just stretched to the length of about 4 episodes. Not only that, Mask of the Phantasm is pound for pound one of the best Batman movies I've ever seen and one of the best animated movies I've ever seen to not come from Disney. So let's see what makes Batman: Mask of the Phantasm great.

Like the show it's based on, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has a wonderful cast of voices to bring the Gotham characters to life. If you're part of geek culture, it's pretty well-known that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill ARE Batman and The Joker for a lot of people, myself included. They do their job well as usual, but I really think Conroy gets a lot of great material to sink his teeth into with playing Bruce Wayne. We get a lot of looks into his past, so you can see a lot of emotional range that spans a full-length story arc. He is able to keep the emotion going for well over an hour and you can really sympathize with him during his emotional trauma. And then you can root for him when he kicks the bad guys' faces in. Other strong voice additions to the cast include Dana Delany as Andrea Beaumont, a lost love from Bruce's past who has returned to Gotham, and Stacy Keach as the voice of the Phantasm, a new vigilante in Gotham that is terrorizing foes with more deadly intent than Batman ever had.

If you like the music and animation style from the show, you'll really like how they're able to expand upon it in Mask of the Phantasm. You have a much bigger budget to bring the world of Gotham to life in film rather than on television, and the showrunners knew that heading in. The backgrounds look much more defined, lines on character sketches are crisper, colors are more vibrant, and shadows appear more brooding than ever. This was really a great way to preserve the animation style we already knew from the store and improve the quality even further.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm deserves the praise it has had since it was released. More and more people are discovering it and I'm so glad that's the case. The animation is great, the music is great, the voice cast is great, and the story is great. Like, really great. There's a fantastic amount of film noir and mystery added into the film, not relying on a mainstream villain for the plot. Of course, they do throw the Joker in, but still, he's not the main focus. He's a scene stealer like always, but he's still able to be in the background until he's important to the main story. The film focuses as a good way to dive deep into Bruce's past to see the life he almost had, the choices that led to him accepting his vow to justice, and early glimpses into how he became Batman. All this is done in an hour and 15 minutes and I don't feel like anything is rushed or missing. The people who created this phenomenal animated franchise really knew what they were doing in executing it. They had the mindsets of the show's devoted fans and casual fans of the comic books in mind when doing this. But the most important aspect the creators had was that they had a deep love and appreciation for the source material and it greatly shows in their work.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

If you're a fan of Batman: The Animated Series, you'll love Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. It maintains the quality and integrity of the show and brings it to life on the big screen with a compelling mystery, great characters, and fantastic animation. Don't let this film wait in the shadows any longer. Discover it for yourself as soon as you can. You won't be disappointed.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and movie images are copyrighted by Warner Bros.