Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is one of the better feature films with the Dark Knight and just a well written and amazingly animated film all around with a great voice cast.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
(1993)
Genre(s): Animated, Action, Crime
Warner Archive | PG – 76 min. – $21.99 | July 25, 2017
Date Published: 10/12/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 4.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Set in the 1940s, the troubled yet heroic Batman (KEVIN CONROY) is pitted against a mysterious figure who is rubbing out Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals, and who many believe is the caped crusader himself. Batman’s alter ego, millionaire Bruce Wayne, is about to get married to the lovely Andrea Beaumont (DANA DELANY), who helps him recover from his need to avenge his parents’ murder – meaning that his crime-fighting days may be numbered.
Quick Hit Review: Arguably one of the best Batman feature films, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was initially going to be a direct-to-video release before the studio decided to up the animation budget and give it a theatrical release. Although it made a mere $5.6M (or $12M adjusted for ticket inflation), the film has gathered somewhat of a cult status in the 24 years since its release, and for good reason; this is a wonderful, finely written movie that delves deeper in Bruce Wayne’s personal life and merging it with his bat-persona. Watching this for the first time in a number of years, I was enthralled more with the development of Wayne as a character more-so than the story which, to be honest, isn’t the most mysterious aspect, heck wasn’t that mystifying when it first was released. But even on that front, there is some deeply moving scenes while the action itself is nicely animated and rather thrilling, such as Batman’s attempts to escape from the custody of the GCPD.
Obviously the animation is beautiful carried over from the popular Batman: The Animated Series which was an amazing show in itself and Mask of the Phantasm is, thankfully, more of the same. The voice acting isn’t half-bad either with Kevin Conroy being, to some, the quintessential voice of the Caped Crusader to Dana Delany as Wayne’s love interest, and of course, speaking of quintessential voice, Mark Hamill as The Joker which is (almost) always appreciated, except for that atrocious Batman: The Killing Joke, but that wasn’t the fault of Hamill or Conroy but a terrible script. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5 |
| No features were included, sadly. Would’ve hoped for a commentary with Bruce Timm and/or the voice cast. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Batman: Mask of the Phantasm debuts on Blu-ray courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection and actually has two options, one the 1.78 theatrical version and 1.37 television full frame, both look great presenting bright colors, detail appears sharp and I didn’t really notice much in the way of banding. The 1080p high-definition transfer looks clean, free of artifacts, dust, dirt or any other flaws. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo track which doesn’t sound half bad at all. I’ve usually found these lossless audio tracks not to be the best on traditional animated films but here dialogue does sound clear and the various action, like when Batman is being chased, has plenty of bullets flying and later explosions during the finale pack a slight punch for a 2 channel track. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
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Overall, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is one of the better feature films with the Dark Knight and just a well written and amazingly animated film all around with a great voice cast. The Blu-ray released through Warner’s Archive Collection has good video and audio transfers but sadly no special features. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.