Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Promotional poster of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
Directed by	Eric Radomski Bruce Timm
Produced by	Tom Ruegger Michael E. Uslan
Written by	Comic Book: Bob Kane Screenplay: Alan Burnett Paul Dini Martin Pasko Michael Reaves
Starring	Kevin Conroy Dana Delany Mark Hamill
Music by	Shirley Walker
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 25, 1993
Running time	76 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is an animated film first released on December 25, 1993. Although released in the Tim Burton era, it is completely unrelated to the live-action movies. It was created by the same cast and crew as Batman: The Animated Series, having been originally intended as a direct-to-video spin-off from the series.

[edit] Plot

The film's story divides into two parts: one in the film's "present", and one, told through flashbacks, in the early days of Bruce Wayne's crimefighting career.

Bruce Wayne's fledgeling career faces two major obstacles: first, he is having trouble getting criminals to take him seriously at first sight (not having yet hit upon the bat motif); second, he has fallen in love. The recipient of his affections is Andrea Beaumont, red-haired and blue-eyed, not only beautiful but seemingly his equal in every way. Realizing that an ongoing relationship with Andrea would massively complicate his crusade against crime, Bruce decides that one of them has to go. After a long internal struggle, the crusade loses. Bruce proposes to Andrea, and she accepts. The next day, however, Andrea sends her engagement ring back with a note telling Bruce to forget her, and leaves the country. Devastated, Bruce throws himself back into crimefighting, and after discovering a large bat-haunted cavern in his backyard, becomes Batman.

In the present, a mysterious cloaked figure is stalking and killing Gotham City mob bosses. The murders are the work of a new vigilante, the Phantasm, but people attribute them to Batman. Arthur Reeves, an ambitious city councilman, vows to lead the manhunt to capture Batman. The situation becomes complicated when Andrea Beaumont returns to Gotham, forcing Bruce Wayne to deal with the feelings he still has for her. Things are further complicated when Batman discovers that the link between the slain mob bosses is Andrea's now-deceased father, who had business dealings with all of them years ago.

Salvatore Valestra, the last surviving mobster on the list, tries to hire the Joker to kill Batman. When the Phantasm visits Valestra's home, he finds Valestra slain by the Joker's poison gas, rigged with a bomb that barely fails to kill the Phantasm. Batman arrives on scene to apprehend the Phantasm, but the two are interrupted by the police. Batman narrowly escapes the police when Andrea shows up in a getaway car. At her apartment, Andrea admits that her father had embezzled the mobsters' money, and the two were forced to flee the country when he was discovered. Batman later discovers that the Joker worked as a hitman for the mobsters before his transformation.

The Joker visits councilman Reeves and blows the whole story wide open to him before intoxicating him with Joker gas. Reeves had helped the Beaumonts flee Gotham, but later sold them out to the mob when he desperately needed money for an election campaign. Batman tracks the Joker down to an abandoned theme park, where the Phantasm—who is really Andrea out to avenge her father's murder—is out for the Joker's blood. The Joker detonates bombs placed all over the park, and he and the Phantasm disappear in the confusion.

After escaping the inferno through a series of sewers, Batman assumed that Andrea and the Joker had perished in the blaze. She had survived, however, (as, presumably, had the Joker) and left a locket for him as a keepsake in the Batcave. In the penultimate scene of the film, Andrea stands on the vespertine deck of an ocean-liner, alone. The ending scene changes to show Batman standing alone as well on top of a buliding. The Bat signal emerges in the distance and Batman flies into action, showing that Bruce Wayne will always be Batman.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Critical reaction

The movie was extremely well received by fans of Batman: The Animated Series, and earned a positive review from almost every critic, though it was not critically screened during its theatrical run. For instance, film critics Siskel & Ebert, while regretting that they originally ignored the film in its initial release, gave the film a two-thumbs up, the only Batman film to be given such praise until Batman Begins. Rotten Tomatoes lists it as having 13 positive reviews out of 13 posted, thus earning a 100% rating. It has since become a cult classic.

The dark nature of the film has also been respected by animation fans, in particular the film noir-esque storyline and frame structure.

In tone and theme, this is one of the most authentic Batman films ever. It has an authentic noir structure involving death, love, betrayal and a bitter ending:

• Redemption - The film depicts Bruce Wayne as a classically conflicted and emotionally tortured character. His constant pursuit of redemption is ongoing, and no matter how many criminals he reins in, the peace he desires is just out of his reach. Indeed, at his parents' grave, after meeting Andrea, he kneels in the rain and begs them to release him from his promise - "I'll give the city money to hire more cops"; however, he can never really be free. The film closes with an image of Batman hunched on a rooftop, tensed and reflective. The bat-signal shines in the distance behind him, he comes to life, rising tall. The juxtaposition of such images suggests that Bruce Wayne will indeed always be Batman.
• Betrayal - The betrayal (specifically, for money) of Andrea Beaumont's father by his mob boss colleagues is a pivotal event, and serves as the basis for Andrea's later murdering of Chuckie Sol and Buzz Bronski.
• Love - Bruce and Andrea have a passing moment of happiness - this, however, is noir and love never lasts. Even when Bruce proposes, a flurry of bats appear from a crack in the earth to surround them.

The film shifts in time with many flashbacks. The "past" is initially a time of optimism symbolized by Bruce falling for Andrea while the present is a time of pessimism. The Gotham World's Fair exists as a key motif, namely in a glimmering exhibition of future domestic technologies visited by Bruce and Andrea. Technology ostensibly promises a better tomorrow. The present reality, however, reveals the site of the World's Fair as a set of rotten teeth, serving as a hiding place for the Joker.

[edit] Box office

Despite all the positive reviews the movie received, it was not a huge success at the box office. Costing less than a million dollars to produce and promote, it only grossed $5 million domestically and $11 million worldwide, and due to its low earnings, most theaters stopped showing it after only one or two weeks. Blame could be laid on the lack of advertisement and the rush decision to put it in theatres at all; up until mere weeks before its premiere, directors Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski believed it was going to be a DTV effort only. All future animated Batman movies would be released direct-to-video.

However, when the film was released to video on April 26, 1994, it turned a substantially higher profit, earning millions more than in its limited theatrical release.

[edit] Trivia

• Originally, Mask of the Phantasm was going to be the finale to Batman: The Animated Series. It has been claimed that a deleted scene from the movie shows the Joker's final battle with the Phantasm and his escape.
• The storyline of Mask of the Phantasm utilizes elements of the comic Batman: Year Two, although it creates a very different story out of them. The film also uses some elements from Batman: Year One, (i.e. Bruce visiting his parents grave, Bruce starting out as a vigilante and making mistakes, realizing that criminals weren't afraid of him, and being chased by Gotham police.)
• Due to the much more relaxed standards and practices of a motion picture, Timm and company could get away with more violence than on TV. Therefore, the film marks the first time the DCAU's Joker was actually allowed to kill somebody, a crime lord (Salvatore Valestra) via laughing gas, and, offscreen, Andrea Beaumont's father (Carl Beaumont). Two other deaths also occur in the film.
• The relaxed standards and practices extended to other areas of the film, as well; in one sequence, Andrea Beaumont is shown to have spent the night at Wayne Manor after a date with Bruce Wayne. As she appears wearing only one of Wayne's shirts, it's heavily implied that Wayne and Beaumont had sex the night before.
• Gun use was also heavily upped, the opening scene alone having extensive use of realistic handguns and, in one scene a shotgun. Most scenes with guns in the series, at least in the earlier episodes usually involved old fashioned tommy guns being used or wielders of handguns being disarmed before they could be fired. Violence in general was much more brutal, particularly one scene where Batman kicks out one of the Joker's teeth.
• The soundtrack to Mask of the Phantasm is highly acclaimed among fans of the motion picture. The opening theme's lyrics are said to be the names of the design staff, sung backwards. The ending theme, "I Never Even Told You" was performed by actress Tia Carrere.
• During the scene where Batman is trying to find Joker in the Futuristic Gotham City section of the park, you can clearly see a WB logo on one of the model buildings.
• The word "Phantasm" is never spoken in the film.
• In the scene in which Batman links Buzz Bronsky and Chuckie Sol, he mentions the front companies O'Neil Funding Corporation and Adam's Tool and Die. These names are references to the legendary Batman writer / artist team from the 1970s, Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams.
• It's interesting to point out that the "Phantasm" character could have been inspired by another similar Batman character known as Azrael. Both characters have hooded masks, white eyes, covered mouths, and both use weapons attached to their hands. Azrael is also a term used to define an "angel of death". The "Phantasm" says the phrase, "Your angel of death awaits..." multiple times throughout the movie.
• The Phantasm reappears in the last episode of Season 2 of Justice League Unlimited (titled "Epilogue"). In that episode, it is revealed that Terry McGinnis is actually the product of a genetic experiment by Amanda Waller to produce a near-clone of Bruce Wayne to continue the Batman legacy. As part of this plot, Waller intended to have McGinnis' parents murdered in his childhood. In the episode, Waller arranges to have Andrea Beaumont, as the Phantasm, commit the murders, but Beaumont refuses at the last moment to go through with it, knowing such an act would be slap in the face to the very legacy Batman himself upheld.

[edit] References

• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm at Box Office Mojo
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm at the Internet Movie Database