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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm [1993] Though this spin-off from the excellent animated Batman TV
series was too dark to catch audiences who flocked to The Lion
King, it certainly stands as the best cartoon feature of 1993.
Better-plotted than Tim Burton's live action movies, this shares their
semi-tragic characterisation of the schizoid superhero and a love of
the art deco gothic of Gotham City. A brooding Bruce Wayne [Kevin Conroy]
is haunted by an old flame [Dana Delaney] who returns to his life just
as the Phantasm, an even scarier vigilante, starts a murderous crusade
against Gotham's gangsters. In Casablanca style, the
film flashes back to the early days of the Batman's career as he almost
calls of his war against crime when the temptation of normal life is
nearly too great to resist. In a moment more emotionally powerful than
anything in Burton's films, Bruce talks to his parents' grave trying
to back out of his vow to fight crime, pleading "I'm sorry, but
it just doesn't hurt so much any more... I never expected to be happy".
Going for a bleakness almost unheard of in superhero animation, the
film closes with Batman and the Phantasm marooned in their isolation,
lives ruined by the need to avenge dead parents. Though it focuses on
the character elements, Mask of the Phantasm does not
skimp on action and black humour, with a bravura finale where Batman
battles the Joker [a wildly ranting Mark Hamill] in the ruins of an
outmoded City of the Future exhibit. Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce
W. Timm. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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