Batman has always been my all time favorite superhero besides Superman, Spider Man, Hulk, Wolverine and many other superheros. Now, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" is not only the best Batman animated movie, but it is one of my favorite Batman movies along side with Tim Burton's classic 1989 movie and the awesome trilogy by Christopher Nolan. This movie gets so overlooked, and it deserves to be talked about as it has already become a cult classic. The movie centers around Bruce Wayne's past about as he once had a love one named Andre Beaumont as they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. Sadly, Andre breaks up with Bruce as he now turns himself into the Dark Knight to fight crime. During the present, the mysterious figure known as the Phantasm hunts down some of the crime bosses as Batman is being framed and goes out to find who the Phantasm really is. What can I say? Of course, you know the movie is based on a popular animated TV series which it is without a doubt one of the greatest animated shows about Batman. The movie is definitely larger than life as the movie went into theaters instead of being straight to video as it was originally intended. The movie open to great reviews, but did not perform well at the box-office due to how bad the marketing went. However, it did well for being success as it was first released on both VHS and Laser discs. I have it on VHS, and now I have it on DVD. Unfortunately, it has never been released on Blu-Ray yet which I will get to that later. I thought the animation is incredible as it does add a stylish look into as it represents what the comic books were. Also, the story is perfectly well told for showing the psychology of Bruce Wayne and following the path of becoming Gotham's greatest protector. The direction by Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm is absolutely top notch perfect. The voice acting is indeed perfect. Kevin Conroy does a heck of a job to voice both Bruce Wayne and Batman, as well as Mark Hamill for voicing the Joker. Of course, the late Gene Siskel from Siskel&Ebert did not like Hamill's voice, but that is his opinion. At least both Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the movie a two thumbs up which it deserves to. Dana Delany has also done a great job for voicing Bruce Wayne's love interest. The movie is 76 minutes long which it does go by at a very good pace, when it does keep you interest with the story and characters. I do love Shirley Walker's music which it is whether or not one of her greatest achievements. Now, about this movie for not being released on Blu Ray. Like Disney's remake of "Mighty Joe Young," the movie does need another release on DVD as well as an official release on Blu Ray; it needs a heck of a restoration for cleaning up the movie's transfer, but no DNR like what Fox did to "Predator" because if it did then it will loose some of its textures and details. Warner Bros. needs to be faithful on how this movie looks, and maybe have it be supervised by Bruce W. Timm and some of the people that work on this movie. Also, the DVD only has a trailer but no audio commentary from the cast and crew as well as having deleted scenes, still galleries, maybe other trailers and TV spots and most of all a documentary on how the film was when it came to make a Batman animated feature film as it went from straight to video to theaters, and how the marketing turned out to be a huge disappointment but thanks to the fans for having it become a cult film. There is a petition that I found online, which I did sign it and I hope that Warner Bros. release this movie on DVD again, and making an official Blu Ray release with an all new video transfer with sound and an amount of special features. If you aren't interested to sign it, that is fine and I am not going to be upset or anything like that. I just want this to be release as soon as possible. If you are interest, then that will be wonderful. I will put the link on it whether you are interest to sign the petition to have this movie be released on Blu Ray. With that said, "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" is the most absolute Batman animated movie of all time, and it will continue to be a classic movie. I give it a 10 out of 10.
Here is the link for the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release-batman-mask-of-the- phantasm-on-blu-ray
For a reminder, if the link has issues just type the movie's name with petition on Google so that it will take you there. Thank you.
Here is the link for the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release-batman-mask-of-the- phantasm-on-blu-ray
For a reminder, if the link has issues just type the movie's name with petition on Google so that it will take you there. Thank you.