Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Much like the latest Dark Knight franchise emerging this summer, the animated Mask of the Phantasm finds Batman on the run from police and Gotham’s gangsters, wrongfully blamed for a crime he didn’t commit. Mistaken for the Phantasm, a sinister figure who is systematically knocking out the city’s mob leaders, Batman’s situation is further complicated by the return of a past flame, whose disappearance years earlier led him to commit to his alter ego and role as a defender of justice. Full of thrilling twists and turns, this imaginative mystery reveals new secrets about Batman’s past as he struggles to un-mask the Phantasm and clear his own name. Mask of the Phantasm evokes strong elements of film noir and “is stylishly dark in the manner of the Tim Burton Batman films and the graphic novels of the late ‘80s … The high pitch of the drama, the earnest quality of its characters, and a deafening score combine for a fun, fatal romp”(Leonard Klady, Variety). Colour, DVD. 76 mins.