Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a 1993 American animated superhero film featuring the DC Comics character Batman. It was directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm, and written by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko, and Michael Reaves. The film is based on Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), and is the first film of the DC Animated Universe and the only one to receive a theatrical release. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Bob Hastings and Robert Costanzo reprise their voice roles from Batman: The Animated Series, joined by Dana Delany, Hart Bochner, Stacy Keach, Abe Vigoda, Dick Miller and John P. Ryan.
Produced between the first and second seasons of the series, the film follows Batman as he reconciles with a former lover, Andrea Beaumont, and faces a mysterious vigilante, the titular Phantasm, who is murdering Gotham City's crime bosses. The plot partly mirrors Mike W. Barr's "Batman: Year Two" comic book story arc, with the Reaper from it loosely inspiring the Phantasm character made for the film, while also borrowing elements from the "Batman: Year One" arc, recounting how Bruce Wayne became Batman and his first attempts to fight crime.
Originally planned for a direct-to-video release, Warner Bros. Pictures ultimately gave Mask of the Phantasm a theatrical release, condensing its production into a strenuous eight-month schedule. The film was the first theatrical feature film produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and was released through the studio's Family Entertainment label on December 25, 1993, to generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the stylized animation, voice performances, story, and music.
Due to the decision to release it in theaters on short notice, Mask of the Phantasm failed at the box office. After its release on home media, it became financially successful. Until the limited release of Batman: The Killing Joke in 2016, Mask of the Phantasm was the only animated Batman film to be given a theatrical release, as well as the only one to receive a full theatrical release until The Lego Batman Movie in 2017.
Plot
A young Bruce Wayne, after years of training abroad, vows to fight crime in Gotham City in memory of his murdered parents. While he is initially successful in thwarting robberies, he is disappointed that criminals are unafraid of him and seeks an intimidating disguise. He also begins a relationship with Andrea Beaumont after they meet at the Gotham Cemetery while she pays respects to her mother. Though conflicted about whether to honor his promise to his parents or pursue a happy life with Andrea, Bruce eventually proposes to her. However, Andrea abruptly leaves Gotham with her father, businessman Carl Beaumont, ending the engagement in a Dear John letter. Heartbroken, Bruce commits to a new life as a vigilante crime fighter, converting a cavern under Wayne Manor into a base and assuming the mantle of Batman for ten years.
In the present day, Batman interrupts mobster Chuckie Sol and his associates plotting to launder counterfeit money. Sol escapes but dies after crashing his car during a confrontation with the Phantasm, a masked vigilante resembling the Grim Reaper. Witnesses see Batman at the scene, leading councilman Arthur Reeves to vow to have him arrested. Mobster Buzz Bronski visits Sol's grave at the Gotham Cemetery, where he is murdered by the Phantasm, whom Bronski's bodyguards mistake for Batman. While investigating the scene of Bronski's death, Batman lingers by his parents' grave, where he encounters Andrea, who deduces his identity.
Batman discovers that Sol, Bronski, and another mobster named Salvatore Valestra were bankrolled by Carl Beaumont. He interrogates Andrea, who claims no knowledge of Carl's whereabouts. After learning of Sol's and Bronski's deaths, the elderly and ailing Valestra fears Batman will kill him next. He seeks help from his former ally, Councilman Arthur Reeves, but is rebuffed. In desperation, he turns to the Joker, offering him $5 million to kill Batman, and reminds him that the killer will be after him next. The Phantasm goes to confront Valestra in his penthouse, only to find that he has already been killed by the Joker. Instead of saving Valestra, the Joker rigged a camera to the mob boss's body to identify the mysterious killer. The Joker then remotely triggers rigged explosives, but the Phantasm escapes and avoids capture by Batman. Responding to the blast, the police pursue Batman, who eventually eludes them with last-minute help from Andrea.
Andrea admits to Bruce that her father worked for Valestra and was forced to take her into hiding in Europe because he was unable to repay money that he had embezzled from the mob. Carl later accumulated a fortune and offered to repay the mob, but they refused to lift the hit on him. Andrea says that she returned to Gotham to stop Carl from killing his former partners. Bruce and Andrea consider resuming their relationship, despite Bruce's uncertainty. Bruce later examines an old photograph of the mobsters and recognizes that Valestra's enforcer was the Joker before his disfigurement. The Joker confronts Reeves, accusing him of ordering the murders to hide his mob connections, but a call from Andrea interrupts them and shifts the Joker's suspicion onto her. Reeves is poisoned with Joker's toxin and taken to the hospital, where Batman forces him to confess that he previously worked as the Beaumonts' lawyer and helped them hide from the mob. Carl refused to bankroll Reeves's first struggling election campaign, so Reeves revealed his location to Valestra in exchange for the mob's support. Batman visits Andrea's apartment in her absence and intercepts a message for her from the Joker, who implies that he knows that Andrea is the Phantasm, then survives the Joker's bombing of the apartment. Batman determines that the Joker, the now last surviving former member of Valestra's mob, killed Carl Beaumont on the mob's order and that Andrea has gone after him.
Andrea confronts the Joker at his hideout, the abandoned Gotham World's Fair, where he attempts to trap and kill her, but she is saved by Batman, who unsuccessfully pleads with her to stop. The Joker tries to escape but is incapacitated by Batman and surrenders to Andrea, who bids Bruce farewell before disappearing with the Joker as the fair explodes. Bruce survives and is later consoled in the Batcave by Alfred, who assures him that he could not have stopped Andrea's self-destructive revenge, before discovering that Andrea has left her locket containing an old picture of Bruce and her as a couple. A sorrowful Andrea departs Gotham on an ocean liner, and Batman resumes his watch over the city.
Voice cast
Production Impressed by the success of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series on Fox, Warner Bros. Pictures assigned Alan Burnett to write a story for a full-length animated film. The original idea for the film was to have Batman being captured by his enemies at Arkham Asylum and face a kangaroo court in which the villains try him for making them what they are. The idea's concept, however, was considered "too brainy", as it required Batman to be immobile for a long time, so the idea was later used in the series' episode "Trial", which was aired after the film's release. Although the Joker does play a pivotal role in the film, it was Burnett's intention to tell a story far removed from the television series' regular rogues gallery. Burnett also cited he "wanted to do a love story with Bruce because no one had really done it on the TV show. I wanted a story that got into his head." Members of the creative team have claimed that they did not intend for the Joker to appear in the film; Paul Dini has contradicted this, stating that the Joker's role was always part of the story from the beginning of the film's production. The writers were highly cautious of placing the Joker in the film, as they did not want any connection to Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman, but writer Michael Reaves said, "We then realized that we could make his appearance serve the story in a way that we never could in live-action." In order to keep the Joker as a solo threat, Bruce Timm and Burnett convinced frequent Animated Series writer Dini to not use Harley Quinn in the film for that reason (although Arleen Sorkin did a bit part in the film voicing a minor character). The same technique was previously used in the episodes "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne" and "Joker's Wild". Conversely, the episode "Harley's Holiday" featured Harley Quinn and did not feature the Joker.
Aiding Burnett in writing the script were Martin Pasko, who handled most of the flashback segments; Reaves, who wrote the climax; and Dini, who states he "filled in holes here and there". Orson Welles' 1941 classic Citizen Kane served as an influence for the flashbacks, a story about loss and the passage of time. According to Kevin Conroy, Andrea Beaumont was named after voice director Andrea Romano. The character of Hazel, the cook robot of the World of the Future Fair, was named by Burnett after Hazel the Maid (portrayed by Shirley Booth), The Saturday Evening Post protagonist of cartoonist Ted Key's TV series Hazel. On the other hand, the design of the Phantasm went into 20 different versions until one was found which convinced the film's crew. According to Burnett, the Phantasm was like the Grim Reaper with a cape, although the idea was to make her resemble the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come of Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, something that even the Joker mentions in the finished version of the film.
Early in production, Warner Bros. decided to release Phantasm theatrically, rather than straight to video. That left less than a year for production time (most animated features take well over two years from finished story to final release). Due to this decision, the animators had to adjust the layout of scenes in order to accommodate the widescreen theatrical aspect ratio.Dini, Kidd, p.117 The studio granted the filmmakers a large amount of creative control.
Warner Bros. also increased the production budget to $6 million, which gave the filmmakers opportunities for more elaborate set pieces. The opening title sequence featured a flight through an entirely computer-generated (CGI) Gotham City. As a visual joke, sequence director Kevin Altieri set the climax of the film inside a miniature automated model of Gotham City, where Batman and the Joker are giants. This was an homage to a mainstay of Batman comic books of the Dick Sprang era, often featuring the hero fighting against a backdrop of gigantic props (they would later do another homage to Sprang's works in The New Batman Adventures episode "Legends of the Dark Knight"). From start to finish, the film was completed within eight months. The film's animation was provided by regular Batman: The Animated Series overseas studios: Dong Yang Animation in South Korea and Spectrum Animation in Japan. While most of the animation was done by Dong Yang, Spectrum handled the layout work.