Mask Of The Phantasm Appreciation Thread

[Redwoods Wolf]

I LOVE this movie.
It outranks any other Batman flick and that includes Begins (which is in second place btw). I always said that what TAS needs to be even more perfect is a tad more mature theme. And here it is with explosions, corpses and blood. It has so many spectacular scenes, and so great lines.
And the last scene, where The Joker is laughing uncontrolably amids the flaming theme park? Gives me the chills every time.

Agreed.

"Whoops! Ha! I guess the joke's on me. You're not Batman after all. Looks like there's a new face in Gotham and soon his name will be all over town... to say nothing of his legs, and feet, and spleen, and head..."

And that final fight--just awesome.

 

[Darkness Falls]

I love Mask Of the Phantasm!

One of the best Batman movies of all time ,imo...i rate it right alongside Batman '89, and Batman Begins.

So much emotion in this movie....from the opening theme, to Bruce pleading with his parent's at their monument, to Bruce donning the cape and cowl for the first time (and Alfred's shocked response!)....to Batman and Joker's confrontation, all the way to Bruce and Alfred's talk at the end.

This movie really captures the feeling of loss so often associated with the character. Going back to that scene when Bruce first dons the Bat costume and stalks off into the night...it just strikes me as so tragic. he was SO close to finding happiness, only to have it snatched away (or so he thought at the time)...

BMOTP is one of my most beloved Batman collectibles..a true MUST for any and all Bat fans, imo.

Couldn't agree more

 

[ab38416]

 

[OneKnight]

I entered this forum for the first time in a while with the intent of making a similar thread, but Rockbottom beat me to it. My question is:

When are we gettin' a Special Edition of this sucker?

I'm talking about a complete digital clean-up, color correction, restoration of the shots removed for the home video release (like that great 'crane shot' of Phantasm stalking Sol behind the cars in the parking building), commentary, interviews, cast retrospective, and -- most importantly -- a tribute to the great Shirley Walker. She composed the music you're all raving about, not to mention did the same for all the DCAU shows. Sadly, she died suddenly last year.

By the way, I'll answer my own question:

Probably never.

-- END!

I agree, crazy monkey. It definately deserves an SE release.

I'd rather they put effort into that than a ton of different releases for the tv shows. They throw just a couple of episodes together of TAS, or Beyond, and even the terrible The Batman series and package those even though they know they're going to release them all as season box sets.

Ridiculous. Talk about overkill. Who would buy those?

But that had me thinking. I could have sworn the first release of MOTP, the one in the cheap cardboard case came with a featurette and some of the artwork along with the trailer.

I saw the newer release, the one with the snap case. All it had for extras was the trailer. Maybe I was imagining things back then.

 

[The Empire Ape]

"Mask of the Phatasm" is IMO the best Batman movie and could have been a brilliant live action movie.

 

[Mr. Socko]

I loved The Joker and The Phantasm. Really cool story but too many flashbacks.

For the most part, I really liked it. TAS Joker was too watered down, Phantasm Joker was perfect. He could finally kill dammit! I love the part where Sal is found in his house dead, with a huge smile on his face from Joker venom/smylex and a bomb is in his lap before blowing up his rotting corpse to bits. Classic Joker!

 

[Darkness Falls]

it was so cool to actually see blood

 

[Superwoman Prime]

I still stand by this as my all-time favorite Batman movie. TDK will undoubtedly have a lot of the unique elements this film had, which makes my anticipation for Summer 2008 stronger.

 

[Samurai Pasta]

This is the best Batman film hands down. B89, Returns, Batman Begins, whatever, they can all kiss my ass.

 

[lonzoe]

MOTP is GREAT but it's OVERRATED, OVERPRAISED, and OVERSTATED. Just like the score is. The movie has plotholes. Like how Andrea is able to do the stuff the phantasm does like disappear and able to outrun the Batwing. The animation isn't really TOP NOTCH either. I'm not trying to bash this movie. I watched this movie to death on videotape when I was a kid. All I'm saying is this movie is also flawed like the others. It always bother me years ago ,how people say this is the BEST Batman movie and it's animated. It's animated of course the action scenes are going to be better than the movies because it can get away with more than live action movies. BB has no excuse with the technology today it should be able to get away with more than any of the others and hold it's own with TAS .

 

[Dark Guardian]

This is the best Batman film hands down. B89, Returns, Batman Begins, whatever, they can all kiss my ass.

I couldn't have said it better myself. This has and always will be the best incarnation of Batman ever to hit the big screen. Plotholes be damned, this is TAS at it's finest and I sincerely doubt anything will ever get this good again.

 

[CFE]

CFE

 

[Golgo-13]

^This scene makes me tear up EVERYTIME i see it, especially with Shirley Walkers score playing in the background. It is badass on sssssssoooooo many levels!

Anyhow, one of the greatest animated movies of all time. I love the scene where Bruce first tried crime fighting, foils the robbers and is practicing jiu Jitsu at his house, while talking to Alfred.

Oh, also the scene where Batman comes to visit Councilman Arthur Reed in the hospital after Joker gases him, and he can't stop laughing was hilarious. Someone post screencaps of that scene plz!


The ONLY flaw i can find with this movie is the lack of explaination as to why and how The Phantasm can create smoke, and disappear.

 

[The Empire Ape]

I did not like because the Joker in MOTP. He was not violent enough. He just killed a few people, but he was not scary. The Joker is supposed to be scary. He was totally colorful and not dark. Finally, in TDK (i hope it's going to be an R rating) we are going to see the REAL Joker, the comic Joker, who kills with every eye blink.

 

[Numez]

I did not like because the Joker in MOTP. He was not violent enough. He just killed a few people, but he was not scary. The Joker is supposed to be scary. He was totally colorful and not dark. Finally, in TDK (i hope it's going to be an R rating) we are going to see the REAL Joker, the comic Joker, who kills with every eye blink.

silly comments like this are why no one should take nolanites seriously.

 

[Compi716]

Now THAT is the Joker!

I agree with everybody else here: MOTP is the best Batman movie ever, hands down.

 

[GoogleMe94]

is it just me, or does the ending of this seem like it was ripped straight from Batman Returns? with andrea, and the 3 protaganists faceing off, she loves batman, but knows it cant work out, and now she takes her revenge on the man who killed her father, and batman is yet again left alone without his love. i remember watching this about a month ago and thinking, ive seen this before..

 

[GoogleMe94]

Now THAT is the Joker!

I agree with everybody else here: MOTP is the best Batman movie ever, hands down.

its not a movie, its a cartoon.

 

[C. Lee]

its not a movie, its a cartoon.

Actually....it's an "ANIMATED" movie.

 

[The Empire Ape]

silly comments like this are why no one should take nolanites seriously.

 

[C. Lee]

"Mask of the Phatasm" is IMO the best Batman movie and could have been a brilliant live action movie.

I did not like because the Joker in MOTP. He was not violent enough. He just killed a few people, but he was not scary. The Joker is supposed to be scary. He was totally colorful and not dark. Finally, in TDK (i hope it's going to be an R rating) we are going to see the REAL Joker, the comic Joker, who kills with every eye blink.

So......which is it? Did you like MOTP or not?

 

[Bat-Mite]

silly comments like this are why no one should take nolanites seriously.

And comments like this are why nobody should take you seriously. I don't even think that the guy said in his post that he was a Nolanite. But hey, why pass up a chance to bash Nolanites eh, Numez? You can just call anyone that you don't like a Nolanite as long as they have even the slightest interest in TDK, and then just bash-bash-bash away! It's idiotic stuff like this (from both sides) that keeps the Burton/Nolanite bickerfest flaming on. Anywho, while I don't think MOTP is the BEST Batman movie, it's definitely in my top 3. I can't decide whether I like it or Return of the Joker more, though.

 

[The Empire Ape]

So......which is it? Did you like MOTP or not?

I was just kidding.

MOTP = best Batman movie.

 

[Golgo-13]

I did not like because the Joker in MOTP. He was not violent enough. He just killed a few people, but he was not scary. The Joker is supposed to be scary. He was totally colorful and not dark. Finally, in TDK (i hope it's going to be an R rating) we are going to see the REAL Joker, the comic Joker, who kills with every eye blink.

..i wouldn't hold my breath for a R rated TDK.

 

[Mr. Socko]

I did not like because the Joker in MOTP. He was not violent enough. He just killed a few people, but he was not scary. The Joker is supposed to be scary. He was totally colorful and not dark. Finally, in TDK (i hope it's going to be an R rating) we are going to see the REAL Joker, the comic Joker, who kills with every eye blink.

HAHA I knew this was a gimmick post as soon as I read "I hope it's going to be rated R!"