I know it hasn't been long since my last superhero movie, but this one promised to be rather different. Besides, people have long told me it's one of the best Batman animated features, if not the best ever, and I never saw it offered on Netflix when I looked. When YouTube suggested it, I couldn't resist for long.
A creepy new vigilante (masked voice by Stacy Keach) has been hunting down and killing unthemed Gotham mob bosses. Unlike Holiday in The Long Halloween, Phantasm keeps getting mistaken the superficially similar Batman (Kevin Conroy). Commissioner Jim Gordon (Bob Hastings) doesn't believe it, but City Councilman Arthur Reeves (Hart Bochner) sends the police after Batman with authorization of deadly force.
No other Batman story I've seen has spent nearly as much time on flashbacks. They begin when Bruce Wayne, against the wishes of butler Alfred (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), has started vigilantism but not settled on a bat theme. He reminisces especially on a girlfriend, Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delaney), who disappeared on him because her father (also Keach) had to evade ruthless loan sharks. Naturally, this is relevant to the present.
Lest you think we get no familiar villains herein, about halfway through, the Joker (Mark Hamill) gets drawn into it. Frankly, I've grown tired of him. At least he doesn't target any innocents this time.
Indeed, this PG animation is relatively tame. We see a few corpses, but not at the moment of death, and any bloodshed is both minor and on the living. Pretty much all gunfire misses by sheer luck. Nobody curses. There is a hint that Bruce and Andrea had sex, but it's subtle enough for younger viewers not to suspect a thing.
I'm afraid the plot's a bit simple for my taste. In fact, I guessed the Phantasm's identity almost immediately. Not sure how the Phantasm smoke trick works, but it's the only sign of sci-fi except for Joker venom.
The best aspect has to be the star-crossed romance. Of all Bruce's love interests, Andrea may have been the most promising. Will Gotham ever stop ruining his life?
If B:MotP does anything best among Batman animations, it's music, care of composer Shirley Walker. I'm not surprised the soundtrack got its own Wikipedia page. It nails the timing of moods.
B:MotP isn't my favorite of the set, but I'm glad I finally tuned in. It certainly beats most 20th-century attempts at capturing the Dark Knight on the big screen.
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