This Batman is the one from my childhood however it's been a long time since I don't watch an episode from the animated series and frankly I don't remember a lot of it. Now I have been adding some Batman titles; I began with the Batman and Superman movie, a movie that I found just good by the way (later I will be writing on here a complete comment for that movie), and later I began to watch Batman Beyond, a series that I never watched before and that right now I'm enjoying a lot (soon I will be writing a full comment for Season 1). This was my next step and I must "confess" that I had never watched this movie before, now I'm really glad I watched it. This one does feel like a feature film; very soon there's a new problem for our Dark Knight since Chuckie Sol, a crime boss, has been killed and our hero is the one everybody is blaming of that killing. The past will come back to Bruce's mind and with that we will watch a love story before the Batman days, a love story that for Bruce ended in a very surprising and painful way, ended in the Dark Knight. Here we see again why Batman is quite unique since we see another person similar to Bruce Wayne. Both suffered the killing of their familiars and both were looking for revenge. That character is Andrea Beaumont, the girl of that love story before the Gotham Knight days. One of those important differences between Bruce and Andrea is the fact that Bruce at a point was going to stop being a vigilante for love. for the woman he loved. Andrea after suffering the killing of her father could not think in other thing but justice just like Bruce after she leaved him, then for an unknown circumstance, but the other difference is that Batman doesn't kill, the Phantasm does. There are great flashbacks but you may be wondering something like "when does the fun begin?" well the Joker is enough for you? Here the Joker has also an important place on the flashbacks, he is one of those that the Phantasm is looking for. Definitely when the Joker appears is when the fun and the best part of the movie begin. He is also another aspect to think by watching this, "this one is actually something very special".
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is like everything we could have expected from an animated movie of the Dark Knight. The beginnings of Batman, a present with gangsters fearing of Batman and the police (except Gordon of course) wanting to catch our hero, a mysterious new "enemy", a love story, a story about the family, justice, revenge and the Joker. What else you want?