Batman: Mask of the Phantasm: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Your angel of death awaits..."''|'''The Phantasm'''}}

 

 

As Batman continues his war on Gotham City's underworld, he finds himself facing a foe who wants to take that war to a whole new level: The Phantasm, a mysterious masked figure who has been killing off Gotham's high-profile mob bosses one by one. Since The Phantasm has a similar appearance to Batman and targets criminals like Batman does, it's not long before The Caped Crusader is blamed for the killings, resulting in the police moving to arrest the vigilante.

* [[Award Bait Song]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJxbQVnVe8 "I Never Even Told You", sung by Tia Carrere.]

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Salvatore Valestra. It's essentially the most mob-bossiest mob boss name ever. ''Damn''.

* [[Berserk Button]]: "Don't ''touch'' me, old man! [[Mood Whiplash|I don't know where you've been!]]"

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Batman showing up in the Batwing to confront The Phantasm.

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: ''Averted'', particularly during the sequence where Batman is cornered by the cops at a construction site and nearly killed in an explosion, and in the climatic fight scene with the Joker, where both them end up torn and bloodied; at one point, Batman kicks the Joker in the face and ''knocks one of his teeth out''.

* {{spoiler|[[Cast as a Mask]]: Stacey Keach plays The Phantasm, but not his secret identity. Deliberate misdirection since he also plays Andrea's father.}}

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: The Joker during his brief fight with {{spoiler|Andrea}}.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: It's a widely held consensus that this is easily the most [[Maturity Is Serious Business|mature]] of the DCAU Batman adaptations. (And that's saying something!) It's only logical since the show had the same amount of finesse with handling adult issues but keeping it at a PG-rating, or at least trying to.

** Joker confronting Reeves in his office hints that they know a good deal about the Beaumonts. {{spoiler|Joker puts the pieces together about the Phantasm's identity in this scene and later tries to kill Andrea with a booby trap phone call (calling his intended target "toots" and "boopsie"). The reason he does not suspect Andrea's father is also foreshadowed in all of this - because Joker was the one to kill him all those years ago.}}

** Bruce's proposal to Andrea is interrupted by a swarm of bats erupting from the cave below them.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: In classic ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' fashion, this film manages to get away with a number of things such as alluding to Bruce having sex with Andrea, the Joker making sexual jokes at his robot wife, etc. The list goes on and on. ''Awesomely''.

* [[Groin Attack]]: {{spoiler|Andrea}} to the ''Joker'', no less.

** {{spoiler|Arthur Reeves had his own reason for selling out Andrea and her father to the mob.}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Arthur Reeves:''' (laughing hysterically due to Joker toxin) I was broke! Desperate! They said all they wanted was their money back!}}}}

* [[Joker Immunity]]

* [[Kung Foley]]: Immediately following Bruce's first night trying his hand at this whole vigilante gig, we see him practicing Jujitsu in his front yard accompanied with full sound effects.

* [[Laughing Mad]]: Joker constantly laughs throughout the film, but the most notable instance of Laughing Mad is {{spoiler|right when, shortly after being captured by Phantasm/Andrea Beaumont and Batman, and certainly going to die at the former's hand, the bombs across the abandoned future fair grounds explode and start demolishing the fairgrounds, making any chances of him dying even more likely, the Joker starts breaking down into uncontrollable laughter.}}

* [[Left Hanging]]: The Phantasm appears to have super strength, super speed, and smoke-related teleportation and makes it pretty clear in a couple instances that the last one is a bona fide superpower. The movie never explains how the Phantasm is able to do ''any'' of this.

* [[Monster Clown]]: [[The Joker]], who else?

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: A slight version occurs when Sal Valestra tries to convince the Joker to take out Batman. The Joker pokes fun at the old man and seems to ignore him the entire time. Then we find out he murdered the old guy and propped him up in a chair to lure The Phantasm into a trap.

{{quote|'''Batman:''' Oh, '''''no'''''!}}

** Arthur when he realizes Joker is in his office.

* [[Only a Model]]

{{quote|'''Batman''': You think you know everything about me, don't you?

'''Batman:''' [[Insult Backfire|Well, you're wrong!]] }}

** There's also Alfred's despairing utterance of "My ''God!'' the first time Bruce puts on the mask.

** However, this led Valestra do to something completely stupid:

{{quote|'''Valestra:''' Don't be a fool! Once he gets me, how long before he gets you? You ''know'' what I'm talking about. You're hands are just as dirty as mine! Dirtier!}}

* [[Shout-Out]]:

** Bruce taking out a motorcyclist on foot is a direct reference to ''[[Akira]]''.

[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]

[[Category:Batman: Mask of the Phantasm]]

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