Is this the best Bat­man movie ever made?

Batman’s cin­e­mat­ic his­to­ry has expe­ri­enced highs (The Dark Knight) and lows (Bat­man v Super­man), hilar­i­ous moments (Bat­man: The Movie) and some pret­ty for­get­table ones (Bat­man and Robin). Fans are still split as to which is the most accu­rate incar­na­tion of the Caped Cru­sad­er. Nes­tled amongst all these depic­tions is Bat­man: Mask of the Phan­tasm, a 76-minute ani­mat­ed movie from 1993 which con­tains the most accu­rate and nuanced por­tray­al of DC’s icon­ic anti­hero ever cap­tured on screen.

The film was a tie-in to the high­ly pop­u­lar Bat­man: The Ani­mat­ed Series, the first sea­son of which fin­ished in Sep­tem­ber 1993 (Mask of Phan­tasm was released on Christ­mas Day that year). Warn­er Bros were so impressed with the suc­cess of the show they com­mis­sioned a fea­ture-length film and assigned series direc­tors Eric Radom­s­ki and Bruce Timm, plus writer Alan Bur­nett, to bring a new sto­ry to the pan­theon of the Bat.

What they did was some­thing that had nev­er been done in a super­hero movie before, or since for that mat­ter. They cre­at­ed a sto­ry that doesn’t rely on spec­tac­u­lar action sequences or the time-hon­oured for­mu­la of hero ver­sus vil­lain, but one that explores loss, grief and the desire to cor­rect mis­takes from the past. It’s the most human Bat­man has ever been.

The plot sees the arrival of a new vig­i­lante in Gotham known as the Phan­tasm, who is killing off mob boss­es. Due to the figure’s dark, broad-shoul­dered look and stealth tac­tics, the crimes are imme­di­ate­ly blamed on Bat­man. At the same time Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, learns that his for­mer fiancée from his for­ma­tive years, Andrea Beau­mont, has returned to the city, giv­ing the bil­lion­aire a chance to recon­nect with his for­mer love.

Those famil­iar with the clas­sic Bat­man car­toon will recall its dis­tinct visu­al style, which fused Art Deco imagery with futur­is­tic archi­tec­ture turn­ing Gotham into a spi­ralling and com­plex city. Hulk­ing build­ings and strik­ing shad­ows help enhance the neo-noir tone of the film and allow it to resem­ble some­thing clos­er to a crime thriller.

Besides that, Bat­man is the key ele­ment here and while we can wax lyri­cal about the per­for­mances of Adam West, Michael Keaton and Chris­t­ian Bale under the cowl, Kevin Con­roy gives arguably the best ever per­for­mance in the role. His dis­tinct voice brings a hushed mas­culin­i­ty to the char­ac­ter, which is still intim­i­dat­ing but also vulnerable.

If Con­roy is the best Bat­man than the best Jok­er award has to go to Mark Hamill. Luke Sky­walk­er him­self strad­dles the divide between the the­atri­cal hilar­i­ty of Jack Nicholson’s Jok­er in Tim Bur­ton 1989’s film and the sheer psy­cho­path­ic men­ace of Heath Ledger’s Oscar-win­ning por­tray­al from 2008. There is an exas­per­at­ed edge to his voice, which rever­ber­ates around every room he enters. Every line is deliv­ered with the ener­gy of an hye­na and his trade­mark evil laugh has nev­er sound­ed so much like a man enjoy­ing himself.

Where­as the Bat­man ver­sus Jok­er tus­sle has arguably seen its poten­tial exhaust­ed on screen, the character’s inclu­sion here is min­i­mal as he’s only intro­duced about halfway through. Yet Hamill’s excep­tion­al per­for­mance makes every sec­ond of the Joker’s lim­it­ed screen time vital and com­pelling, even­tu­al­ly cul­mi­nat­ing in some of the character’s finest moments. You can tell he exe­cut­ed the role with a smile on his face.

Much like Christo­pher Nolan’s acclaimed tril­o­gy, the inner con­flict of Bruce Wayne is explored here to great effect. In flash­back sequences we see how the younger Bruce first attempt­ed to tack­le crime in Gotham in a promise made to his mur­dered par­ents. Yet his true trans­for­ma­tion into Bat­man doesn’t occur until his rela­tion­ship with Andrea falls apart.

We see how hap­py both Bruce and Andrea were togeth­er, despite the fam­i­ly tragedy that has befall­en him. This rela­tion­ship gave him anoth­er chance to live a sim­ple life. As cir­cum­stance uncer­e­mo­ni­ous­ly dri­ves them apart, Bruce reluc­tant­ly trans­forms into the Bat­man per­sona out of sheer anger. Pos­si­bly the great­est scene in the movie sees Bruce kneel­ing at his par­ents grave and stat­ing, ​“I didn’t count on being hap­py,” high­light­ing that his pledge to fight crime has become a bur­den upon his already trou­bled psyche.

Despite all these pos­i­tives, Mask of the Phan­tasm failed at the box office and only made its bud­get back via the home video mar­ket. But this shouldn’t take any­thing away from a film that stands on the same lev­el as any of Nolan’s Bat­man films, deliv­er­ing a tighter, more styl­ish and emo­tion­al­ly res­o­nant sto­ry than any­thing the Dark Knight is like­ly to be treat­ed to again.