An older comment...

By MikeC on Thursday, August 5, 1999 - 03:44 pm:
"Mask of the Phantasm" was foolishly released to the theaters, instead of airing as a television special, where a more proper audience could have enjoyed it. That film was more of a tribute to film noir, with added superhero attractions and the Joker.

You can notice it here, and elsewhere: the pre-Batman Bruce Wayne talked in the higher-ranged Bruce Wayne voice. Later in life, particularly in Batman Beyond, Bruce Wayne now talks in the deeper Batman voice. The role has become the man.

Not a nit, just a comment. I think this animated movie was superior to all the live-action Batman movies. The producers actually came up with a plot that tied together Batman's origin, the Joker, and a past love. Plus, it all made sense!

NIT:

The way Bruce Wayne becomes Batman
contradicts the story from "Batman Forever"

In "Batman Forever", he found the Batcave
as a child after falling into a hole.

This is a great film. I love the part where Batman realizes that the Joker is in that picture. It is a very creepy scene especially when we hear the Joker's laugh at the same time.

A lot of the people attending Bruce's party had rigor mortis. From the overhead pan, to the people in the background of Reeves, Wayne and the trio of lovelies.
Not a big nit, but Batman can easily be sighted by the two he's spying on from his perch across the street, Andrea and Councilman Reeves.
Guess Andrea took a magicians course to master the smoke-and-disappear/reappear stunts.
You might think Andrea offed the Joker after she transported him away from the doomed world's fair site. If she did, she botched it. This movie, I think, was made after the 65 first season episodes and before the 20 more in season two and the Joker made several more appearances.
Andrea Beaumont is the second Dana Delaney character, before Lois Lane, to know Bruce Wayne's secret.

Anyone ever notice in this movie, that no one ever refers or calls the villian "Phantasm" by his name? I thought that was strange.

Joker always escapes. Simlelax, I would guess.

Co-Director Eric Radomski got to drop his name inside this movie. In a newspaper article that for a change looks like an actual newspaper (fine text not depicted as gray shaded columns with horizontal lines), a small article headlined “Mysterious Vigilante Repels Bandits…” a pull quote within the article reads “Radomski to Press ‘I’m Innocent!’”
Due to a wide shot of a distant Alfred, his newspaper became the familiar image of gray shaded picture fields and horizontal lines. Same with Salvatore Valestra’s newspaper.
In a wide shot of Batman at the computer calling up the names of the old Valestra gang, the comma that separates “Valestra, Salvatore” is missing, but not in the computer close-up.
Batman kicks Joker in the face and knocks out a tooth. Joker spilled only a slight amount of blood but showed no discomfort whatsoever. Was it a piece of denture? Either way, that's a mighty high tolerance for pain for the dislocation of a tooth. From this point in the timeline of the BTAS saga, Joker’s full mouth of teeth contains at least one denture tooth.
Joker says there are twenty miles of tunnels underneath the world’s fair site all rigged with explosives. Is he serious? The site of the old World’s Fair must have been the size of all of New York or Los Angeles if the combined number of tunnels just under the site is twenty miles. And that’s an awful lot of tunnels for just one location. Do any big cities stretch twenty miles long in any direction?
Joker must’ve reprogrammed his mechanical housewife he calls “Hazel”. Not only does she go berserk with her kitchen knife, but also she comes with her own maniacal laugh.
Inside “Hazel” is a bundle of dynamite remotely activated to detonate shortly. Even though there aren’t any numbers of the face of the timer, the minute hand jumped from the twelve to the eleven o’clock position. I am then assuming that this timer is counting up to twelve (one minute) and not down from eleven (eleven minutes). The second hand incremented clockwise. Joker says the place will blow up in five minutes. One, five or eleven, none of those estimates were right. The area blew up beginning with the explosives in “Hazel” in two minutes and fifty-five seconds in actual time.
And speaking of Hazel, Joker remotely activated her explosives. Are we to assume that Joker activated timers wherever his explosives were wired simultaneously? Because Hazel in The Home of The Future was independent of the tunnel explosives and too far to cause a chain reaction.
As the ground beneath Batman collapsed, he fell into a canal or sewer and was washed into the bay. It does not look like he was carried more than one or two miles, if even that, from the doomed area. Therefore, Joker’s claim of twenty miles of tunnels wired with explosives continues to warrant scrutiny.
When Joker prepared to escape the world’s fair site on his handlebar-guided rocket boosters, he looked over his right should in Batman’s direction. Although his shoulder obscured part of his grin, you can enough of his mouth to see that he has all his teeth again, just in that particular shot. It was his left upper incisor or molar that was knocked out.

Minor nit:

In the flashbacks Bruce looks like he in his early 20's, which seems supported by Andrea's statement of "I've seen you on Campus". Presumibly she means Campus as in University Campus.

This does bring up one question: When does he find the time to study? If he spending all this time fighting crime and dating I mean.

Possible Anti-nit: he could be a part time student or (more likley) he's a genious and picks up on things very quickly and has great recall, so maybe he doesent need to study as much in order to do well . As well, if he's only doing this at night then durring the day after and between classes and early evening is when he studies. But if he's at university, where does he find the time to run the company?

Possible Anit nit #2: This is where suspension of disbelief comes into play. It's a cartoon based on a comic book, of course he wouldent have time to 'jugle' going to school,running a company and being a vigilante. But since we don't know the full details it's hard to make a proper judgment. He may not neccessarily at this point be playing a major role in the company and someone else (Lucious Fox perhaps) may be more or less running it so he can get an education. He may not neccesarily even do well, we just don't know.

As for the Joker thing, I'm guessing Andrea thought about killing him but decided not. But consider the things the Joker has survived before, it's no wonder he's alive and well until that fatefull night Barbra Gordon tells the story of in Return of the joker

Heres a picky one:

When Sal Velestra (sp?) goes to see the Joker, the Joker throws him into the rollar coaster and he losses his briefcase (it falls beside the ride). he doesen't appear to pick it back up, yet he's carrying it as he goes to sit down when they arrive at the house of the future.

Is this World's fair, the same one from that Riddler episode (ie where he says, "if the plan was equitable, I'd still have my last job")?

Andrea Beaumont: Dana Delany. Delany was McMurphy on "China Beach," and interestingly enough is the voice of Lois Lane in "Superman."

Arthur Reeves: Hart Bochner. Weird casting, 'cuz his dad, Lloyd, is Mayor Hill! Bochner has a familiar name, but I can't place him in anything right now except the over-eager hostage in "Die Hard."

Carl Beaumont/Phantasm: Stacy Keach. For a long time, familiar as hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer, Keach roared back into prominence of late playing Christopher Titus' father on the edgy "Titus."

Sal: Abe Vigoda. TV's Fish! Oh, and Tessio in the first "Godfather." Gets to play a guy named Sal again...and gets to die again! Geez!

Chuckie Sol: Dick Miller. See "Harlequinade."

Okay, just saw this, and the biggest nit of all is that Andrea leaves with her father without asking Bruce for help! Forget about him being Batman, he's a BILLIONAIRE for crying out loud! That's she's ENGAGED to! If your choices are "break it off and be on the lam with your mobbed up father" or "ask fiancé for help" which would you do?

Bruce could simply pay the mob the money. End of conflict. Or, let the father go on the run, but let Andrea stay in Wayne Manor with security guards until they get married. Like the President has secret service, a billionaire could EASILY afford very good protection for his fiancé, more than the mob would want to handle, especially when she isn't even the real target.

From Andrea's point of view, those options should be obvious. We know Bruce at this point is proto-Batman though, so he might use a third option and smash the mob's desire for vengeance on the Beaumont's completely.

But any way you slice it, she behaved stupidly. She left to be on the run, her father died, she became a killer, all because she couldn't even tell the man she loved what was going on? Bruce is better off without her then!