Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Sorry, still waiting on the stuff for the Convention Spotlight, I will see if I get the interview questions in the next day or so since I did send the head of press at Tampa Mega an email last night. Anyways, I do have a review!

Movie: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

I know you’re thinking, “Mari, that movie has been out for many years since the 90s!” I know but I never seen it! Yes, “GASP!” Here was the thing, I went to FYE with Gondras on my birthday this past Tuesday and we were looking around and we stumbled upon the many Batman Blue Rays and found Mask of the Phantasm on DVD along with Return of the Joker from Batman Beyond. These two movies were $7 each and we couldn’t pass them up since we were surprised that these didn’t get a Blue Ray release like the many other movies such as Forever and Batman & Robin which were the two movies least liked by everyone. Even the “Bat Credit Card” joke from Nostalgia Critic still makes me laugh!

When we got back to my place, we did put Mask into Gondras’ laptop to watch to remedy myself from never seeing it. I did remember it being in theaters in the mid-90s or was it earlier, but this was around the time Warner Brothers still put animated features in theaters and that included Space Jam and the first three Pokemon movies. As you know, I have been a fan of Batman The Animated Series when I was younger and have enjoyed watching it and that is how I started loving Harley Quin, especially the episode where she was living with Poison Ivy. Anyways, if you remembered my last post about D. C. Comics belonging and this animated series was the perfect example of sticking to TV.

Movie Synopsis: This movie takes a look at more of the earlier days of Batman and how Bruce met his first love, Andrea Beaumont when he was a college kid from what I can get. This does show flashbacks mainly of how he started designing the suit and at the same time keeping time with Andrea. As time goes on, things have happened to Andrea’ home and causes her to return a ring that Bruce has propsed to her with and causes her to become someone else.

What I thought: I thought it was really good! I never seen this movie and after seeing it for my first time, I did get to see one story that shown something that led to present day Batman. Well, more like this movie was from the beginning of the series at least. I thought that Cat Woman was his only love until I found out that Andrea was his first and thought that would make sense if he met someone at an earlier part of his life after losing his parents early on.

What was surprising was seeing the Joker in this one too but the good thing is that they kept with the continuity of how he went through the chemicals and changing from being someone involved with the mob to a villain. Mark Hammel will always be Joker to me and Gondras of course! Also, the character of the Phantasm was interesting. At first, people on the police force thought it was Batman causing attacks on mob members but there was a special chemical that was left behind as the Phantasm’s mark not Batman’s since we know we tend to see one of his Batarangs stuck in the wall or anything else to say, “Yeah, I was here!”

What was great about this movie was how touching the scenes between Bruce and Andrea being together throughout the film. I did mention in the last post that I liked how in the D. C. animated stuff was how there were lighthearted moments in the drama. This was a romance story since it did start off a bit awkward like some relationships due to how Bruce was starting off as Batman and she wonders where he was until she figured out what went on at his parents’ grave site. I did find it sad in the ending how Bruce thought he lost her again due to how the final fight was at the World of Tomorrow exhibit that was around which was also a theme park and the Joker rigged it with a bomb. She wanted it to end after what happened to her father and how he was connected to the mob and why she went after them as the Phantasm. Yes, it did show her alive but it did go the way of “He doesn’t know that.” I guess the creators wanted to show as the series went on that he did move on and found other women to fall for and of course Cat Woman was one of them.

IFinal Thoughts: My final thoughts on this is that this was a masterpiece to be placed on Blue Ray. It would suck if they waited until next month to do it when we got the DVD for a discounted price. I am wishing Warner Brothers and D. C. made their movies like this rather than how they are doing now because of how the TV shows are getting better and there is still more to do with them. Sub Zero did follow this film and it was an okay film after seeing it on Cartoon Network but the other animated movies that were released were really well done. Still, this movie should have been on Blue Ray, especially with putting the audio at a better volume since I did notice that it kind of dropped out in some scenes and not as loud as it Joker’s laughs.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Paw Prints

That was it for this review! I am hoping I hear back from Tampa Bay MegaCon for my Convention Spotlight! I know this will also lead into my July and August Favorites for this year! Stay tuned!