(In anticipation of this month’s release of BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT on DVD and THE DARK KNIGHT in theaters, OWF revisits a few classic animated Batman films.)

Sometimes darker means better. Especially in Gotham City.

The moody BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM stands in sharp contrast to the gaudy and goofy live-action Batman films that followed its 1993 theatrical release. Where Joel Schumaker’s BATMAN FOREVER (1995) and BATMAN & ROBIN (1997) favored garish color schemes and cartoonish action scenes, PHANTASM delivered an engrossing story told with wit, style and restraint.

Some have called this feature-length spinoff to the excellent BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES the best Batfilm ever produced. I wouldn’t go that far, but it certainly deserves high praise and stature. It’s one of the most original and engrossing depictions of Batman and Gotham City on film.

PHANTASM’s gorgeous art deco visual style and film noir vibe rival the gothic landscape Tim Burton created for his great Batfilms. The film’s shadowy style compliments the densely-plotted story which balances drama, mystery and romance with exciting action and adventure.

The story finds Batman/Bruce Wayne (voiced by the awesome Kevin Conroy) hunting down a masked vigilante, the Phantasm, who’s busy picking off Gotham’s mob bosses one-by-one. Batman is wrongly implicated in the murders, and the plot soon takes a personal twist for the Dark Knight. He discovers the murderer has a connection to his long lost love, Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delaney). Themes of revenge, regret, and obsession crop up, and the case forces Bruce Wayne to reexamine his troubled past and his decision to become the Batman.

The film offers a number of fascinating origin-style flashbacks that add weight to the vigilante mystery. We follow a young Bruce attempting to make good on the vow of vengeance made to his parents after their murder. This leads to some fun pre-Batsuit action scenes. Things get complicated for Bruce after he finds true love with Andrea. The most compelling and poignant moment comes midway as young Bruce, wishing to ditch the Batsuit to live a happy and normal life with Andrea, begs his parents’ towering gravestone to set him free of his vow. Fate, of course, tragically decides to keep Bruce under the cowl.

The flashbacks also provide a few peeks of a pre-dolled-up Joker (Mark Hamill). The Clown Prince of Crime’s mysterious connection to the Phantasm drops him right in the middle of the story and the film’s climactic showdown. Hamill’s Joker is always a pleasure to watch. He goes from quirky to creepy to threatening in a matter of seconds, offering comic relief and some tense moments.

The Joker isn’t the only cool thing about the film’s latter half. The mystery surrounding the Phantasm’s identity should keep most viewers in suspense. Plus, the slam-bang finale, which takes place in a rundown World’s Fair site, is full of visual thrills and ends on a risky downbeat worthy of Batman’s dark history.

Some might find the animation a bit aged or too flat in places, but Shirley Walker’s timeless score should elevate any such scenes.

Audiences ignored MASK OF THE PHANTASM during its theatrical run, but the film became a Batfan favorite after its initial release on DVD and home video in the early 90s. PHANTASM is even more relevant today because of its thematic and tonal parallels to Christopher Nolan’s BATMAN BEGINS

Those anticipating THE DARK KNIGHT could do a lot worse than revisiting ol’ Bats’ first big screen animated adventure.

BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM was directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm.