Batman and the Phantom
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Batman and the Phantom |
| Original title | Batman: Mask of the Phantasm |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1993 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Eric Radomski ; Bruce W. Timm |
| script |
Alan Burnett ; Paul Dini |
| production |
Alan Burnett ; Bruce W. Timm ; Eric Radomski |
| music | Shirley Walker |
| cut | Al Breitenbach |
| occupation | |
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OV spokesman:
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Batman and the Phantom ( English Batman: Mask of the Phantasm ) is a cartoon from 1993 and is based on the cartoon character of the same name, Batman , created by Bob Kane . In Germany, the film was marketed on VHS from May 5, 1994 .
action
Gotham City has a new criminal hunter, the Phantom. In contrast to Batman, however, the mysterious figure, always surrounded by an eerie mist, kills its prey.
The phantom's first victim is gang boss Chuckie Sol. But the press blames Batman for the murder and the smug city councilor Arthur Reeves sees the lurid headlines as an opportunity to start an election program that will lead him to mayor's office. So he starts a real hunt for the dark knight. Commissioner Gordon, who believes in Batman's innocence, wants nothing to do with it. At the same time Andrea Beaumont, Bruce Wayne's great childhood sweetheart, comes back to Gotham. The two even wanted to get married years ago, but Andrea had to flee the country with her father because he was involved in some dubious business.
The second criminal king to lose his life to the mysterious phantom is Buzz Bronski. Sal Valestra, also a giant of the Gotham underworld, gradually panics because he recognizes a red thread in these murders that runs right up to him. He contacts Reeves and calls for stronger measures to be taken in the prosecution of Batman. Apparently, the aging gangster and the aspiring city council have a common past.
In the meantime, Batman is in ever more dire straits. A special task force of the police catches him and almost kills him, but Andrea, who apparently knows of his double identity, saves him at the last second. At Wayne Manor, the two get very close again and spend the night together.
Meanwhile, Valestra makes contact with his former bodyguard. The man who is now only known as the Joker in the criminal world. This is now hidden on the site of the former world exhibition . Valestra offers him a million dollar fee if he agrees to take out Batman. The Joker gets a taste for it, but has other plans. He kills Valestra and dumps the body with a video camera and an explosive charge in his penthouse apartment. That same night the phantom appears to kill Valestra, but escapes the trap at the last moment.
When Batman looks at an old photo showing Beaumont with the gangsters, he recognizes Valestra's bodyguard as the Joker. The clown prince of crime, for his part, pays Reeves a visit and wants to find out whether he is somehow connected to the phantom and poisons him with his "joker gas". Batman struggles to get information out of Reeves late at night in the hospital. Reeves was still employed by Carl Beaumont, Andrea's father, and was in his first election campaign. He went bankrupt and asked his boss for financial support. When he refused, he betrayed him to the gangsters. Now, however, many events of the past few days, which are also related to Bruce's own past, make terrible sense.
At that time he and Andrea wanted to get married. However, she had to leave town with her father when he got involved in financial dealings with a criminal syndicate consisting of Valestra, Sol and Bronski. He had gone into hiding with his daughter in Europe and made a fortune out of the money he had embezzled. When he had enough fortune to pay off what he thought the debt was, he had to find out that the criminals were now more after blood than money.
Initially, Batman now suspects Andrea's father to be the phantom. When he finds out, however, that the Joker, then bodyguard and contract killer of Sal Valestra, murdered him years ago, a completely new picture emerges. He had murdered Andrea's father on behalf of the Syndicate and she is now taking bloody revenge in the mask of the phantom. After a final fight on the site of the former world exhibition, Andrea is able to provide the Joker, Batman appeals to her not to get as bad as him, but she says it is too late and disappears together with the Joker in an artificial cloud of fog.
At home, in the Bath Cave, Bruce makes serious reproaches for not having recognized the connections earlier. Alfred, his faithful butler, tries to comfort him by making it clear to him that Bruce, because of his own desire for retribution, is walking on the same path as Andrea, but, unlike her, he has not stumbled.
production
Batman and the Phantom was originally intended as an episode special in the Batman animated series and was supposed to represent the series' grand finale. At the last moment, however, the producers decided to turn the material into a feature film instead of a direct-to-video production , which meant that the employees had less than a year to make it because of the tight schedule.
The three-dimensional, computer-generated Gotham City in the opening sequence was originally intended for the series. It was originally planned to create three-dimensional sets to replace the hand-drawn backgrounds. However, this was never implemented due to time and cost reasons. The Joker's hideout, the site of the former Gotham City World's Fair, was modeled on the 1939 World's Fair in New York.
The song "I Never Even Told You" in the credits of the film is one of the few vocal performances by the actress Tia Carrere .
Reviews
- Lexicon of the international film : " The" clean man "in the bat costume has to deal with a doppelganger who hunts criminals in Gotham City, but kills his victims. To top it all, Batman's old enemy, the" Joker " The unmasking of the culprit brings a bitter disappointment. An animated film that is stylistically based on Bob Kane's originals from the 1940s; a nostalgic pleasure for comic fans that is at times diminished by a somewhat clumsy narrative structure. "
Awards & nominations
- Nominated for the 1994 Annie Award in the Best Animated Film category .
Adaptations
In the comic book Batman: Shadow of the Phantasm , which continues the plot of the film, Batman and Andrea / Phantom are on the hunt for the mad Arthur Reeves. Furthermore, open questions are answered in the comic, such as that the joker survived Andreas' revenge.
Web links
- Batman and the Phantom in the Internet Movie Database (English)