“Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” follows the extraordinary “Batman: The Animated Series” and remains one of the greatest big screen adventures for the Dark Knight, second only to Tim Burton’s “Batman”. It’s a seriously underrated “Batman” movie that often gets overshadowed by the bigger live-action films.

Batman (Kevin Conroy) finds himself wrongly implicated in a series of murders of mobsters when the mysterious and elusive Phantasm arrives in Gotham City. Meanwhile, an old flame (Dana Delany) of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, appears after she suddenly vanished from his life years earlier. Batman must find out how the two are connected as his arch nemesis, the Joker (Mark Hamill “Star Wars”), also becomes involved.

Tim Conroy is great as Batman/Bruce Wayne and it’s a shame that he so often gets overlooked. For an animated film aimed more towards children than adults, it’s amazing how more deep and meaningful the character is here in comparison to some of the live-action pictures. Andrea Beaumont is the love interest and she turns out to be an interesting character and not just some damsel. The Phantasm makes for a very good character. Mark Hamill is terrific as the Joker, blending the comedic and dark elements of the character as well as Jack Nicholson did in the Tim Burton version. Some of the other characters are a little tedious, especially the politician that wants the police to hunt Batman. All the characters are animated very well in the style of the cartoon series.

“Batman: The Animated Series” is great and so is this film. This movie provides a great mystery, some intriguing flashbacks about Bruce Wayne’s journey to becoming Batman and some spectacular action sequences (the jetpack scene is very fun). If you are a fan of Batman and have not seen this movie then you are missing out on one of the finest additions to the franchise.