Watching this movie made me very happy and infuriated me to no end at the same time. Here is a cartoon movie that the writers clearly spent a lot of extra time attempting to make it enjoyable, not only for kids, but for adults as well. In fact, I could go as far as saying that this movie was actually designed more for adults than for kids. Cleverly adding to the origin of Batman, while at the same time creating a very well developed plot and characters for that matter. The movie had some drama. But the drama did not take away from the overall action of the movie. In addition, they focused on Batman trying to solve a mystery, which is wonderful since Batman has always been depicted as a detective in the comic books. It had mystery, suspense, action, drama, and some humor. And all of these elements were very carefully and wonderfully done. My best compliment to it is that it seemed real. Keep in mind we are talking about a cartoon movie about a billionaire tight-wearing crime fighter. Yet, every moment seemed genuine, true, and real to the character's personas and to the viewing audience.

There was nothing cheap about this movie. No miscast high priced actor who spews retarded one liners in his thick Austrian accent. No moronic gizmos such as the go-go gadget ice skates or the magical mind machine. No idiotic criminal plots that involve either an army of penguins, a sun-blocking machine, or the previously mentioned magical mind machine. The action can only be considered cartoonish because it was a cartoon, not because it was so cheesy. I guess what I'm saying is how impressive and sad it is that this low budget cartoon movie can be infinitely better than the incredibly high budget movies: Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.

It would be nice if the people writing the movies had ever read any of the comics. It's baffling. I'll be honest. Not all the comics are brilliantly written. Nor would all of them translate well to a movie format. Still, there are a ton of very high quality, highly translatable stories that are completely ignored. Heck, they didn't even try to get the characters right for Batman and Robin. Changing the origins slightly I can accept. Changing excellent comic book characters into garbage I cannot. They should go back to Batman vs. one villain. Unless they decided to follow the great story of Knightfall comic for comic, in which case they can have numerous villains. Anywho, that's why Batman: Mask of the Phantasm made me happy and sad. A very good movie that will be much better than any other stupid movie they make in that godforsaken live action Batman series. Very frustrating, but hey! When I'm rich and stuff, I'll make a Batman movie that will be most enjoyable without the cheese. Then there will be much rejoicing. Go see this movie that I nearly gave even 4.5 donuts.