Superhero fans of my generation had tons of great cartoons to watch while we we're growing up, and Batman: The Animated Series was right up there among the best. It combined action with a cool art style and serious plots that made the show just as appealing to adults as it was to kids. Mask of the Phantasm is a side-story of that amazing show, so it's no surprise that I still love it all these years later.

Phantasm works so well because it pairs the usual themes of the show with an extremely bittersweet love story and tons of the detective elements that are always present in Batman's best tales. Equal time is spent with the present day mystery of the Phantasm, and Bruce's early experiments with vigilante justice.

It's great to see Bruce Wayne get equal focus in the story, and in many ways the scenes with him out of costume are the most interesting and pivotal to the story. The Joker plays a crucial part in the plot, and a woman is introduced who had a powerful influence on Bruce's decision to become Batman. What more could the true Batman fan ask for? Mask of the Phantasm is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as The Dark Knight and Batman Returns. There's a classic story within its animated trappings.

I love Batman, and just loved this movie. Like the fantastic Batman:The Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm is deep, intelligent, mature and complex. The film could have been longer by 20 minutes, but it is a gripping and compelling animated film with plenty to like.

The animation is excellent. Sophisticated, dark and somewhat unique, I think it improves on the animation of the series slightly. The colours are bold, and the character designs are sharp and decisive. The music is wonderful too, it is quite a complex score even for Batman but it is always memorable whether it is the choruses or the rousing orchestral music.

The story is what makes Mask of the Phantasm so good. It is structured similarly to those of some of the plot lines of the series but just as fresh and as compelling with a lot of great scenes particularly the wonderfully poetic opening sequence. The writing is superb, very mature and intelligent, and the pace and characters are spot on. Batman especially is a revelation, dark, brooding and charismatic. The voice acting is terrific, with Kevin Conroy actually embodying the character and Mark Hamill once again phenomenal as Joker.

All in all, an amazing animated film and one of the best Batman films to date. 9/10 Bethany Cox

BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is widely regarded as one of the finest of the animated BATMAN films, but having just finished watching it I'm rather surprised as I didn't think it was up to much at all. As an early 1990s production this looks and feels rather cheap and dated, and only the efforts of a talented voice cast tend to make it watchable.

Sadly many of the actors are reduced to giving gratingly over the top pronunciations, with the exception of Mark Hamill who does a very good job as the Joker. Otherwise, it's business as usual, with Batman on the trail of a vigilante whose brutal murders are being blamed on him. I found this rather slapdash in places with barely any effort having gone into the characters or the backdrops; the result is distinctly underwhelming.