Backstage - Siskel and Ebert Review Mask of the Phantasm
Siskel: That's a scene from Batman:
Mask of the Phantasm, a Batman animated
feature that was made in 1993 and Roger and I
never reviewed it and as far as I'm concerned,
we made a big mistake because it's terrific. I
enjoyed it more than the current Batman
adventure that's in theaters and I kind of liked
that picture. This film, however, is really
smart and beautifully drawn and intricately
plotted. Obviously Batman lends himself to
animation, just take a look at the art deco
influenced drawing style, the classic cartoon
drawing style, as we find Batman caught up in a
web of love, violence and guilt.
Siskel goes on to recount the plot of MOTP for
several minutes, with clips mixed in from the
film.
Siskel: There's more, including The Joker who
frankly was better when Jack Nicholson played
him in the first movie or Caesar Romero in the
cartoon show on TV. I don't like this Joker's
voice.
More clips are shown, focusing on The Joker.
Siskel: But it's the drawing style that really
distinguishes Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
You can really lose yourself in all of these
great images as Batman fights against the
Phantasm, his deadly imitator.
Clips from the Batplane/Phantasm rooftop
sequence shown.
Siskel: If I were forced to rank all of the
Batman movies made in the last few years, I'd
rank this one, this animated one, just under the
first live-action Bamtan from Tim Burton. I wish
Warner Bros. would produce more animated
features from the same production team. Sorry we
caught up with this picture, a couple years
late, but it's available on tape and disk and I
watched it at home on LaserDisk and with a
booming surround sound system, Batman: Mask
of the Phantasm was big time entertainment.
I really liked it.
Ebert: You know, I think that the day is coming
and it's also happening with the Disney
pictures, when adults are realizing that
animation is not limited to an entertainment
form for children. And that animation can do
some things that live action can't do, for
example the sets of the city in this movie are
seen more clearly than the live action movies--
Siskel: Absolutely true.
Ebert: --where they get kind of murky. The
exaggeration of the effects and of the camera
angles can be stretched and the perspective can
be played with in a way that isn't available in
the real world. And also here it's interesting
that they really did have a story, more of a
story than the movies--
Siskel: Yes they do, yes.
Ebert: --the characters and they pause and--
Siskel: They're motivated,
Ebert: --they have motivations and you get
involved in it.
Siskel: I got completely involved in it and also
it's tight. It's seventy-seven minutes long,
every image counts. Remember, they're spending
more money in animation maybe per minute than
they are in some live action pictures and
they're very economically done.
Ebert: So you saw Batman Forever and you
still wanna see some Batman, try renting this.
Segment transcribed from original review, as
aired in 1995.
[ Back to Backstage ] |
|
