{"id":2442,"date":"2008-02-14T02:24:44","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T07:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=2442"},"modified":"2016-07-26T04:00:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T08:00:38","slug":"batman-double-feature-mask-of-the-phantasmmr-freeze-subzero-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/14\/batman-double-feature-mask-of-the-phantasmmr-freeze-subzero-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Batman Double Feature: Mask of the Phantasm\/Mr. Freeze – Subzero (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On the cusp of the upcoming \u201cThe Dark Knight,\u201d Warner Bros. has taken the two best animated Batman movies ever made, and re-packaged them together for a double feature DVD with the extras. Now I bet you\u2019re fuming that you spent ten bucks on \u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d when you can now get it for essentially the same price but with another movie, and I don\u2019t blame you, but I don\u2019t have either of these movies, and for someone like me looking for a Batman fix before \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d juggernaut slams onto the big screens, this double feature DVD comes with convenience, and good timing. Timm did Batman like no one else did Batman, and that\u2019s a true caveat as well.<\/p>\n

Timm is so in love with Batman that every other character he ever put on screen was minimized and de-powered in favor of Batman. Whether \u201cJustice League\u201d or \u201cWorld\u2019s Finest\u201d Batman possessed ridiculous skills and speed just to make him look great, and that in turn, added to my annoyance with Timm and the character. However, you really can\u2019t dislike Timm too much when you consider he ushered Batman in as an adult character with real issues, and two animated movies that received almost zero publicity yet managed to be ten times better than the previous live action series from the Burton-Schumacher duo. Timm commits a feat with Mask of the Phantasm (1993) that many directors couldn\u2019t pull off.<\/p>\n

In a little over an hour he tells an epic first year tale of Bruce Wayne on the road to Batman, he explores a menacing villain who may or may not be on Batman\u2019s side, and he depicts the Joker as a maniacal horrific threat to the Dark Knight, which, up until we hadn\u2019t seen \u201cBatman.\u201d For kids looking for wham and bam action, \u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d may be a little slow, but nonetheless it\u2019s a wonderful slow boil murder mystery with a competent mystery villain. Just the same there are some incredibly effective action sequences of Bruce Wayne in early costume fighting crime, and then creating the design for Batman. It\u2019s essentially just like the first half of \u201cBatman Begins\u201d but with much more low key maturity.<\/p>\n

The romance between Bruce and Andrea Beaumont is one of the most engrossing storylines in the entire Timm Batman canon, and the way the Joker corrupts this dynamic with his misdeeds and murder make this movie a wonderful premiere for Timm in the feature film format. Though it barely made a dent at the box office, it still outclasses \u201cBatman,\u201d and \u201cBatman and Robin\u201d by miles and miles. SubZero (1998) is also an excellent antidote to the putrid waste of time that was \u201cBatman and Robin.\u201d The happy coincidence was that it arrived a year later with little to no publicity and lo and behold it was the better film, with a Mr. Freeze who is imposing and horrifying in stature with a goal that he intends on meeting regardless of who dies in the process.<\/p>\n

Even the Commissioner’s daughter. What “SubZero” has over the aforementioned live action mess is that its successfully dramatic, it\u2019s appealing to children and it has the entire trio of Batman, Robin, and Batgirl. On the same wavelength the romance between Dick Grayson who realizes he\u2019s in love with Barbara Gordon is probably the most charming aspect of the film, with Bruce taking a second string as their savior who fights to keep their relationship strong when Barbara is kidnapped by Mr. Freeze to be used for her organs to transplant to Freeze\u2019s wife Nora. Now Dick and Batman follow them to Freeze\u2019s lair in the arctic and take on killer polar bears and the elements to save her and try to restore some sanity to Freeze.<\/p>\n

This was a film pushed back to avoid comparisons to the aforementioned box office lemon, and for good reason since Timm\u2019s sequel is far more superior with an engrossing story, and fantastic action sequences. Though Barbara only suits up as Batgirl once, she\u2019s a key player in the story, and all dignity is restored to the mythos thanks to Timm.<\/p>\n

Folks, you get what you pay for, and sadly, this \u201cBatman Double Feature\u201d is one of the dinkiest repackages I\u2019ve ever seen. Not only does it simply mash the covers together on the DVD, but there\u2019s no chapter insert, no little tokens, the extras are re-packaged, and the DVD is double sided! Suffice it to say it took me a few minutes to grab it correctly without adding a finger print to the disc. This is just sloppy, but then again, this is to market on \u201cThe Dark Knight,\u201d so again, you get what you pay for.<\/p>\n

People looking for a reason to buy both films without spending money on separate releases will find this a quick way to achieve the goal, but the DVD and packaging are just plain awful. The DVD is terrible, the packaging sucks, and the extras are old hat, but thankfully the double bill has two wonderful animated films that managed to outclass and outrank their predecessors in every respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the cusp of the upcoming \u201cThe Dark Knight,\u201d Warner Bros. has taken the two best animated Batman movies ever made, and re-packaged them together for a double feature DVD with the extras. Now I bet you\u2019re fuming that you spent ten bucks on \u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d when you can now get it for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,99,120,125,240,268,340,349,391,580,906,922,1087],"class_list":["post-2442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-animation","tag-b","tag-batman","tag-crime","tag-dc-comics","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-gangster","tag-kids","tag-science-fiction","tag-sequel","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21595,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions\/21595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}