Batman: Mask of the Phantasm producer Bruce Timm has explained why the acclaimed 1993 animated film makes him "cringe."
In an interview with Empire, the Batman: The Animated Series producer who co-directed the animated film explained how Mask of the Phantasm began as a small-screen special about Bruce Wayne's transformation into the Dark Knight. The project was in pre-production when Warner Bros. executives requested a theatrical release, which put Timm and his team into a tight spot. "[Co-producer and co-director] Eric Radomski and I were in Japan, meeting with one of the animation studios that worked on the movie," Timm said. "We got the word that [the studio] officially wanted to make it a theatrical release while we were literally handing out the storyboards to the animators. It had all been formatted for the old-school TV ratio, which was practically a square. It was like, 'What the heck are we going to do?'"
With only eight months to complete Mask of the Phantasm and a budget of $6 million -- which was much lower than a typical Disney animated movie, for instance -- the result was not satisfying for Timm. "When I see it, I just cringe," Timm confessed. "It's, like, 90 percent there. I just wish I had that last ten percent!"
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Working alongside Alan Burnett, Timm and the Batman: The Animated Series team tossed different ideas around for the Dark Knight's first animated film. After passing on an Arkham Asylum-set premise that was reworked into the animated series episode "Trial," the team settled on giving Bruce Wayne a love story never done on the show. Inspired by the 1987 miniseries Batman: Year Two by Mike W. Barr, Mask of the Phantasm had Batman (Kevin Conroy) take on a murderous vigilante targeting Gotham City crime bosses while Bruce Wayne reunites with a former love in Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delany).
Released on Christmas Day 1993, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm flopped at the box office, only making a little more than $5 million domestically. In later years, however, the reviews from critics and Batman fans alike praised it for its adult tone and deep retelling of the origin story. Some have called it the best screen adaptation of the Caped Crusader.
After Mask of the Phantasm's release, subsequent animated Batman movies went straight to video, including 1998's Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero and 2000's Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. A blu-ray remaster of Mask of the Phantasm was released by the Warner Archive Collection in 2017 and, for a time, was available on Netflix.
Source: Empire