Throughout the years, people have been waiting to see the perfect "Batman" movie; people complained about the live action versions that there was no relation to the Bruce Wayne character but about the villains. I remember staying up all night in the summer of 2001 for no reason, I was bored so I decided to go to the living room and find a movie to watch. I remember seeing the tape on the front of the living room set, so I pick it up and watch it and it was breathtaking in every direction, and finally gave "Batman" fans something to care about.<br /><br />This is the first film from the "Batman: The Animated Series" in which the film's plot involves Batman being framed for killing a group of gangsters; but here's the catch, the new villain is identical to Batman in terms of the cape.<br /><br />The villain is known as the Phantasm in which he makes his appearance in a gray cloak, a blade for a hand, and a silver mask (almost identical to Doctor Doom) in which his weapon is not only hand-to-hand combat, but also uses smoke as a weapon as well for distraction, and that's what he uses to kill off the first two victims in the story; by leading one to crash his car on the street from a garage to crushing a mobster with a headstone at a graveyard (this might not be suitable for young viewers); and yet, both the gangsters and the cops work together to kill Batman and the only person who believes that the caped crusader isn't a murderer is Commissioner Gordon. Even the District Attorney Arthur Reeves, wants him dead and yet he's working with the same gangsters that are involved with the Phantasm.<br /><br />Throughout the film we encounter a beautiful woman name Andrea Beaumont who makes a fool out of Bruce Wayne, and in a flashback of Bruce Wayne, its explained that the woman was the first love of Bruce Wayne, but it tears him apart when Andrea abandons Bruce by leaving with her father to France after in tides with a local mafia. The flashback also shows how Bruce Wayne started out as the caped crusader by going through different fights with criminals disturbing the peace. He uses smoke bombs and jacks to stop the bad guys and vehicles along with different techniques of combat. He discovers later in his mansion that he has a cave and in one scene of the film he's at the funeral of his dead parents and tells him that he doesn't want to fight crime; I felt Bruce's pain in this movie, unlike the other films because all he wanted to do was lead a normal life.<br /><br />With people believing Batman killing the mobsters, there is one gangster who is scared to death, Sal Velestore, who pays a visit at the old Gotham Exhibit, which the Joker lives there. Sal pays him two million dollars to get rid of Batman. The Joker makes Sal laugh to death while getting the Phantasm on tape, and now The Joker knows the true identity of the vigilante.<br /><br />During the film, Batman discovers that the gangsters who died are related to the same mafia that Andrea's father was working with and discovers that The Joker used to work for the organization. Realizing that Andrea comes back into town, he realizes that he will do everything to protect his love and try to reveal who the killer is before it's too late.<br /><br />Batman: Mask of the Phantasm proves to be one of the greatest animated films ever and the best Batman ever made.