An unfairly forgotten film, "Mask of the Phantasm" is not only a great animated film  it is also the best of all the Batman films after Burton's original. The animation is not very detail-oriented, but it does a very good job of showing the emotional drama and turmoil of the characters. Bruce Wayne is a man who finds himself torn in two: as Batman, he's a fearsome avenger of the night who is always alone and as Bruce Wayne, he's a rich fop and a womanizer who is also always alone. At a party, he thinks back on his first romantic love with a beautiful heiress named Andrea Beaumont and what his life could have been like with her. Andrea's reappearance coincides with the sudden arrival of (another) masked avenger named the Phantasm who is killing the mob bosses of Gotham  and letting Batman take the blame for the murders. The last mob boss, convinced that Batman has gone nuts and is murdering his old compadres, offers the Joker $5,000,000 to kill Batmanan offer that the Joker gleefully accepts. So, you've got Batman battling the Joker, the Phantasm, and the Gotham PD who want to bring him in for murder. On top of that, he's got the emotional turmoil of reliving his first love and the reasons she left himand the fact that maybe he's tired of being Batman, that he wants a normal life but he still feels driven to work off the guilt of his parent's death and the pressure of the vow he made to them. It all collides at the old Gotham's World Fair in a spectacular animated fight sequence between Batman, the Joker, and the Phantasm. This is an animated film with an unusual amount of emotional weight and resonance that is balanced with a strong dose of action  a gem all the way.