Adventures in Animation: 90s Cartoon Movies

Man, remember THESE shows?

I'll admit I never saw Batman: Mask of the Phantasm until about two weeks ago, which should come as a bit of a surprise to everyone who's ever known me, ever. I mean, the movie got a big-screen release, is constantly referenced by other entries in the DC Animated Universe, and (here's the most important part) only costs $5 at Target. And yet I never saw fit to watch it Neil just recently. Go figure.

Now that I've seen it, I have to say that Batman: Mask of the Phantasm may be the best Batman movie ever. It's got some pretty stiff competition from the Christopher Nolan films, but in some ways it proves to be even better.

The movie juggles about three or four plots at the same time, switching between them fairly smoothly and giving enough time to all of them that the viewer never feels lost. My biggest complaint about the movie is that the Joker plays a pretty prominent role, but he feels shoe-horned in, like the writers had some requirement to feature at least one big-name Batman villain, even though their plot didn't need one.

But, seriously, this movie has the BEST all-time portrayal of Bruce Wayne. He gets a bit of screen time as the womanizer (kinda like what Christian Bale does in the Nolan films), but we see how tired he gets of the whole thing. It's a humanizing moment for the man who, I must remind you, spends most of his time dressed up as a spandex bat punching out the mentally challenged. He needs all the humanizing moments he can get.

Moving on from there, we've got Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Now, unlike MotP, this movie was ALL OVER my childhood. I probably watched it dozens of times growing up, and I'm pretty sure that, at one point, I must have had it memorized. And that's... kinda funny. I mean, I LIKED Tiny Toons, but I remember very clearly losing interest in the cartoon really quickly, especially once Animaniacs hit the scene.

Now I'm going to have to go back and watch Tiny Toons all over again, because this movie is hi-LARIOUS. Seriously, it's a ton of fun. Like a lot of Warner Brothers fare, it's reliance on pop-culture references hasn't aged all that well ("Hey, kids! Remember Arsenio Hall?"), but the characters are just fantastic.

Particularly, the character of Babs Bunny impressed me the most. I don't recall liking Babs all that much, but she is really, really funny. She shares a lot of scenes with Buster, and, more often than not, she steals the show from him. It's great.

And, of course, you've got Plucky Duck introducing children to the concept of schadenfreude long before they develop the physical capacity to even pronounce the word.

Finally (not to give anything away), but Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Summer Vacation has the best plot hole I have ever seen in a movie.

So if the big screen offerings this year don't look too pleasant, I'd advocate a trip to the bargain bin. These nostalgic classics hold up pretty darn well, and they set you back less than the cost of a theater ticket.