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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm coming to Blu-ray next month.
- Thread starter Hellwarden
- Start date
PhoncipleBone
Banned
CadetMahoney
Member
That song is mandatory in any phantasm thread.
Auron_Kale
Member
My personal favorite Batman movie. I loved watching in theaters on Christmas Day - was a mind-blowing experience for me as a kid.
This is a Day 1 purchase for sure.
This is a Day 1 purchase for sure.
SonicMegaDrive
Member
You're lucky. I wanted to see the film in theaters but I balked when some kid I knew in high school said it wasn't that good. I knew I never should have trusted that kid - he preferred the X-Men cartoon.
I'm about to date myself but I saw this opening weekend in the theater. This was mind blowing to see a cartoon like this in the theater, since Transformers the movie. Me and my friend immediately after the movie went to Camelot music and looked for the soundtrack. I can't see how you could feel this was forgettable if you like TAS at all. And if you don't like TAS just don't even say that.
Ban Puncher
Member
Auron_Kale
Member
Was super lucky that my older cousin (who was a fan of BTAS) really wanted to see it aside from our younger cousins. So our parents let us go see it as the theater was close by and it gave all the adults a few hours to rest from Christmas.
I don't like TAS, but hear me out, I don't dislike it. I just haven't watched it. It was out in a window where I kind of grew out of Batman for a bit, after Batman Returns through to Batman Begins. From my mid teens through to mid 20s
Perhaps that's why I didn't think much of Mask of the Phantasm? having never really watched TAS, all the baggage of the shows plots and characters meant nothing to me so the story held no weight?
#1 defender
Member
About damn time! Just rewatched this on DVD with my nephew a couple of weeks ago, while introdcuing him to the DCAU. Will definitely give it another go as soon as it comes out! 
Azure Phoenix
Member
If they're bring this to Blu-Ray can we get Sub-Zero as well? I've got a soft spot for that one, but it never got an official DVD release in Europe so I'm still stuck with a VHS tape.
Randy Lanzarote
Member
Region free? Plz be region free, as I doubt this will make its way to the UK.
Prof. Bathtub
Member
Yeah, upon rewatch POV definitely deserves a spot in this (100% hypothetical) collection. Good shadows and effects. Pretty consistent and lively character animation, not that stiff for the series.
Middle age sure hit Apollo Justice like a truck.
Why? Every DC Animated movie has made its way to europe recently.
It's a Warner Archive manufactured on demand release. Titles released under that banner rarely make it over outside the US.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Ayyy awesome.
Beer Monkey
Member
Surprised that their confidence in this title wasn't enough to get them to do a regular release instead of on-demand fulfillment. The Archive BDs are at least pressed in small runs instead of burned like their DVDs, right?
I've seen it reported that the 2.0 audio mix for the film is an aggressive Pro-Logic encode rather than stereo, any truth to this?
I've seen it reported that the 2.0 audio mix for the film is an aggressive Pro-Logic encode rather than stereo, any truth to this?
So forget you watched Phantasm, order the full Animated series, watch all of it, and then watch MotP again, and then let us know what you think of it?....
#1 defender
Member
All WB US Blu-rays are region free, don't worry.
Yes, the BDs are properly pressed.
According to the end credits the film was available with Dolby Stereo in select theaters. Dolby Stereo on 35mm prints is 4 channels (Left-Center-Right-Surround) folded into 2 channels (Left-Right). Theaters would recover the 4 channels with a Dolby Stereo decoder. On a home theater setup a Dolby Pro Logic decoder must be used to recover the 4 channels. It's very likely the DTS-HD 2.0 track is the Dolby Stereo mix.
Mattlikewhoa
Member
I can't believe I forgot about this?! Picking it up day one!
Beer Monkey
Member
I've seen people say the mix on the laserdisc decodes great via Pro-Logic and Pro-Logic II. WB should run the mix through a decoder and bass management processor (all of this can be done in the digital domain with professional Dolby tools) and include the (decoded) surround mix as an already-decoded option. A 5.1 track without the cost of doing a new discrete mix.
The Lamonster
Member
Day one.
WHERE DAT AMAZON
WHERE DAT AMAZON
HD (and even 4K for the same reasons) can dramatically improve the picture in multiple ways. To start, there actually is some enhanced detail with some kinds of animation. Certain background paintings, much like those from the hand-drawn analog era, will often have a bit more texture to them. The increased resolution also makes the line work clearer and sharper. The real benefit, however, comes from HD using a different colorspace than SD content. This results in richer and more accurate colors, which is great for animation. The Blu-ray format allows for much more efficient compression formats too, so it's less likely to seem blocky or blurry. This is not to mention that it'll natively be in 1080p at 24fps, so you won't have to worry about deinterlacing or scaling artifacts either.
With the best examples, it's as clear as having the animation cel right in front of you.
It's probably cheaper and easier to just encode the Dolby Stereo tracks as is. Most modern AVRs likely already have a Pro-Logic mode, so there wouldn't be much point if they aren't going to do a new mix. I can also personally attest to the decoded LaserDisc Pro-Logic track sounding just fine, which is basically what people heard in the theaters anyway.
Beer Monkey
Member
Some HDMI receivers won't apply Pro-Logic to high-resolution 2 channel audio. Some won't even apply Pro-Logic to HDMI audio even if you force the resolution down to CD quality.
Design flaws for sure, but it's a real thing.
Didn't realize that as mine doesn't have that issue. That's quite a design flaw.
Beer Monkey
Member
When you are lucky you can work around it with configuration but not always. For example, lying to your PS3 or PS4 and telling it that your receiver can only accept 16/48 bit stereo when it can really accept 24/96 7.1. Then changing the configuration back after watching the movie.
So that's not just a receiver design issue, it's also the player sending 2.0 as 7.1 (with 5.1 empty channels) when the Pro-Logic DSP is only implemented to work on 2.0 inputs.
Home Theater early adopters always go through a lot of shit like this.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
autumnleaf
Member
SubZero is the true GOAT Batman film.
itwasTuesday
He wasn't alone.
So was the open gate 4x3 version was for tv airings? And the theatrical was cropped from that for 1.78. That seems odd for an animated film. Well, I guess not if it was always intended to be made from the TOS studio and be a tv movie that got a theatrical release.
I saw it in theaters but don't remember how it was on tv, 4x3 crop of the 16x9 crop or open matte for tv meaning you saw the entire shot.
I saw it in theaters but don't remember how it was on tv, 4x3 crop of the 16x9 crop or open matte for tv meaning you saw the entire shot.
Beer Monkey
Member
Halfway through production they switched from making it direct-to-video (which would have been 4:3 back then just like SubZero and RotJ) to theatrical with a 1.85:1 ratio (most theaters at that point weren't even equipped to project Academy Ratio films any more). I'm guessing some finished shots may have been re-drawn at that point and that some were simply cropped if they could find a good composition in the larger frame.
RoninChaos
Member
This was a double post but I stick by what I said. lol
RoninChaos
Member
SonicMegaDrive
Member
In fairness, calling it "another episode" still makes it the best Batman movie of all-time.
theMrCravens
Member
Always wondered what happened to the Joker at the end.
Where does he end up after the Phantasm drag him in that smoke ?
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