Mask of the Phantasm is an beautiful, well-written, emotional, sobering animated experience.

I probably haven't seen this movie in about twenty-five years -- since I was a kid.

There's some good stuff here.

If anything, I think that now would be the perfect time to make a Batman movie set in the 1940s.

It's odd though.

There's still a mental block for me when it comes to animation.

This older style of animation is still something that a prefer greatly to most of the stuff that we're doing with CGI nowadays; but, when it comes to drama and action, it just does nothing for me.

There are also some plot problems and issues with the characters being painfully two-dimensional.

So, no, upon seeing this again as an adult, I'm not one of the people who is going to elevate it to a status that's competitive with the best Batman movies.

Off the top of my head, the Batman movie rankings are as follows (omitting the Adam West movie with the shark repellent spray thing -- that's just a whole other thing):

1. The Dark Knight
2. The Batman
3. Batman Begins
4. Batman (1989)
5. The Dark Knight Rises
6. Mask of the Phantasm
7. Batman Returns
8. Batman Forever
9. Seven miles of crap
10. Batman vs. Superman
11. Seven more miles of crap
12. Batman and Robin

Yeah, that's where I stand. Shoot me.