Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

The first and so far, only animated Batman movie has a fine score by Shirley Walker. It mixes both elements of Danny Elfman's original Batman score and foreshadows some of Batman Forever's moments. Walker pitches the gothic darkness of the original against some fairly decent action moments as well as some more tender moments for Bruce Wayne's romancing. Some wacky fairground type music occurs to match up with the weird world of the Joker, most notably in the Phantasm and Joker Fight, although this mixes with the action music splendidly. The CD starts with a the brooding main theme that wisely sticks with the main Batman motif from the animated series, while adding a choir as it progresses to give it a superb haunting quality. The only thing is that the choir is rather reminiscent of the hymn from Hunt for Red October, but in this context works just fine. The Goldenthal style parts are very much present in P hantasm's Graveyard Murder with glissandi female voice and a very cheesy organ in the background. The song at the end is passable and rather reflects the romance in the film, but doesn't really fit very well with the rest of the score. The biggest problem with the score is that it is not really as memorable as either Goldenthal's or Elfman's efforts and so looks rather bland in comparison, however, it is by no means a bad score for all that. Certainly a score to recommend as an introduction to Shirley Walker.