Abstract:
It was Christmas Day, 1993. My dad and I had been talking about it for a month and the day was finally here. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm had finally come to theatres. I was a huge fan of its predecessor television series Batman: The Animated Series, so I was doubly excited to see it on the big screen.
I’d seen the trailers multiple times as they played during my cartoons, and I’d studied the ads in my comics for what felt like an eternity. All of the waiting eventually paid off. The movie received great reviews, was successful at the box office, and most importantly, my dad and I loved it.
I remember the familiarity the movie created because the animation style and all of the voice actors were the same from the TV series; it immediately felt right. No context was needed. No backstory. I knew everything that I needed to know because I’d seen every episode of the show.
Little did I realize that this was my first real experience of transmedia storytelling.
