MOVIE REVIEW : Only Adolescents May Like TV-Type ‘Batman’ Cartoon : Dark version of Caped Crusader, with its crashes and violence, may scare small fry but bore adults.

Ironically, the animated feature “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” (citywide) looks its best when it isn’t moving.

Background stylist/co-director Eric Radomski has created a terrific-looking world of film noir-influenced Art Deco skyscrapers, shadows, gargoyles and windows. Unfortunately, some of the worst-animated characters in any recent feature get in front of those stylish backgrounds.

“Phantasm” looks exactly like what it is: A television program that’s been expanded to fill a big screen. But enlarging the characters only makes the flaws in the Saturday-morning-style animation (done in South Korea) more evident.

The screenplay by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko and Michael Reaves has a number of loose ends that not only remain untied but flap in the wind that blows through the film. A convoluted series of flashbacks reveals that Batman/Bruce Wayne (voice by Kevin Conroy) once loved Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delaney), the adored daughter of prominent businessman Carl Beaumont (Stacy Keach Jr.). But the elder Beaumont set up dummy businesses for underworld figures, so his daughter couldn’t marry a crime-fighting vigilante.

Years later, Andrea returns to Gotham City on business; at the same time, a mysterious Phantom in a long cape appears and begins executing aging mobsters. Batman is blamed for the murders, which leads to a climactic confrontation with the Joker (Mark Hamill) amid the ruins of the Gotham World’s Fair (modeled after the ’39 New York Fair). Needless to say, the good guy wins and all ends semi-happily.

Like the popular syndicated program on which it’s based, “Phantasm” (rated PG) offers viewers a very dark version of the Caped Crusader, modeled after the anti-hero of Frank Miller’s graphic novel “The Dark Knight Returns.” The film is obviously aimed at the adolescents who tune in regularly on weekday afternoons: The stiff animation and campy voice acting will quickly bore parents and older siblings; the fistfights, shootouts and car crashes may frighten smaller children.

“Batman: Mask of the Phantasm”

Batman: Kevin Conroy

Andrea Beaumont: Dana Delaney

Carl Beaumont: Stacy Keach Jr.

The Joker: Mark Hamill

A Warner Bros. production. Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm. Producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan. Executive producer Tom Ruegger. Co-producers Alan Burnett, Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm. Music by Shirley Walker. Screenplay by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko and Michael Reaves. Story by Alan Burnett.

MPAA rated: PG. Times guidelines: fighting, shootouts, car crashes.