GeekFreak - Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

And now for round two; welcome ladies and germs to another GeekFreak review. This time around, we’re going straight to the source of Batman’s great popularity: Batman – The Animated Series; specifically, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.

There’s no doubt that Batman – The Animated Series is what gave the Dark Knight his booming popularity in 90s that continues straight through today. Tim Burton’s movies Batman and Batman Returns were good, but then you look at Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman and Robin and you see WHY the show had to be so good. Hell, the show itself even takes a few jabs at Schumacher’s portrayal of the Dynamic Duo.

Now originally, I was going to review Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, but when Poe Ohlin told me that Sub-Zero was his favorite Batman movie, I decided to change my plan up a bit and give it a whirl. Besides, I haven’t seen Sub-Zero in almost a decade (more than that, if I recall correctly). Plus I won’t lie when I say the only reason I wanted to review Mask of the Phantasm was to hear Mark Hamill’s own Joker laugh it up once more now that he has retired the role.

So yeah, Sub-Zero was an original Warner Bros. animated movie released direct to video March 17, 1998. It was meant to be released sooner, but due to the negative reaction to Batman and Robin, which also featured the lead villain Mr. Freeze, you can understand why the film was put on hold for a bit. Luckily, this movie does more than make up for The Freezinator’s ice-bomb.

It is important to mention that you do need some knowledge of the actual animated series to understand the beginning of the movie. Mr. Freeze actually only had THREE episodes in The Animated Series’ run. The first was Heart of Ice, his debut episode that gave birth to the most popular and sympathetic Mr. Freeze that has come to screen. That is until the New 52 made him a raving, ice-obsessed lunatic. God I wish I could review comics…

Anyway, the next episode he appeared in was Deep Freeze. In that episode, Victor Fries is kidnapped from Arkham and taken to an arctic city where a madman wants Fries to turn him into a walking icicle like himself; which apparently came with its own form of immortality (unable to age, from my understanding). At the end of the episode, Fries and his cryo-wife Nora become trapped in a cave in the arctic, together forever.

Had to get that out of the way so the start of the movie doesn't sound so strange; anyway, enough chatter, let’s dive in.

The movie opens up with Victor Fries (Michael Ansara) hunting for fish for himself, his pet polar bears Hotchka and Shaka, and an Inuit boy named Kunac (Rahi Azizi). In his isolation, he has assembled his own family, his wife Nora in a cryotube in the center of their enormous cave of a home. When returning from his hunt, a submarine manned by an exploration team pops up from the ice below and collapses the cave, breaking Nora’s tube and causing her disease to relapse.

Fries and Kunac are saved from crushing ice blocks by the polar bears, and Victor dons his suit and ice gun once more as Nora is dying. He needs to find a way to save her.

Cut to Gotham two weeks later, Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Dick Grayson’s Robin (Loren Lester) first stop a pair of robbers before heading out to a Children’s Hospital charity ball. There, Commissioner James Gordon (Bob Hastings) flatters Dick and encourages him to pursue his daughter Barbara Gordon (Mary Kay Bergman). Barbara all the while is playing Batgirl before showing up to the party as well.

During the party we follow Dr. Gregory Belson (George Dzundza) argue with his stock broker Dean Arbagast (Dean Jones) about how he owes money to a bad investment. As Belson drives off in an angry steam, he is stopped by a sudden snow storm. Mr. Freeze has returned to Gotham and is forcing Belson to help him save his wife.

Belson is taken to Freeze’s hideout and analyzes Nora. He finds that due to the damage of the relapse, Nora will now need an organ transplant to save her. They look through Gotham’s deceased donor records and can’t find a match for her blood type: AB Negative. Freeze instead demands they look for a live donor. When Belson first refuses, Freeze gives him a large nugget of gold, promising more  for his help. Belson agrees at last, and begins looking up LIVING blood donors. They find that Barbara Gordon has the exact same blood type: AB Negative. Mr. Freeze declares her as the target. Belson calls Barbara’s roommate and learned her current location: a jazz club with Dick Grayson.

All the while this was occurring; Bruce Wayne leaves the party in a limo with Alfred. The car suddenly stops into a giant pool of water in the road. Bruce investigates and sees that the registration belongs to a “Belson”.

Meanwhile, Barbara and Dick are enjoying their date at a local jazz club. Mr. Freeze storms in with his polar bears and threatens a man in the club with his ice gun if Barbara Gordon does not appear. Barbara steps forward, and is taken hostage by one of the bears. Dick begins fighting back, putting up a strong fight all on his own. But the force and strength of the two polar bears and Mr. Freeze is too much; Dick is knocked down as Freeze escapes with an armored truck carrying the bears and Barbara in the back.

Dick commandeers a motorcycle and begins pursuit as several police cars get a head start in the chase. When passing a toll station, Freeze wrecks a semi into turning sideways, blocking every entrance and causing a huge pileup. Dick isn't deterred, as he accelerates and uses a cop car as a ramp to make the jump over the station and continue without the cops. The roads soon go near some cliffs and Dick gets close enough to reach out for the truck. Mr. Freeze finally pulls out his gun and shoots at the ground next to him, causing Dick’s bike to slip on ice and force him to wreck. The wreck sends his bike over a cliff and explodes while Dick is barely hanging on to a tree branch. Mr. Freeze has escaped.

Barbara wakes up in a room with Belson, being almost forced to consume some medication. After a struggle over the medicine, Freeze and Belson lave Barbara alone in her room, locked in.

Commissioner Gordon, meanwhile, has ordered sweeps and searches several miles of Gotham and its outskirts to track down Mr. Freeze and find Barbara. Bruce and Dick overhear Gordon speaking with detective Harvey Bullock on how Barbara’s roommate gave Freeze the information, mentioning Barbara was a blood donor. The Duo look Barbara up in the hospital records and find that she and Nora Fries have a matching blood type.

Alone, Barbara attempts to escape. Mr. Freeze and Belson explain that she is the best match for Nora for a “blood transfusion”. With all her skill and intelligence, Barbara almost escapes, but soon gets cornered by Freeze, Belson, and the polar bears. Freeze chains Barbara’s hand to her bed, promising to chain her legs if she tries escaping again.

 The next morning Bruce and Dick investigate Belson’s background and find out that he was the foremost expert on cryogenics at GothCorp and worked with Victor Fries. They don their costumes at night and also discover about Belson’s stock broker from a recorded message.

Barbara is brought some food by Kunac. Barbara talks with him and learns that Kunac’s parents are dead and Mr. Freeze is raising him. Barbara tries to use Kunac to escape, but he refuses and leaves. Kunac Mr. Freeze if he intends to harm her. Freeze lies and says no, Belson walking in and saying that they’ll be ready for the operation in a few hours.

When Batman and Robin interrogate the broker, they learn that Belson owed 2.5 Million for a bad investment in a drug that had negative side effects. Belson calls his broker during the interrogation, strange noises heard in the background of the call. Batman and Robin confiscate the recorded conversation.

The Duo return to the Batcave, Batman giving Alfred a list of medical supplies he found on Belson’s desk and he and Robin investigate the background noises of Belson’s call with the. Through careful analysis, the find that the noises were buoy bells and foghorns, and narrow down Freeze’s location: an abandoned oil rig five miles out from Gotham’s shoreline. They prep up the Batwing for flight just as Alfred reveals that the list of supplies is for an organ transplant.

Belson and Freeze begin trying to prep Barbara for the surgery, but Barbara fights back again and escapes with Kunac’s help. Getting away from the polar bears, Belson grabs a gun and begins pursuit. Belson carelessly fires at an oil tank, spreading some fuel.  The Batwing arrives and the duo begins the rescue. A stray shot by Belson sets off an explosion. The entire rig begins to go up in flames.

Freeze attempts to force Belson to continue the procedure, but Belson declines and runs away. Freeze gets trapped under some debris and breaks his leg. As Belson escapes on a boat, some large debris falls from above him, killing him in a fiery explosion. Batman and Robin begin trying to save everyone as the fires get worse.

The trio first dig Freeze from under the debris, then begin looking for Kunac and Nora. Leaving Freeze safe against a wall, Robin splits to prepare the Batwing while Batman and Barbara look for Nora and Kunac. They find them, and return to the Batwing. Batman goes to find Freeze, discovering that the ground collapse from under Freeze. Freeze is now barely hanging on to a ledge. As Batman tries to save him with his grappling gun, more debris comes from above and breaks his grip. Mr. Freeze plummets to the fiery waters below. The Batwing takes flight as the entire oil rig explodes. 

Shaka and Hotchka swim away as a hand reaches from the water to grab their fur and hang on.

We cut to an arctic weather outpost two weeks later where two workers are watching the news. Through the news we learn that Nora has had an organ transplant and is cured of her disease, currently resting from her procedure. Outside the station listening in was Victor Fries, alive and crying for joy that his wife was now alive. Victor has now frozen his injured leg and begins treading through the snow storm with Shaka and Hotchka, continuing his life of isolation knowing that his wife is now alive and well.

The biggest compliment I have to give to the movie is the soundtrack. In the small moments with Fries and Nora, there is a beautiful orchestra that begins playing with an angelic chorus that is just riddled with sadness and beauty. That has always been a plus with Batman: The Animated Series. The music is phenomenal in the action, subtle in the quiet scenes, and turns to all sorts of “feels” when a character is facing tragedy or sadness. The score is just beautiful, and I really am disappointed I can’t own the soundtrack. Luckily YouTube has provided a cure for that ailment. But I do have to say that listening to the angelic chorus of this movie does make me think that Danny Elfman is having one helliva orchestral orgasm in the background. Granted, Elfman didn't do the music here, he did do the music for the Burton Batman movies and the TAS opening theme.

The next is the voice acting. Batman: TAS has been top notch when it comes to the actors they select for their characters, no matter how small. Every bit roll is played well and not overlooked. Kevin Conroy delivers one of the best Batmans to date and is able to maintain one thing a lot of Batman actors forget to do: remember Bruce Wayne. Kevin Conroy puts it all in discerning Batman’s voice from Bruce Wayne’s. Not everyone has this problem, mind you, but sometimes the playboy mask could use some distinction too.

The highlight however goes right to Michael Ansara, Mr. Freeze. Even without the suit, Mr. Freeze’s voice is just so robotic and depressing, helped by Michael Ansara’s performance. In the original episode “Heart of Ice”, you can hear Freeze’s voice before his unfortunate transformation and still tell he was human. But since the day he lost his wife, he’s lost all of his humanity and his voice definitely shows it. However, even with that robotic and cold demeanor of a voice, you can still hear the sadness and desperation the character is feeling just for a chance to save his wife.

The story is nothing TOO special, unfortunately. The biggest drop though was how Mr. Freeze was handled. There was still the character’s tragedy, but POLAR BEARS? Really? I get he can’t be TOTALLY alone, but Mr. Freeze with polar bears just reminds me of the Freezinator’s ice puns. Not to mention Barbara of all people just so happen to be the only perfect match for Nora? Height, gender, weight, ect., but the blood type thing was a thin stretch. Granted, the Red Cross has statistics for AB- blood types being 1% of Caucasians, but it’s still one helluva shot in the dark. Suspension of disbelief can go a long way and I see what they were trying, but it just so happens that Mr. Freeze’s wife and Barbara Gordon have the matching kind with their kind of relationships? I’m just saying is all. But I do appreciate that the entire focus of the movie didn't rely on Batman and Robin being in costume to do their jobs. They fight without their costumes; they investigate matters during the day. It’s just a nice touch I appreciate. Maybe it’s just me, but comic books and movies these days seem to forget that there is someone else under that costume sometimes and they’re not in the tights 24 hours a day. Just a personal observation, really.

The animation is honestly AMAZING. Being a movie it obviously has far better quality than the show. The way characters move is a heck of a lot more fluid than usual. The jazz club scene was especially lively with the way the characters move to the music at a real great pace. The action scenes were good too, if only kinda spoiled by the polar bears. Just doesn't feel like good a Batman fight when freaking polar bears are involved. Only other gripe about the animation I have to give is that this was the era of CGI (the 90s) and there are uses of it here and there. It’s not bad, it’s just when I see the CGI and cartoon animation mixed, it doesn't sit well with me. Plus Batman and Robin in the Batwing just looked freaking weird in CGI. The flame effects on the Batwing were nice though.

So overall, I would call SubZero one of my favorite animated Batman movies. I do have some prejudice for it being related to TAS, but if the quality is good, then there's no reason not to be. I would highly recommend this movie to all Batman fans. Though I do recommend watching Mr. Freeze's first episode Heart of Ice if you want an AMAZING Mr. Freeze experience. 

Stay tuned, however. Next review will be Batman: Under the Red Hood. Word of advice: don't expect this streak of compliments to continue.