Stuff I Grew Up With: Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998)

When Space Jam was put out on video in 1997, I never owned it but I saw it at school, rented it a few times, and my cousin and I watched his copy of it quite a bit, and one of the many trailers on that VHS was for this. I recently found that trailer on YouTube and, while it doesn't accurately represent the movie at all, as it uses clips from various episodes of Batman: The Animated Series to make it seem as though Mr. Freeze is going on a total rampage in Gotham, I always remembered some of those images, as well as one of the last lines from the narration: "It's going to get cold this summer. Very cold." (The fact that said narration was delivered by the awesome Tony Jay didn't hurt either.) And then, the summer of 1997 came and went and SubZero never popped up. It wasn't a high priority for me, though, so I pretty much forgot about it until the following spring, when I started seeing advertisements on TV and thought, "Oh, yeah. That movie's a thing." (That's also the first time I can remember it having the title of Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, whereas those initial trailers and even the movie itself simply say SubZero, albeit etched on the bat symbol.) I've since learned that the reason why it wasn't released until almost a year after it was supposed to is because it was originally meant as a tie-in to Batman & Robin, as it centers around Mr. Freeze and features Barbara Gordon, i.e. Batgirl, along with the Dynamic Duo. But then, when Batman & Robin turned out to be... well, Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. figured this wouldn't be received that well and shelved it for almost a year. In any case, like Mask of the Phantasm, the first time I saw SubZero was when it was shown on Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theatre, which first aired it in November of 1998, after which it became another mainstay of the block. Again, having really become a fan of Batman: The Animated Series after Cartoon Network started showing it earlier that year, I enjoyed SubZero whenever it was shown, probably even more than Mask of the Phantasm at the time, at it was a breezier, more fast-paced watch. But, also like that movie, once I got older and stopped watching Cartoon Network regularly, I lost track of it and didn't see it again until I bought both of them on a double-feature DVD in 2008.

In re-watching them as an adult, I grew to see Mask of the Phantasm as the really amazing, complex, well-made movie that it is; SubZero, on the other hand, I found to simply be a good way to kill an hour or so. Make no mistake, it is a good movie, one that tells a simple story in a straightforward, effective manner and never wastes any time, has the DCAU's expected high standards of quality in terms of visuals, design, and voice-acting, and is definitely a more rewarding viewing experience than Batman & Robin, but it's never as ambitious or multi-layered as Mask of the Phantasm. That's not a bad thing but, at the end of the day, it is little more than filler, albeit well-made filler which really does justice to the character of Mr. Freeze, and watching it now reminds me of how much I enjoyed it when I was a kid and also how I thought the extensive amount of CGI used was just the coolest thing. But, there are some occasional story contrivances and, because of the short running time of just 66 minutes, there are potentially interesting side-characters and subplots that don't get as much exploration as they could.

Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze, has been living in the Arctic ever since the events of the BTAS episode, Deep Freeze, along with an orphaned Inuit boy, Koonak, two polar bears, Hotchka and Shaka, and his cryogenically frozen wife, Nora, whose terminal illness he's still determined to find a cure for. However, his peaceful existence is shattered when a submarine erupts through the floor of the ice-cave they call home, smashing open Nora's stasis tube. Two weeks later, in Gotham City, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson attend a gala fundraiser. There, Dick meets up with his girlfriend, Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, and also at the party is Dr. Gregory Belson, who's in serious financial trouble thanks to a bad investment. After his stockbroker tells him there's nothing more he can do to help him, Belson storms out and drives home, only to be met by Mr. Freeze. He tells Belson, an old colleague of his who helped in his research into cryogenics, that he has a patient who needs his help. Upon examining Nora, Belson tells Freeze that her disease has relapsed and she'll die within two weeks without an organ transplant. They search Gotham Central Hospital's database for a matching donor, and when they can't find any deceased ones who share Nora's rare blood type, Freeze insists upon using a live one, despite the operation being fatal to the donor. One match happens to be Barbara, whom Freeze abducts while she's on a date with Dick. After a high-speed chase involving both Dick and the Gotham police, Freeze takes Barbara away to his and Belson's hideout, an abandoned oil rig five miles offshore. While Commissioner Gordon has his men search the area with a fine-tooth comb, Bruce and Dick begin their own investigation and find the connection between Barbara and Nora through their blood-types, as well as Belson's connection to Freeze. Time quickly begins to run out for Barbara as the night of the operation approaches, and Batman and Robin are the only ones who can save her.

Boyd Kirkland

This is a rare example of a DCAU film that Bruce Timm had no involvement with at all, as he was tied up with Superman: The Animated Series at the time. Instead, it's the work of Boyd Kirkland and Randy Rogel, both veterans of Batman: The Animated Series. Specifically, Rogel wrote two of my personal favorite episodes, Two-Face and Robin's Reckoning, while Kirkland directed a total of 21 episodes, including fan favorites like Joker's Favor, Perchance to Dream, Beware the Gray Ghost, I Am the Night, Harley and Ivy, and House and Garden. The two of them co-wrote and produced SubZero, with Kirkland also handling directing duties, and while Timm would later say he didn't mind the movie overall, he wasn't a big fan of the decision to have Nora Fries be restored to life at the end, as for him, Nora was always dead (despite the fact that it was never explicitly stated in the series and furthermore, that the episode Deep Freeze, which this film uses as a jumping off point, introduced the idea that Nora was still alive and kept in cryogenic stasis after the events of Mr. Freeze's debut episode, Heart of Ice). Moreover, this movie made it impossible for him to adapt the comic story White Christmas into the New Batman Adventures episode, Holiday Knights, as it would've required Nora to be dead.

The movie's focus is on Mr. Freeze, Barbara Gordon, and Dr. Belson, with Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) and Robin (voiced by Loren Lester) acting as supporting characters, and until the end of the second act and the beginning of the third, they're mostly in their alter egos of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, save for a small moment at the beginning where they stop a pair of jewel thieves. Dick has a little more significance to the story than Bruce, as he's dating Barbara and is looking

forward to spending a romantic weekend with her up on the coast. The two of them are out on a date when Mr. Freeze abducts Barbara, and while Dick does try to fight Freeze off, as well as give chase on a motorcycle when he manages to escape with her and come very close to saving her, he's ultimately thwarted. He and Bruce then try to figure out why Freeze would want to kidnap Barbara, leading them to learn that she has the same blood-type as Nora Fries and that Belson, whose car Bruce and Alfred had found abandoned several nights before, is involved as he helped Freeze in his original cryogenic research. From there, they investigate Belson's house and pay a visit to his stockbroker, who tells them of Belson's money problems. They happen to be there when Belson calls his broker and they tape the call and later use it to trace his and Freeze's hideout at the oil rig. Also, before they leave, Alfred gives them some information that makes Batman realize what Freeze's plans for Barbara are. In other words, they spend most of their screentime trying to catch up on what the audience already know, but because it's inter-cut with Barbara's ongoing plight on the rig, it never gets to the point where you're rolling your eyes about it. Also, the third act makes up for it, with Batman and Robin getting in on the action when they arrive to rescue Barbara and then have to save Freeze, Koonak, and Nora when the rig is set ablaze and on the verge of exploding. Though Batman is unable to save Freeze from apparently falling to his death in the ocean, at the end of the movie, it's revealed that Nora was restored from her frozen state and received a successful organ transplant, one which was funded by the WayneTech Corporation.

Since they don't have a lot of screentime, you shouldn't be surprised that Batman and Robin's gadgets are virtually nonexistent here, save for their grappling guns (the same goes for Batgirl in the brief scene with her). Vehicle-wise, the Batmobile is seen a couple of times but does nothing significant, and while the Batwing gets some use during the third act, as Batman and Robin fly it out to the rig in order to save Barbara, none of its features are utilized, save for its radar.

Early on, around the twelve-minute mark, you get a brief scene of Batgirl (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman) beating up a group of muggers before dashing off to meet up with her father and Dick Grayson at the Children's Hospital fundraiser. It proves to be rather meaningless, as Barbara never becomes Batgirl again for the rest of the movie; in fact, her role in the plot is as that of a damsel in distress, albeit a strong one (the Batgirl scene may have been to reinforce that beforehand but, if you're watching this, odds are you already know who she is and that she can handle herself anyways). Currently dating Dick and planning to spend the weekend with him up the coast, Barbara gets kidnapped by Mr. Freeze when he and Dr. Belson learn she has the same blood type, height, and weight as Nora (even though she's one of eighteen people listed as such, the two of them conveniently zero in on her). However, she doesn't take her kidnapping lying down and puts up quite a bit of resistance, refusing to take the medication Freeze and Belson try to force on her when she first awakens and then escaping her cell through the air ducts, evading their attempts to capture her. When she finds her way into the room where Nora is kept, Barbara is told she needs a transfusion to survive an upcoming operation, something she does agree to help with, but in a hospital. Freeze and Belson, naturally, aren't having that, and Barbara, again, runs for it, only to discover she's on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean and is then recaptured. During her imprisonment, she befriends Koonak, Freeze's Inuit adoptee, and asks him to help her escape, promising to help Nora if he does, but Koonak is unwilling, at first. But later, when they're about to perform the operation, which Barbara realizes is more than a simple transfusion, Koonak does help her escape, just before Batman and Robin arrive to save her. She spends much of the climax trying to keep from getting killed, be it by Belson, Freeze's polar bears, or in the explosions and fires that threaten to destroy the rig, but when Freeze is trapped beneath some rubble, breaking his leg, Barbara shows how much of a good person she is when she helps him, and she also sees to it that both Nora and Koonak are saved as well.

The best character in the movie is Mr. Freeze (voiced by Michael Ansara), who's treated with just as much dignity and pathos as he was in the series (in other words, the exact opposite of his portrayal in Batman & Robin). At the end of the episode Deep Freeze, he and his cryogenically frozen wife, whom he'd been reunited with, drifted to the Arctic and, at the beginning of this film, it's revealed that the two of them have been living ever since. While he was portrayed in the series as being just as cold, unfeeling, and remorseless as his name and nature would imply, a softer, more empathetic side of him is shown here in his adoption of Koonak, an orphaned Inuit boy, whom he treats quite well. But, as always, the one person whom Freeze has true tenderness and affection for is his beloved wife, Nora, whom he visits in her chamber in the ice cave at the beginning, as it happens to be the fifteenth anniversary of when they met. He brings her a small, golden flower, explaining, "I found it in the snow. Fragile beauty clinging to life in this frozen wasteland. Like you, Nora." He's content to stay there in the Arctic until a cure can be found for her disease, be it by him or someone else, telling her, "Until then, my love, we'll be here together." But then, a submarine comes up through the cave's floor and smashes open her stasis tube. Enraged at this, and probably knowing but not caring that it wasn't intentional, given how humanity has always mistreated him, Freeze uses his ray gun to punish the entire crew, then heads back to Gotham and finds his old colleague, Dr. Gregory Belson. He's outraged to learn that this accident will cause Nora to die within a couple of weeks, and demands Belson perform the operation necessary to save her. Playing into Belson's greed, he offers him gold from a vein he found in the Arctic, and also makes it known that he doesn't care at all that the donor would die from the operation. Once they decide on Barbara Gordon, Freeze abducts her himself, using his polar bears, Notchka and Shaka, and his freezing gun as a way of dissuading any interference in the restaurant and during the chase involving him, the Gotham police, and Dick Grayson.

Once Barbara awakens and proves to be very uncooperative, refusing to take medication and attempting to escape, Freeze is so enraged by this that Belson has to hold him back from making things harder for them by beating or freezing her. After she's recaptured, he chains her arm in her cell, threatening to chain her feet too if she tries anything else. She then asks him how he can treat people like this and he tells her, "It's the way they've always treated me. Nora was the only good

thing in my life, and they took her from me. I don't care what I have to do to get her back." To that end, he goes as far as to lie to Koonak, assuring him that he won't harm Barbara, and he's definitely not about to let Batman and Robin interfere when they show up. He's so determined to have his wife back that, even when Barbara escapes right as they're about to perform the operation and the oil rig becomes engulfed in flames in the chase that follows, he tells Belson, who tries to make him see it's

hopeless now, "We're going to finish this!... We're not leaving until you perform that operation!" But then, Belson betrays him, pushing him in the path of falling debris and causing him to become trapped with a broken leg. Fortunately for him, Barbara, along with Batman and Robin, save him, but before they can leave, Freeze insists they save Nora and Koonak as well. He not only aids Batman and Barbara in doing so but also tells them to take them to the Batwing first, then come back for him. But, when Batman does so, the rig has split apart

in various spots and Freeze is hanging onto the edge of a large gap. Batman tries to save him but Freeze appears to fall to his death in the burning, oil-soaked ocean below. In the end, it's revealed that he did survive and returned to the Arctic with Notchka and Shaka. Moreover, he overhears from a television at a research station that Nora has been revived, which makes him cry tears of joy. While episodes of The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond following this would bring Freeze's story to a very tragic conclusion, for now, at least, he's shown to be at peace.

One character whom I feel is a bit of a missed opportunity is Koonak, the young Inuit boy whom Freeze has taken in (I'm can't find who voiced him, but I think it might've been Rahim Azizi, who would've been around fourteen at the time and Koonak tells Barbara he's going to be thirteen soon). While it's obvious that Freeze does treat the kid well, possibly even like his own son, I wish we could've seen more of their relationship and gone more into Koonak's conflict with what they're doing to Barbara, despite knowing it's because Freeze wants Nora back. It would've also been nice if there had been a moment where he called Freeze out for lying to him about hurting Barbara, as after he helps Barbara escape, we don't really see him again until she and Batman come to his and Nora's rescue during the climax. But, in the end, he's little more than a very minor character, and while it's not a big deal, I still wish more could've been done with him.

The most loathsome character in the movie is not Mr. Freeze but, rather, Dr. Gregory Belson (voiced by George Dzundza). A former colleague of Freeze's who aided him in his research into cryogenics, he comes to him when he returns to Gotham, forcing him to help save Nora's life. Belson breaks it to Freeze about Nora's fragile condition, saying she needs an organ transplant, and uses his necessity to the operation to keep Freeze from threatening him, as well as tells him it's going to cost him. He is rather horrified when Freeze is intent on using a live donor, despite the fact that it would kill them, calling him a piece of work, but when Freeze offers him all the gold in a vein he discovered in the Arctic, Belson's scruples quickly go out the window. The offer couldn't have come at a more opportune time, as Belson's stockbroker later tells Batman and Robin that he invested everything he had into a new drug, only for some side-effects to come up that prompted the FDA to pull it completely. Now, Belson owes $2.5 million and the deadline for payment is coming up fast, but he calls his broker to tell him to stall for another week, saying he'll have the cash by then. Although he has to keep Freeze from beating on or freezing Barbara when she proves to be difficult for them to handle, Belson proves just how slimy he really is when he both lies to her, saying Nora needs a blood transfusion, and tries to guilt-trip her into complying, telling her Nora will die without her help. When Barbara escapes just as they're about to begin the operation, Belson chases her with a gun and recklessly fires at her as she runs past some fuel tanks. He misfires when Robin knocks him down, causing a spark that ignites the leaking oil, and although he has enough sense to know there's no way they can do the operation once the fire gets out of control, he dickishly pushes Freeze in the way of some falling debris and leaves him there to die. He then tries to escape in a speedboat but is killed when the rig's helipad collapses on top of him.

Good old Alfred (voiced by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) has a few scenes here, mainly just acting as the reliable butler and confidant he always is. After Batman and Robin finish busting a couple of jewel thieves at the beginning, he contacts them to remind them of the Children's Hospital fundraiser, which has already started at this point. He then drops Bruce and Dick off at the gala, and when Dick tells him, "Don't know what we'd do without ya," Alfred comments, "Frankly, sir, neither do I." Later, Batman has Alfred do some research on a list of medical supplies he found in Dr. Belson's home, and while they're studying the recording of Belson's call to his stockbroker, Alfred notes that a sound they hear in the background is that of a buoy, making them realize that Belson is out in the middle of the ocean. And just as Batman and Robin are about to leave to rescue Barbara, Alfred informs them that the supplies are used for an organ transplant, making them realize they'd best hurry.

Among other series regulars who appear in the film is Commissioner Gordon (voiced by Bob Hastings), who has a little more screentime than he did in Mask of the Phantasm. As always, he acts as a doting father to Barbara at the fundraiser, as well as encourages Dick that, while a lot of guys are after her (he says this while we also see her kicking some butt as Batgirl), she definitely has eyes for him. After Barbara is abducted, Gordon orders his department to pull out all the stops in searching for

her, having them put out numerous checkpoints, use search helicopters with infrared scopes, and make a search of every possible hiding place within fifty miles, exclaiming, "I want my daughter found, and I want her found now!" But, like in Mask of the Phantasm, he's not seen again after these few minutes of screentime. Detective Harvey Bullock (voiced by Robert Costanzo) is seen briefly in the scene where Gordon orders the search, informing him that the van Mr. Freeze was

driving was found abandoned in a nearby canyon, as well as that Freeze learned where Barbara was from her ignorant roommate. Gordon has Bullock attempt to trace the call and that's the last we see of him (not that it would've made any difference if he was able to trace it). Renee Montoya (voiced by Liane Schirmer) is also in this scene, though she doesn't do anything significant. On the civilian side of things, Veronica Vreeland (voiced by Marilu Henner), a rich socialite who featured in several episodes of the series (and who's blonde here,

despite having been a redhead before), appears at the fundraiser. She introduces Bruce to some of her lovely friends, calling him, "Gotham's most elusive bachelor," and is annoyed when he leaves fairly early, giving her the usual excuses. And finally, news reporter Summer Gleason (voiced by Mari Devon) is seen at the end, reporting on Nora Fries' successful rehabilitation.

On a design-level, SubZero marks the end of an era for the DCAU, as it was the last time the original look and feel of Batman: The Animated Series was seen, as future shows and films like The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond would adopt the sleeker, more streamlined look first seen in Superman: The Animated Series. While I do like the looks of those other shows, with some of their character redesigns being superior to the originals, watching this movie and knowing it's the last time you'll see this particular look for Batman, Robin,

Barbara Gordon, Mr. Freeze, and the other characters makes it a somewhat poignant experience (although, I wish they hadn't used that flesh-colored eye design for so many characters or, at the very least, had kept it consistent). In any case, as you should come to expect from these projects, the film looks gorgeous, especially in HD, coming off as a higher-budgeted sibling to the television show, with better (albeit not amazing) animation and a more advanced visual aesthetic. There's a bit more vibrant color to it than what you

usually get with the show, like in the opening in the Arctic, where the underwater section with Freeze and the polar bears has a dark blue look to it, the interiors in the submarine are bathed in a red light, and there's plenty of beauty in the crisp white snow, glistening ice-cave, and golden sunlight over the horizon. In general, the snow and ice associated with Freeze help to make this film particularly pleasing to the eye, most notably in Nora's cold room on the oil rig, which has an icy blue haze to

it, and Barbara Gordon's red hair really stands out among everything else, including the bright, colorful gala for the Children's Hospital. Of course, when the oil rig is burning out of control and exploding during the climax, it's as bright and colorful as it can possibly get, and while there's not as much darkness to it as in most episodes of show, especially in the early seasons, or Mask of the Phantasm, the moment where you first see Freeze in his suit when he meets Belson is a great image, as he's mostly in shadow, with his goggles glowing red in the dark.

The most spectacular setting in the film is found in the beginning in Antarctica, where it opens deep in the ocean underneath the polar ice caps, as you watch the polar bears swim, trying to catch fish, as Freeze does some spear-fishing among them. After they come to the surface, you get a beautiful view of the ice caps themselves, with the sun setting over the horizon, casting a dark orange glow across the snow and ice. And then, you see the ice cave he lives in with the bears and Koonak, the latter staying in a small hut just beyond the entrance. The

cave is lovely in and of itself, but the most spectacular part of it is the enormous chamber of glittering ice, stalagmites and stalactites, and Nora's cryogenic stasis tube, which sits atop a small mound, with a ray of light illuminating it through the ceiling. We also come back to the Arctic at the end of the movie, this time to see a memorable image of Freeze walking off in the faint sunset in the midst of a blizzard. Gotham City looks and feels about the way it always does in this universe: Art deco in design and riddled with

crime, though the latter isn't as emphasized, save for a scene at the beginning where Batman and Robin halt a jewel-robbery. There's also said to be a heatwave going on at the time but not much is made of it aside from occasional comments and a shot of people dressing lightly while some kids play around with a fire hydrant that's spraying water. Also, Freeze's icy abduction of Belson is the only time his presence makes for a total contrast to it. The only noteworthy settings in Gotham are the

big, elegant club where the Children's Hospital fundraiser is set and Shaugnessy's, the restaurant and jazzy dance club where Dick and Barbara are on a date when Freeze appears and abducts her. You also see the inside of a major research lab at the GothCorp company headquarters, a significant location as it's the very place where Dr. Victor Fries became Mr. Freeze, as revealed in the episode, Heart of Ice. Apparently, given what Mariko, a scientist says, since the events of that episode, where the company's CEO was revealed to have been responsible for what happened to Fries, Bruce Wayne has bought GothCorp.

There are no scenes inside Wayne Manor but there are a couple inside the Batcave, such as when Batman and Robin use a device to analyze the tape of Belson's call to his stockbroker, while Alfred uses the computer to research the list of medical supplies from Belson's home. You also see the launching platform for the Batwing, which then flies down a long runway and exits the cave through an opening in the wall shaped like the bat symbol. Following Barbara's kidnapping, most of the film is then set on the abandoned oil rig Freeze and Belson

made into their hideout. While the only noteworthy room there is the chilled one where Nora is kept in her stasis, virtually every part of it is used in the story, like the crew quarters where Barbara is kept prisoner, the air ducts she attempts to use to escape, a storeroom she crawls through, the elevator connecting the top level to the bottom, the helipad that allows the Batwing to set down on the rig, and the crane that Batman and Robin are momentarily trapped in by Freeze.

Like I said in my review of Mask of the Phantasm, I always see the digital version of Gotham City featured in that movie's opening credits sequence as a prelude to this film, which is probably still one of the most CG-heavy DCAU films ever made. When I watched it as a kid, I thought all these CGI sequences, like the shots of the submarine in the opening, the car chase involving Mr. Freeze, Dick, and the Gotham police, and the stuff with the Batwing during the climax, were amazing. It was back when this kind of 3-D was kind of magical,

especially to an eleven- or twelve-year old like me who was really into stuff like the Nintendo 64 and the QuestWorld sequences in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. I still think that the scenes where the digital work is melded with the hand-drawn animation, like in the opening, where Freeze and the polar bears swim in the totally 3-D environment of the ocean and polar ice caps, or during the chase, where you have hand-drawn characters inside or riding CG vehicles amid

complete, 3-D environments, look impressive. But on its own, the CGI has not aged well and really does look only slightly more advanced than N64 graphics. Fortunately, while it is used a little more than necessary and there are many instances where the camera lingers on it for far too long (the Batwing, which is almost completely digital, during the climax is a prime example), for the most part, it's saved for big, major setpieces like those I've mentioned.

The CGI is established right from the beginning, as the opening has a short pan through a digital Batcave, with bats flying in the background, as the bat symbol rises up in the frame, only to be hit by a freezing wipe that turns it to ice, with the title embedded on it, and then it shatters. (They use the beginning and ending of Danny Elfman's actual opening track from the first Tim Burton movie here, the only time I've heard that original music in anything involving the DCAU.) The movie then

truly begins underneath the polar ice caps, as the polar bears Hotchka and Shaka trying to catch some fish, with one of them swimming around after them, while the other crashes through the ice above; at the same time, a submarine is shown to be exploring the area. Victor Fries is introduced as he swims about with the bears, spearing a fish and then heading on towards the ice, with the bears following him. As the submarine crew verifies their course, Fries heads to the surface with his

bears, who each have a fish in their mouth. The submarine captain is informed that it's -30 degrees on the surface and a storm is moving in. He then tells the landing party to quickly collect their data and return to the sub as soon as they can, adding, "No one can survive for long in that kind of cold." Up top, the bears shake off the water, while Fries stands up with the satchel containing his catch, ice cracking off his body, and heads for home with them. They walk into the ice cave, where Fries meets up with Koonak and removes the satchel,

which is filled with salmon, much to the boy's delight. Fries heads off into the cave with the bears, while Koonak finds it difficult to pick up the heavy satchel, falling over with it due to its weight. Onboard the submarine, the captain is informed of a thin layer of ice a hundred meters above them, indicating the cave's presence. In the chamber containing Nora in her cryogenic stasis tube, Fries walks up to her, saying, "Fifteen years today, darling. Did you think I would forget? How could I? The day we met was the happiest day of my life." He then removes the small, golden flower he found outside and presents it to her, while thirty meters below, the submarine is quickly approaching.

Koonak joins Fries, asking how long Nora has to stay like that, and Fries answers, "Until a cure can be found." At that moment, the submarine reaches the floor of the cave and breaks through, shaking the place, raining ice from the ceiling down on Fries and Koonak, and, worst of all, knocking Nora's tube over and smashing it. The sub's conning tower pushes up completely through the ice and, once it's settled, the landing party is dispatched. While they're gone, the polar bears uncover Fries from the

chunks of ice, while Koonak regains consciousnes. When Fries comes to as well, he gasps at the sight of Nora's arm sticking up out of the ice, with the flower he gave to her lying nearby. Later, as the predicted storm rolls in, the landing party returns, only to walk back into the cave and find the sub's conning tower frozen solid, along with the crew, who have horrified expressions on their faces. A woman among the party comments, "It's the whole crew!", to which Fries' voice offscreen voice comments, "Not quite." Just as they turn to see him, he freezes them instantly with his gun.

The film switches to Gotham City two weeks later, which is in the middle of a heatwave. While some kids have fun with a fire hydrant that's spraying water, a guy wearing a trench-coat and carrying a bottle spies some jewels through a storefront window. Seeing no one around, he smashes the window with the bottle and grabs the jewelry, before climbing in and smashing and robbing some more display cases. The owner, an elderly man named Myron, storms at the thief, while his wife

tries to dissuade him. He goes to hit him with his cane but the thief grabs it, yanks it out of his hand, and then backhands him, knocking him to the floor. As Myron's wife yells for him, the thief flings the cane back at him, and an accomplice pulls up outside and he hops in the passenger seat. The car speeds away as the thief marvels at the haul he just made, while his buddy says, "Yeah, I told you it would be easy." He takes a sharp right turn and drives down an alleyway, when Batman jumps

down on their roof. Just as they wonder what the loud thump they heard was, he throws his cape across the windshield and side-windows. His vision obscured, the driver flails the car back and forth in the alley, slamming into walls, smashing through a dumpster, and swerving back into the street and slamming to a halt against a fire hydrant on the sidewalk, knocking it loose and sending a geyser up into the air. As some onlookers go to call the police, the two thieves wonder what just happened. The driver rolls his window down and

pokes at Batman's cape, when he yanks it back and glares at him. He grabs the driver and pulls him through the window, while the other thief makes a run for it down the street. Robin then appears and uses his grappling gun to snag the his legs, causing him to fall. Batman throws the driver into a nearby pile of garbage, while Robin reels in the thief, who desperately tries to grip onto the road. He hauls him up and tosses him into the garbage along with the driver. The two of them hear the police approaching, but before they go, Batman warns the

thieves, "Listen, scum, we're gonna be watching you." He and Robin repel onto a ledge on the side of a building as the cops arrive and arrest the thieves. While they watch this from the ledge, Batman and Robin are contacted by Alfred, who informs them that they're running late for the Children's Hospital fundraiser; Batman tells him to meet up with them in two minutes.

Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are dropped off at the fundraiser by Alfred, where they're greeted by Commissioner Gordon. Dick asks where Barbara is and Gordon says she's probably still getting ready. It then cuts to a mugger pulling a knife, only for Batgirl to kick it out of his hand and then send him flying into the bushes with a kick to the jaw. As Gordon tells Dick there's no one sweeter than Barbara, Batgirl decks another mugger, planting him on his back, when two more come at her from

the front and back. She ducks, causing one mugger, who's wielding a piece of pipe to clobber his friend, and she then kicks him in the balls (what is it with all the nut-kicking in these Batman animated movies?), causing him to collapse. Gordon tells Dick, "You've got plenty of competition. Lots of guys are after her," just as the muggers decide they've had enough and run off before they get their asses kicked even more. Batgirl then checks on the young woman who was

getting attacked, when her watch beeps and, realizing she's late to the fundraiser, runs off, as Gordon assures Dick, "But don't worry. You're on top of her list." After that, while Veronica Vreeland introduces Bruce to some of her lovely friends, Dr. Gregory Belson enters the film when he stomps past Dick, knocking into him and causing him to spill his drink, and drags his stockbroker away from a man he's talking with. His broker tells him there's nothing he can do about his dire financial situation and that he'd better be prepared to pay up

in a few days. Belson storms out of the party, passing by Barbara, who arrives wearing a knockout blue dress and hairstyle. Inside, she meets up with her father and then Dick, whom she proceeds to dance with. Belson, meanwhile, drives off, sweating from the heat and turning on the air conditioner. Suddenly, he runs into an icy patch of road and slams on the brakes, causing him to spin wildly across the ice, drive up the side of a bank, and land his car on the roof. He unbuckles his seat-belt and crawls out of the car, when he looks up to

see Mr. Freeze standing over him. He grabs Belson by the collar and lifts him up, telling him, "You're a hard man to get a hold of, doctor. Your secretary wouldn't give me an appointment until next September. Now, is that any way to treat an old colleague?" Belson asks him what he wants and he answers, "I've got a patient who needs you."

Back at the party, Bruce leaves, while Dick opts to stick around and spend some more time with Barbara. As Alfred drives Bruce back home, they end up in a large puddle of water on the road, despite the sky being perfectly clear. Bruce then sees Belson's abandoned, overturned car and the two of them find his registration inside. Elsewhere, Belson runs some test on Nora, as she sits in a special hospital bed in a chilled room. He informs Freeze that she has only two weeks to live, at best,

and that the only thing that can save her is an organ transplanting, adding, "You need a compatible donor and there's a waiting list a mile long. We'd never get the organ in time." Freeze threatens Belson with his freezing gun, saying, "I have confidence you'll find a way, Gregory," but Belson tells him his services are going to cost him big time. Freeze, knowing his old colleague well, shows him a large nugget of gold, which makes his eyes light up. Later, at Gotham General Hospital, they look up the list of available donors and Freeze

is intent upon using any who are available, deceased or living, despite the unavoidable death it would cause. With that, Belson tells him it's going to cost more than just one nugget and Freeze, in turn, offers him the entire vein he discovered in the Arctic. With that incentive, Belson looks up all the blood donors in Gotham and narrows it down to the eighteen women who share Nora's rare blood type, weight, and height, before zeroing in on Barbara. Belson calls Barbara's apartment but gets her roommate, Jennie, who tells him Barbara won't be back until Monday. Belson, claiming to be from the country memorial hospital, asks where she is, saying they've got an emergency, and Jennie tells him that she and Dick went to dinner at Shaugnessy's.

At said restaurant, Dick and Barbara are about to have a toast at their table, despite Dick having spilled almost both of their drinks on himself when some dancers knocked into him, when Freeze walks into the room, flanked by the polar bears on either side of him. Stupidly, a bouncer tries to tell him to leave, telling him, "No pets allowed," but Hotchka snarls at him, making him back off. Freeze then demands that Barbara Gordon reveal herself (this despite his having seen her photo in

her file), but when no one speaks up, Freeze has Hotchka lunge at and pin down an innocent man, before, again, demanding Barbara show herself. Barbara, despite Dick trying to stop her, does as Freeze says, asking him to let the man go. Freeze takes her by the arm and tries to drag her out of the restaurant, when Dick runs and jumps off a table, kicking him in the back and making him crash through another table, as well as drop his freeze gun. Shaka stops any of the pedestrians from

taking the gun, while Freeze tells Hotchka to stop Barbara from escaping. He pins Barbara up against the wall, snarling at her when she makes a move to get around him, while Freeze picks up an entire table and tosses it Dick. It misses him and crashes into the bandstand, as he runs at Freeze and tries to deliver a kick, only for Freeze to grab his leg and toss him back into the onlookers. Freeze calmly walks over and takes his gun, only for Dick to fling a plate at him and knock it out of his hand again. He then tackles Freeze and pins him to the floor,

but before he can punch him, Shaka smacks him off with a swipe of his huge paw. He pins Dick to the floor and roars in his face, forcing Dick to grab a nearby piece of wood and wedge his mouth with it. Barbara tells Freeze that she'll come with him and asks him to not hurt Dick. Freeze tells Shaka to come and he stops attacking Dick and walks away. Freeze takes his gun and points it at Dick, but then aims and fires at the chandelier above him, turning it to ice and causing it to fall down at him. He rolls away in time and looks up to see that Freeze,

Barbara, and the bears are gone. He quickly rushes outside, where Freeze locks Barbara in the back of a large van with both of the bears (that van is almost identical to the one he and his minions drove in Heart of Ice). Dick sees the van back through various cars, swerve around, and then smash its way through a hedge and onto the street. He takes his car keys and runs for his car, when a panicked driver knocks a guy off his motorcycle right in front of him. Dick tosses the guy his keys, offering him his Corvette, and hops onto the bike and chases after Freeze.

Freeze, naturally, runs a red light, getting the police after him along with Dick. He drives up onto the turnpike, side-swiping a car on his left and throwing Barbara and the bears around in the back. Behind him, the police and Dick make it onto the turnpike as well. He sees the police in the rear-view mirror, as the officer in the car calls for backup. Seeing the toll booths lining the city limits up ahead, Freeze puts the stick into high gear and speeds ahead, plowing through and side-swiping

cars, causing one to swerve in the path of an eighteen-wheeler, leading to a massive pile-up, while he smashes through the barrier beyond the booths; the force of this impact knocks Barbara out. The one patrolman is joined in the pursuit, only for them to come upon the pile-up and slam into each other in a domino-like fashion. In a really cool shot where you see the hand-drawn Freeze reflected in the rear-view mirror of the CGI truck, the villain smiles in satisfaction, thinking he's

eluded his pursuers. Dick comes across the pile-up but decides to use the wrecked, upturned police cars as a makeshift ramp, allowing him to clear the tollbooths, skid down the other side, and continue the chase. He heads on down the highway and takes an off-ramp to catch up with Freeze, whose now driving the winding roads along a range of mountains. He sees Dick coming up behind him and grabs his freeze gun. Just as Dick catches up to the van and reaches for the rear doors, Freeze blasts the road alongside the van, turning it into

sheer ice and causing Dick to lose traction. The bike slides along on the icy road on its side and goes through the guardrail. Dick is thrown by it but hits and grabs onto an overhanging tree branch, while the bike falls and explodes on the shoreline below. He swings himself back onto the road and watches Freeze drive off with Barbara, before collapsing down from his injuries.

Some time later, Barbara is awakened by Belson who, after telling her he's a doctor, attempts to give her some medication. Barbara, though, is having none of it. She smacks the pills out of his hand and kicks him away and up against the wall. She grabs him and demands to know why she was kidnapped, when Freeze grabs her and throws her against the bed. He demands she take the pills but, like with Belson, she smacks the pills out of his hand. Enraged at this, he grabs her and is about to strike,

but Belson grabs his arm and stops him. He leads Freeze out, telling him they should give Barbara some time to herself. Barbara rushes for the door, again demanding to know why she's there, but Belson closes and locks it on her. At Gotham General Hospital, Commissioner Gordon orders an all-points bulletin and search to find Barbara, before talking with Dick. Bruce, who's also there, wonders why Freeze would want Barbara, a question Gordon hasn't a clue about. He's called away to the interrogation room by Renee Montoya

and, while a nurse goes to get a wheelchair in order to get Dick down to the x-ray room, he and Bruce use the computer in the room to try to find some information. Looking up Barbara's file, they're able to see that she has a rare blood-type, and they also see that Nora Fries is one of those who shares it.

Barbara is then shown using her cot as a makeshift trampoline to reach an air duct in the ceiling. At the same time, Freeze and Belson head to her cell, the latter with a syringe full of a sedative. She manages to reach and hold onto a pipe, while using a metal rod to wedge free a section of grating on the air duct. When they reach the door, they hear a loud clang and rush inside in time to see her crawling up through the duct. Freeze blasts at it, just missing Barbara, who crawls on through the

duct. The two men head over to the next room and, hearing her moving through the duct, Freeze blasts a spot right before another section of grating ahead of her, creating shards of ice that rip up through and block her path. Belson climbs up and removes the grating, popping his head in the duct just as Barbara kicks away the ice. He grabs at her but misses, as she crawls down an alternate tunnel of duct-work. He tells Freeze where she's heading and he goes to cut her off, while Belson climbs in after

her. After she desperately tries to evade Belson, she comes across a panel and kicks it open, dropping down into the icy chamber where Nora is kept in stasis. Curious, she approaches Nora and checks for a pulse, when Freeze bursts in and orders her away from his wife. Barbara grabs a metal rod on a nearby table and warns him to stay back as he approaches with his freeze gun. Belson enters the room and tries to calm everyone down but Barbara, once again, wants to know what's going on. She

quickly realizes it's about Nora, with Belson telling her that they need her for a transfusion, but when she refuses to do anything unless it's at a hospital, Freeze threatens her with his gun. She turns over a table of equipment and runs for it, with Freeze blasting at her, ignoring Belson's warning not to. She runs into the midst of some tanks and, when they follow after, she smashes a valve, hitting them with a blast of air. She then runs for the door, which Freeze tries to block by creating a large sheet of ice but she smashes her way through it and

runs out into the hallway. She goes for a door on her left, only to find she made a very bad decision when she opens it and is faced with the polar bears. She quickly slams the door and runs down the hall, but the bears smash their way through and chase after her. She then sees Freeze and Belson coming from the other direction and runs down another hallway. She finds an elevator at the end and desperately pushes the button, trying to make it open. It does just in time and she jumps in, with the door closing before the bears reach it. She rides

the elevator up and, when it reaches the top, runs outside and into some thick fog. The elevator goes down and comes back up, this time with Freeze and the bears, while Barbara realizes she's on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean when she reaches the edge of it. Trapped, she runs back, only for Freeze to blast the patch of ground in front of her, causing her to slip and fall. He and his bear are on her in a second, with him pointing his gun at her, forcing her to surrender.

The movie slows down for a bit, as Bruce and Dick learn of Belson's tie to Freeze, Barbara is chained to her cot to keep her from escaping again, and Batman and Robin investigate Belson's house one night. They find a list of medical equipment, as well as hear a message on the answering machine from Belson's stockbroker, trying to get in touch with him; the broker leaves his phone number, allowing Batman and Robin to track down his address. Barbara meets Koonak, while Freeze is informed that they'll be able to perform the surgery

soon. Batman and Robin sneak into the stockbroker's apartment, and though he doesn't know where Belson is, he tells them of his serious legal and money problems. Belson then calls him and, unbeknownst to the broker, Robin records the call using the answering machine's built-in tape player. As he walks along on the outside of the oil rig, Belson tells his broker, "You got to buy me one more week with the SCC. Stall them, say whatever you have to, but I'll have the cash by then... I just struck gold." A passing ship sounds its foghorn and

Belson, covering one ear, asks his broker to take care of things but refuses to say where he is. He hangs up and the broker, after fumbling to get him back, realizes that Batman and Robin are now gone, along with the tape in the machine. Back in the Batcave, Batman has Alfred figure out what the medical supplies on the list could be used for, while he and Robin analyze the tape. Hearing the foghorn, Batman deduces Belson is somewhere near the water, and when they then hear the sound of a buoy

in the background, he realizes he's out in the shipping lanes. He pulls out a chart and points out an abandoned oil rig five miles offshore. At that moment, Belson enters Barbara's cell and, as she sleeps, unlocks the one end of her chain that's attached to the cot's bedpost. She awakens with a start and Belson tells her they're ready to begin. Barbara, however, says that she's not ready but Belson goes to sedate her, only for her to smack the syringe out of his hand with her chain. She swings the chain around and lashes at him with it, only for Freeze to blast the chain and shatter it. The two of them lunge at and manage to overpower her.

Batman and Robin prepare to take off in the Batwing, when Alfred approaches the launching pad to tell Batman that the medical supplies are meant for an organ transplant, prompting him and Robin to hurry. They fly the Batwing down the runway and through an opening in the cave wall up ahead of them. Freeze and Belson are then shown carrying a struggling Barbara down to the operating room, the sound of which wakes up Koonak. They place her on a table across from Nora, with Belson preparing some anesthesia.

Barbara yells that they don't need to do that for a blood transfusion, only to realize it's much more than that. She struggles all the more as Freeze holds her down, while Belson goes to place the mask on her face. Koonak shows up, seeing that Freeze lied when he promised not to hurt her, and rips the cord out of the tank. Belson picks him up and tosses him, while Barbara uses the distraction to kick Freeze, causing him to slam into the side of Nora's bed and damage the monitoring equipment. Koonak crawls for cover, and as Freeze desperately

tries to repair the damage, Barbara overturns the operating table onto Belson and runs up the stairs to the door. Belson pulls a handgun out of a drawer and gives chase. Out over the ocean, the Batwing closes in on the rig, Robin using his binoculars to get a closer look from the back. He sees a speedboat docked there, and then sees Barbara being chased by Belson, as well as the polar bears. Batman angles the Batwing down low, right above the water, and heads for the rig. There, Barbara

runs with the bears right on her tail, but she manages to grab onto a parallel bar and swing herself up to another walkway out of their reach. Spotting her, Belson fires from below, hitting a fuel tank behind her and causing it to start spurting out oil. She warns him to stop shooting but he continues firing at her when she runs for it again and chases after her. She comes to a dead end on the walkway and Belson, seeing that she's trapped, points his gun at her, smiling menacingly.

But then, the Batwing rises up behind him and hovers directly above him. He runs for it but Robin dives at him and knocks him down, unintentionally causing him to fire off a shot at the fuel tanks, creating a spark that ignites the oil leaking out. Barbara gets Robin's attention and he's relieved she's alright, when he sees the fire down the walkway from her. She spots as well right before it explodes, shaking the entire rig and throwing Freeze off his feet down below. Robin smashes the glass containing a fire-hose and yanks it out, while

Batman sets the Batwing down on the rig's helipad. Robin then attaches the hose to a pipe and turns the valve, when Notchka comes around the corner and snarls at him. He backs away and trips over the hose, as the polar bear stands on his hind legs and looms over him. But just as he's about to attack, Batman lassos Notchka around the neck and pulls him back. He tells Robin he has him, when Shaka appears behind him. Robin quickly blasts Shaka with the hose, forcing him back away from Batman, and runs off to the side. Notchka then

manages to rip the rope off his neck and both bears chase after the Dynamic Duo, as another explosion rocks the rig, chasing Barbara up the walkway and blasting her over the guardrail, which she grabs onto when the top railing gets blown off, leaving her hanging above the water. Batman and Robin reach the edge of the platform, as both polar bears come charging at them. Batman motions for Robin to wait, both of them backing up to the very edge, and then hop down and grab onto it just as the bears jump at them, sending them plummeting

down into the water. Batman and Robin pull themselves back up, while Barbara is now climbing up a ladder on the side of the fuel tank, trying to escape the flames (I don't know how she got back up there). They hear her scream for help and quickly find her. She asks for them to shoot her a line and Robin obliges, firing his grappling gun and hooking it around an angled pipe in front of her. They wait for her to slide down, when Freeze reaches the top level via the elevator. Barbara

warns them of him and they quickly run as he fires at them, his freeze ray blasting along the wall behind them. They take cover inside the compartment of a crane arm, only for Freeze to blast it, trapping them inside. Barbara slides down the line using a u-shaped piece of metal, just as the spot where she was standing explodes. The line snaps from the blast and sends her falling to the platform. She attempts to grab onto a metal bar but that breaks and she lands rather roughly, albeit unharmed. Getting to her feet, she sees Freeze coming for her and runs for it. Robin sees this from inside the frozen crane, as Batman tries to find a way to free themselves.

Belson awakens to see that the rig is in flames and, despite his warning that the whole place is going to go up any second, Freeze insists that no one's going anywhere until he performs the operation on Nora. Suddenly, a very large explosion rocks the rig, as one of the exploded fuel tanks falls over towards them. Belson pushes Freeze in its path and runs for it, and after hearing the crash, he sees Freeze has been pinned by a large mass of debris. He begs Belson for help but the traitorous coward opts to save himself, making his way down to where the

powerboat is docked. Meanwhile, Batman manages to get the crane working and slides the hook down the arm towards them, smashing the ice. As they climb out, Barbara comes across Freeze as he tries to free himself. Freeze tells her his leg is broken and the two of them work together to get rid of the debris, with Batman and Robin joining in. Batman holds up the heaviest chunk while Barbara and Robin pull Freeze out from under it and, once he's free, Batman insists they leave. Freeze says he won't leave without Nora and Barbara mentions

that she's down below with Koonak. She leads them to the stairway that leads down, only to open the door and find it's engulfed in flames. Though it looks hopeless, Freeze quickly uses his gun to extinguish the fire and clear a path for them. Batman heads down the stairs and Robin is about to follow, telling Barbara to stay up top, but she says they need her to show the way. Batman tells Robin that she's right and orders him to prepare the Batwing, as well as to leave if the place begins to

explode. Despite not liking that last part, Robin does as he told, while Batman and Barbara head downstairs. He has to use his cape to shield her from the flames that are still burning at the bottom and in various spots along the hallway. She leads him to the operating room, while up top, Belson gets to the powerboat and begins his escape. Robin gets to the Batwing and lifts off, the landing platform collapsing beneath him and crushing Belson and his boat down below. Batman and

Barbara enter the operating room, the latter finding and picking up Koonak, while Batman scoops Nora up in his arms. They rush back up the stairs and down the hallway, only to find the stairway they came down is on fire again. Batman yells for Freeze but he's almost overcome by the flames up there. Batman asks Barbara if there's another way out and she leads him down to the elevator.

They enter it and begin riding it up to the top, where Freeze is desperately trying to fend off the flames with his gun. Suddenly, the elevator stalls and the fire begins to burn its way into the car. Fortunately for them, Freeze manages to reach the door up top and fire his gun down at the flames, extinguishing them, and then pushing the "up" button to bring them all the way to the top. Freeze tells them to take Nora and Koonak first, saying they can come back for him. Batman and Barbara rush towards the helipad, only to then see that it

collapsed, as the rig begins to literally rip apart from the explosions. The section they're standing on starts slowly falling towards the ocean, but then Robin flies the Batwing up into position and they're able to jump to it. Barbara and Koonak get in the backseat, while Batman places Nora in the pilot seat with Robin, and then turns to go back for Freeze, telling Robin, "If I'm not back in time, go without me." He hops back to the platform, runs and jumps through the flames, and finds that Freeze is now hanging on the edge of a large rip in

the platform. He aims and fires his grappling gun, with Freeze grabbing onto the line. Before he can climb across, a large piece of pipe knocks the grapple loose, leaving Freeze hanging right below Batman and with steaming cracks in his helmet. Batman tells Freeze to hang on and pushes the retract button on the gun. A chunk of debris suddenly hits him in the shoulder, causing him to lose his grip and drop Freeze, who falls down to the flaming water below. Lamenting the loss,

Batman, gripping his injured shoulder, retracts the line and runs back through the flames, as the remaining fuel tank explodes big time. He outruns the explosions as they rip through the platform, leaping over one of the large gaps in it and jumping clear of the blasts. He falls to the water but fires his grappling gun and hooks onto the underside of the Batwing, swinging over the burning patches of water below him. They fly away as the entire rig explodes and its burning skeleton collapses into the

sea. The polar bears are shown swimming away from the burning wreckage, Freeze's hand emerging from the water beside one and grabbing onto him. The film cuts to two weeks later for its ending, where Freeze returns to the Arctic, learns of Nora's revival and successful organ transplant, and, with his injured leg in a cast of ice, walks off into the distance with his bears.

Like Bruce Timm, Shirley Walker wasn't involved with SubZero; instead, composing duties were handled by Michael McCuistion, who'd been both a composer and orchestrator on a handful of episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and has gone on to have a rich and varied career in the DCAU (he was also an orchestrator on various movies like Last Action Hero, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and, significantly, both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin). He handles himself quite well here, coming up with two very distinct pieces of music: a very threatening leitmotif for Mr. Freeze, one that's accompanied by pounding drums when it's heard in full force, and a soft, ethereal, lovely theme for Nora, which plays when you first see her and over the first part of the ending credits, although her presence is usually accompanied by the same sort of sound in the music. Although McCuistion never uses Walker's Batman theme from the show, he does come up with some heroic pieces of music in the same, including a very striking and epic one for when the Batwing arrives at the oil rig, and his music for the action scenes are really good, too, particularly for the climax. All in all, it's good work and it's no surprise why they've kept McCuistion around all these years; the fact that he's gone on to work frequently with fellow composers Kristopher Carter and Lolita Ritmanis, forming a notable trio, probably doesn't hurt either.

In doing this review, I've found that a lot of people really like Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, as it has a 7.2 on IMDB, not far behind Mask of the Phantasm's 7.8, and has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be liked, as it is a well-made flick with a simple but well-told story, with great characters brought to life through equally great voice performances, good animation and nice visual styling (albeit with a lot of dated CGI work), and a well-done music score, and I can definitely see how people at the time found it to be a great alternative to Batman & Robin, but at the same time, I've always seen it as about the same quality as a standard episode of Batman: The Animated Series. That's still a great bar to reach but I expected everyone else to see it as just "good" but with story contrivances and some missed opportunities, and I'm kind of surprised by how much genuine acclaim it gets, especially when compared to Mask of the Phantasm and the direct-to-video DC animated movies that have been produced since the late 2000's. I guess it goes to show that just because something isn't quite as ambitious or complex as its peers may be doesn't mean it won't be for the good it does do.