Deep Dive DC: Wes Looks at Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Welcome back friends to Deep Dive DC Month and our three-part look at the DCAU Mr. Freeze. Today, we are looking at the TV movie, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero. However, before we get there, let’s briefly recap the previous chronological appearance of Freeze that we did not cover, the episode entitled Deep Freeze. Since the events of Heart of Ice, Freeze has been peacefully serving out his sentence until one day he’s forcibly kidnapped by an aging wealthy theme park mogul named Grant Walker (who may or may not be Warner Bros. throwing shade on Walt Disney). Walker has an interest in Mr. Freeze, particularly in how his condition has slowed his aging considerably. Walker insists that Freeze recreate the conditions of his accident so that the aging Walker can be revitalized as step one of his supervillain plot which basically boils down to “destroy the world and start from scratch.” Freeze recognizes that Walker is a mad man and wants nothing to do with him until Walker drops the bombshell. Freeze’s wife Nora is alive and Walker, who was a major investor in Gothcorp, managed to recover her cryo-tube after the explosion. With his deepest desire once again back within his grasp, Freeze reluctantly agrees to aid Walker, but soon realizes that what Walker is doing is wrong and helps Batman and Robin save the day. As Walker’s facility is about to blow, Freeze stays behind with Nora and is last seen floating away in a glacier with his wife’s cryo-tube in tow. Our film today picks up with Freeze now living a peaceful life in the arctic, having adopted two pet polar bears and an orphaned Inuit boy, all while holding out hope that one day a cure for Nora’s condition can be found and the two can be reunited. It’s not an ideal life, but it’s one Freeze seems content with and would have gladly left the outside world alone, if a wayward submarine hadn’t accidentally damaged Nora’s cryo-tube, causing her condition to deteriorate rapidly. Freeze returns to Gotham to abduct his old research partner who informs him that Nora has a week at most and the only way to save her is an organ transplant. The problem there is, Nora has a very rare blood type and a deceased donor cannot be found in time. Freeze, desperate to save his wife, decides to find a live donor and sacrifice them. Said live donor just so happens to be one Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl. Now, Batman and Robin must track down Freeze and save Barbara and hopefully talk some sense into Victor before he does the unthinkable. So, let’s take a look at Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.

Main Character:

So, I guess, by default, Freeze here acts as both villain and main character of this film. That seems cool and all since, as we saw yesterday, Freeze is a great character, but this film sadly does not use the character to his fullest potential. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the film manages to do some interesting stuff with him, such as giving him two trained polar bears to up the intimidation factor, but we don’t get nearly the level of Shakespearean pathos that we got from the character in Heart of Ice. The key motivator for Freeze in this movie is desperation. Freeze invented the cryo-tube so that Nora’s time could be extended. Now that it’s running out, Freeze will do anything, even sacrifice an innocent life, in order to save his wife. It’s interesting, but it just doesn’t give the character as much to chew on as we got or will get in other appearances.

Side Characters:

As you may have guessed, Batman and Robin don’t really get much to do this time around, at least not until the climax. Most of their plot involves solving the mystery of why Freeze took Barbara, but we the audience already know that, so their plot thread feels like a bit of a drag. I do like the development of Dick and Barbara’s relationship, but we don’t spend that much time on it. At least we don’t open the horribly disgusting can of worms that is the Bruce/Dick/Barbara love triangle so that’s good at least.

Barbara herself is a bit perplexing to me in this movie. She gets the majority of the screen time of the Bat Family trio in this movie, and yet, I can count the minutes she actually appears as Batgirl on one hand. The marketing for this movie made it look like Babs as Batgirl would be a major part of this movie, but she spends most of her time as a damsel in distress and never suits up as Batgirl during the climax, weird. The only other character of significance is Gregory Belson, Freeze’s old colleague who helped develop the cryo-tube. While he’s got enough of a conscience that he raises objections at killing innocents, he’s still enough of a scumbag that he goes along with it once Freeze offers him unrestricted access to a gold vein he discovered in the arctic. I’m glad he dies.

Memorable Scenes:

I actually really enjoyed the opening where we see Freeze living a peaceful life in that arctic. As I’ve said, Freeze is not a villain by choice, only by circumstance. Someone like The Joker would never stop committing crimes because that’s what he lives for, but Freeze is different. Once Freeze accomplishes his goal, he would gladly give up his life of crime and live in peace. It’s nice to see in these moments that Freeze is capable of living a peaceful life and only returns to villainy when he’s forced to.

Story:

So by now, you’ve probably noticed the major flaw with this movie, that being, it feels less like a movie and more like a longer episode of the show, and not one of the better ones. I’m just not sure why this particular story needed a feature length TV movie. This could easily have been cut down and made into an episode of the show, but for whatever reason they decided this needed a movie. I’m not saying it’s bad, it just doesn’t feel big enough compared to other Batman Movies we’ve covered or even compared to something like Heart of Ice or Deep Freeze. Hell, in Deep Freeze, the villain was trying to destroy the entire world, wouldn’t that have made for an interesting TV movie? Also, I really need to say, the 1998 CGI that’s peppered throughout this movie has aged very poorly.

Final Thoughts: I liked this, but out of the five major appearances of Mr. Freeze in the DCAU, it's one of the weaker entries. In any case, tune in tomorrow as we wrap up this chilling tribute with Mr. Freeze's final DCAU appearance, the Batman Beyond episode, Meltdown.