Batman: Subzero is the second film of the Dc animated universe after Mask of the Phantasm and although it is dated a little for toady'd standards, it makes up for it with (a) an entailing story, (b) well made and realistic characters (!) and (c) an antagonist ,who is motivated by love, the real Mr. Freeze. This flick was at first planned to be released in 1997, but due to the massive back lash, which the abomination Batman and Robin received the date went back a whole year!
Now Let's dive in to the main components that make it so good. Starting with (a) the story. We follow Doctor Victor Freeze , who is desperate to find a donor of his wife in order to save her and for that he devise a plan in order to find a suitable donor and fast.So he abducts Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl and it is up to the Boy Wander and the Knight of Gotham City to find her. OK, the story may lacks some originality,but its job of make you understand why everyone do what his or her is doing, so we are fine here
To the (b) realism of the Characters, I want to emphasize here for that animated video movie was more realistic from its live action counterpart. Every character needs are logical and even the design of Gotham feels like an metropolis buzzing around the clock, which is awesome.
To the "villain" of the film (!),Mr. Freeze, I am a big fan of this guy and here they show really well ,that his criminal actions aren't due to his greed, need of vengeance or ego ,he does them for his wife .Also the fact that he can' hag her o kiss makes you at times feel bad for the fellow and I was rooting for him to get what he wanted.
Final and Bonus fact the animation. Two are the facts that decrease the quality of the movie from an awesome story to a solid, decent one. The first is the unoriginal of the story and the other the animation it isn't as top notes as an animated film of that universe needs to be. The reason for that is that the Bruce Tim's team tried to use some CGI 'in to the designs and remember it is 1998 and cgi is not a evolve as now ,so that is the reason. But it isn't awful at least, it is just fine.
In the end although dated, the film is the best interpretation of Mr. Freeze so far and I wish this one will inspire the Warner Bros. to make it in a big Budget live action film, somewhere after the Justice League movies for it is a shame to not give a chance to doctor Victor.
