User reviews

Mr. Freeze's wife needs an organ transplant and Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, is the only acceptable blood match. So Freeze kidnaps her while she's on a date with Dick Grayson, aka Robin. Batman and Robin race against time to rescue Barbara before it's too late. Very good animated movie that's miles better than Joel Schumacher's craptacular movie that also featured Mr. Freeze and Batgirl, released not long before this. What might surprise some is that Batman is largely absent from the first half of this. It still works, though, due to the great characterizations and writing. Although this is nowhere near as strong as the award-winning "Heart of Ice" episode of Batman: The Animated Series. That episode was the best Mr. Freeze story ever told in any form of media. This is still a very enjoyable movie, hampered slightly by some sloppy animation. The story does feel like it could have been a two-part episode of the TV series but since the series was excellent I fail to see how that's a negative.

I for one have never really been a big fan of animated cartoon type movies, that is since I'm now an adult but in my past as a kid I treasured them. And being a big "Batman" fan I just had to check out the animated films even as an adult. I must say that this film featuring villain Mr. Freeze: Subzero didn't let me down either. As Freeze wanted to chill Gotham City this animated film brought red hot explosive action! The drama and story is well laid out with a plot twist that would even appear in a big screen movie. It centers around Barbara Gordon("Batgirl") who finds herself being the unlucky one that's kidnapped by Freeze when he finds out that she's an organ donor. The thing is the wife of Freeze needs an organ transplant to return to her normal state. Never fear "Batman" and "Robin" are to the rescue! Really watch this if you haven't it ends with everyone on a happy note just like the days when you as a kid watched cartoons! Overall great animated work of a "Batman" film.

For me, "SubZero" is mostly about context. This is a Mr. Freeze story by the people behind "Batman: TAS", so you know it's top-shelf. And, coming a year after "Batman and Robin" was like a salve for Schwarzenegger's portrayal. Context also applies to the CGI use. Back in '98, it looked pretty good (at the very least, expensive). Despite its aging, it was good for the time.

The only real complaint I have is the the abbreviated running time. Shorter even than "Mask of the Phantasm", the clipped pacing doesn't allow for much in the way of character development. But the animation is strong, and so is the action; particularly the submarine opening and Dick's chase with Freeze. There's great imagery in this movie and I love that Freeze has polar bear henchmen. It's a little touch, but man, does it work.

7/10

To start with, the animation is fantastic. The story is exciting and fast paced. Not as dark as the previous animated film, but it was like the way Batman acts in the comics and show. He solves the crime, looking for clues and has a great fight with the bad guy. This could have been a big screen contender but because Batman and Robin failed, Warner Bros. said no and released it to video. But this is still great and superior to Batman and Robin. They have to make another animated Batman film, and not that Batman Beyond film they're talking about. Recommended for all.

Michael Ansara's voice is perfect for Mr. Freeze, and of all the villains on the Batman cartoon, he was the most sympathetic. He has a plan to save his wife's life only it will cost Barbara Gordon hers. Excellent film.

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.

That SUB-ZERO should come on the HEELS of BATMAN & ROBIN with George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell and Arnold Schwarzenegger is a blasphemy. This movie should have been released first to give Joel Schumacher an idea of how his film should have been. SUB-ZERO uses much the same plot as B&R, but with way better results. SUB-ZERO also does it without relying on heavy camp humor as the live-action film did. Like BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM, SUB-ZERO can stand alongside those Max Fleischer SUPERMAN cartoons from the Forties.

Alongside Mask of the Phantasm, this movie is a great tribute to the Animated Series that brought Batman into children's lives. This movie, even though it was animated, was serious, realistic, and had a great plot. The fact that it came out after Shcumaker's Batman & Robin, is a shame, due to the fact that this movie, an animated movie, blows the big screen movie out of the water. Just goes to show the difference between a great movie and director, and a horrible movie.

The voices for the characters were picked perfectly, and unlike the Freeze of Batman and Robin, this Dr. Freeze was perfectly in alignment with the mentality and actions of the comic book villain.

Kevin Conroy sounds just like you expect Batman to sound like, blowing George Clooneys frankly oddball and campy rendition away. Conroy acts like people expect the real Batman to act, assuming of course you are not Joel Schumaker or anyone who thinks said directors movies are good.

Whether SubZero is the best Batman movie that is up for debate, but it is a long, long way from being the worst. The problem is really that it was released so close to Batman and Robin, but as far as I am concerned SubZero completely blows Batman and Robin out of the water. Apart from the colourful costumes and sets, Batman and Robin for me failed on characterisation, scripting and acting-George Clooney was completely wrong for Batman and Arnold Schwarznegger's Freeze didn't come close to the complex character he is in the comic books. SubZero, while not as ambitious as Mask of the Phantasm is a very good film. True, the secondary characters could've done with more development, but it is compensated by top notch animation, a good music score, surprisingly mature scripting and a compelling enough story, that is quite action packed, and the ending was very poignant to say the least. The voice acting and characterisations were exemplary. Batman is more a side character to Robin, but Kevin Conroy ensures he is his dark and brooding self like Batman should be. Robin here is quite heroic here and Barbara aka Batgirl is really beautiful. What made the film though was Freeze himself. While still chilling and ambitious, he is also sympathetic and loves his wife to death. Michael Ansara conveyed that perfectly. In conclusion, pretty darn good for a Batman film. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Batman & Mr. Freeze tells a fun tale of Batman and Robin chasing down yet another looney from Gotham and using their detective work to race against the clock. The movie makes Mr. Freeze not only a sympathetic villain but in the end almost redeemable. The only real problem with the movie is a few minor hiccups in the animation here in there, particular in the 3d scenes, and some of the clues Batman finds being a little bit deus ex machina. Other than that it's a solid animated Batman adventure.

Subzero is credited as one of the best DC animated movies and is even award winning. It's essentially a feature length episode of the long running animated television show, but that's hardly a bad thing.

Telling the story of Mr Freeze as he kidnaps Barbara Gordon in a desperate attempt to save his cryogenically frozen wife.

I usually have difficulty getting into these things especially when they're the family friendly ones (Which this is) but this wasn't bad at all. A touching story, good voice work and some nice writing sets it marginally apart from the rest and I came away relatively entertained.

The movie does drag in places, especially near the end but it comes back with a closing scene that made it all worth it.

A meh attempt for the average Joe but a must watch for Batman fanatics.

The Good:

Relatively well made

Sweet closing scene

The Bad:

Finale oddly drags

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

It doesn't matter whether animated or live action Gotham City always looks like a complete dive

This isn't the live action Batman, but much like Mask of the Phantasm, is an amazing animated Batman! So amazing in fact, that they should've made it Batman and Robin! It is so much what the last Batmovie Batman and Robin should have been. Totally amazing.

The animation, no doubt, is top-notch. That's a given, though, when you're dealing with this particular series. As for the plot, it's simple enough. Kinda spooky, though, for me given that I share that blood type. (Thankfully I don't fit the demographic.) Anyway, Mr. Freeze comes off as he should: a tragic display of a man who's fighting to hold onto his life as he knew it. Mr. Freeze is not a villain by nature, but by default. To achieve his goal of restoring his wife, he's forced by circumstance into lawbreaking. Outside of that, Mr. Freeze is no more menacing a person than you or I. Unfortunately, Mr. Freeze is the only one with development in "Sub Zero." Bruce/Batman appears more or less in a cameo this time, the lack of screen time not letting him really display any characterization. Dick/Robin has enough going on that he shows off some, sure, and there's some tension for him, but that's really as far as it went. Barbara/Batgirl got to showcase herself better than the Dynamic Duo, most likely to show us why she got to sign on permanently with Batman in the new series. But for all she does in this one, we don't really walk away feeling we know anything new about her, either. Oh, sure, we know her blood type. But aside from that, she basically just got more lines than the guys. Would I recommend "Sub Zero?" Definitely. After all, where this creative team is concerned, even their "Just OK" material is usually superior to most anyway.

This doesn't necessarily put Subzero, a straight-to-video release about Mr. Freeze's ongoing attempts to resurrect his wife, into the pantheon of great Batman animated movies. When comparing to Mask of the Phantasm or even Batman/Superman, it's nowhere near as ambitious. It's actually kind of run-of-the-mill in its storytelling, with some solid peril as Batman and Robin try and crack the mystery behind Batgirl/Barbara Bordon's kidnapping, but some lackluster animation. When the filmmakers try to inject some computer animation into some sequences, like with some of the chase scenes or the ones up in the arctic, they completely fall flat. And the romantic entangling we see Dick Grayson and Barara get into is weak as well. Only when the animators stick to what works best on the TV series, and when we get a few moments of pure Batman action, does the movie strike any decent ground.

It's maybe worth seeing once, mostly if you're big into Batman or the series (hey, who can resist Kevin Conroy voicing Batman?), but its appeal isn't one for repeat viewings, save if you're really young and don't care either way.

This should not be red as a suggestion not to watch the movie , but that's the impression it gave me . Also , it needs CLASSIC or , maybe , a little enhanced CLASSIC drawing not computer animations . In this case , computer animations ruin the pictorial atmosphere that characterized the new Batman Series . Maybe it costs more but it's worth it ! Also , the plot should have been more serious or insidious . The story is too simple . Besides , if it's a cartoon , the kids would buy it anyway . The music is good , the sounds are good but the computer generated animations and the lack of story complexity drags this project down to the level of a simple good episode of The New Batman Adventures . It is really not up to the par with The Mask of The Phantasm .

Going back to the time where Tim Burton's version and the animated series it inspired were all the rage in the '90s, this film certainly seemed amazing at the time. Now that the years have passed, it is seen for what it really is and it is something that is only seen again out of pure nostalgia. It is quite noticeable for its animation and character design, giving it that neo-noir tone that the animated series has. Even computer-animated elements were used to make it more movie-like, but the movie really feels more like an extended episode of the series. This is noticeable by how much it focuses on Dr. Freeze and the kidnapping of Barbara Gordon, leaving Batman and Robin for the third act. It is not a very well-crafted script and there are not many elements that make this film anything beyond what it is. Anyway, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero is a good, fairly short film that serves as a small reminder of the relevance that Batman had in 90s animation. My rating for this movie is an 8/10.

I watched this directly after watching "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm", and it definitely in my opinion isn't as good as that is. But on its own merits, I did like it. It's pretty straightforward in this story as Mr. Freeze is trying to save his wife Nora Fries, and Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl happens to be one of few people who is a rare match for her blood type. So he kidnaps her to attempt to make Batgirl give one of her organs to save his wife. And with that, it's Batman and Robin to the rescue. Well, kinda. It's really Batgirl's movie when you think about it. And I like that she's scrappy and trying to be resourceful despite the fact that she's been abducted. She's a hero too, and this movie treats her like one. That's a good thing. And better realized than how she was in the live-action "Batman and Robin". Her introductory scene even involves her fighting off goons. I will say though part of what did tend to get redundant after a while was the repeated number of escape attempts that she made from Freeze. Don't get me wrong. I would too, but it got kind of repetitive to watch. So much in fact to where I began to think it didn't need to be a movie, let alone a direct-to-video movie. I started to feel like it could have just been a two-parter on the Animated Series, and I still kind of feel like it could have. I started feeling like they did that to pad the time a bit. It started to drag. It's hardly over a hour as is. Batman and Robin are here, but not as much as she is. I understand why, but when it's called "Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero", one might think Batman will play a larger role in the movie. I wasn't hating it, and I don't mind the other characters being more of the story focus. I still think it's alright, and not because "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" is superior. I just thought that it would be something else. Technically speaking, I love the 2D animation and I only liked the CG animation that was applied to certain scenes. Sometimes though, it stood out in a unflattering way. Other times, it blended in well. As a whole, I enjoyed how colorful the movie was too. The sound and music were also well done. What made the movie improve for me was its final act, and its ending. As a whole, it's fine.

And imagine what Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero could've been with a bigger budget and maybe a longer running-time?

I think we could've had a blast watching this in theaters, because while it in the scripting and character departments are made expertly to be a Batman movie where he does what he does best, there are points where the low budget shines through.

But let me go over the good stuff to begin with: the detective angle is done really well even if we know beforehand who did it and why, because of how the plot is structured, but Batman and Robin go figure that out by putting the pieces together and that is a joy to watch.

The music is atmospheric and at times beautiful like when Nora Fries is on screen a theme plays that is so light and innocent sounding it just touches me knowing how much she means to Victor, because he is such a sympathetically tragic character. He may be a brutal and non-compromising, but it's all because of how much he loves Nora who made him feel appreciated.

The ending is what everyone wants to see, so turn this movie in and watch it for yourself!

But since this is a direct-to-video release, some corners must be cut. Here my biggest complain is the use of CGI which is mediocre at best, but the short running-time takes away the possibility to make more use of some side characters.

But for what it is, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero is a solid movie with good action and a lot of heart and care put in the most important places to make it engaging and I'd personally recommend it to everyone.

Warner Bros. DC animated series of Batman and Superman are known for being a part of the best adaptations of said characters. Very few people who are fans of the characters would have a negative opinion of these renditions because of their quality storytelling and production. This is also the reason why the theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) was created as well. It was just that popular and well regarded. So with that, it's no surprise another production would be made. Maybe not as high in scale but still very good. There was one major drawback though and that was its release date. This was all thanks due to the poor performance of Batman & Robin (1997). Which it's likely true many also are aligned with their feelings on that production too.

Directed by Boyd Kirkland, and co-writing with Randy Rogel who both worked on Batman: The Animated Series, the story is mainly about Mr. Freeze (Michael Ansara). The chilly villain that is more tragic than just insane. The film is an important link between the first two seasons and the later rendition of the show. Without this, what happens to Mr. Freeze doesn't make much sense. After sinking under the ocean with his wife Nora, Freeze lives a life of solitude before being disturbed once again by outside forces. Almost losing his love again, Freeze captures the financially desperate Dr. Greg Belson (George Dzundza) to perform the needed organ transplant. Being that Nora is a rare blood type, the two do some back alley digging and find Barbara Gordon (Mary Kay Bergman) as the perfect match for the job.

What this film puts on display is truly the last amount of humanity that Mr. Freeze ever had. He's just one of those villains that really doesn't hurt for the sake of chaos. He causes chaos, but out of his desires that are of course to most, seen as selfish but he sees out of love. There will always be that moment where the viewer will say to themselves "If only he had done...he wouldn't have to do what he's doing now". Again, not seeing this feature creates a gaping hole in the next story to focus on Mr. Freeze in the TV show. Unfortunately, for someone who wants to watch things in which they were released will cause this issue.

It was probably the right move to not to release this feature alongside the financial blunder that Batman & Robin (1997) ended up being, but still.

It also doesn't help that the later series had differing designs for all the major characters. It's truly not the biggest problem considering the story arc does not change but it is jarring either way. The feature itself still maintains the original series design and look, no complaints, just observation. Although there is one added addition and that is the use of CGI in various shots. Some of which is okay, while others are a bit rough. That's not to say the rest of the animation doesn't hold up. It's also very difficult to tell (except for the CGI) that the budget wasn't the same as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993). All the scenes animated and colored look great and provide a lot of visual entertainment for the audience. The action sequences also help a lot in that too.

The same could be said for the voice acting which has always been top notch in quality. Because the focus is more on Mr. Freeze, Michael Ansara really had time to shine and in his final acting role. Additionally, George Dzundza had voiced Scarface in other episodes of show. As for Mary Kay Bergman, she sadly passed away a year after but voiced several other characters in shows like South Park and The Little Mermaid. Finally, the music had the right idea too. Surprisingly not composed by Shirley Walker, the score to this picture was handled by Michael McCuistion. However, the reason why the music still works is that he too supported the TV show. While Batman's theme isn't really heard, it all sounds like its cut from the same cloth. Additionally, there are other themes related to Freeze's wife Nora. With almost an hour of music, it is definitely something to have with the collection.

Some will be scratching their heads when seeing the animation revert to old designs and filling in missing story elements if going by release date, but that shouldn't be a big deal. The CGI can be iffy at times but the story is still good, as is the acting, music and animation.