Heart of Ice

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Batman: The Animated Series episode
“Heart of Ice”
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 14
Writer(s) Paul Dini
Director Bruce Timm
Production no. –
Original airdate September 7, 1992
Episode chronology
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List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes

Heart Of Ice is the fourteenth episode of the American animated television series Batman: The Animated Series, first aired on September 12, 1992, written by Paul Dini, and directed by Bruce Timm. This episode features Mr. Freeze.

Contents

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Mr. Freeze
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Mr. Freeze

Batman follows a strange trail of heists pulled at various GothCorp offices, all by the same man, a strange figure clad in a powerful suit with what seems to be an "ice gun", an artifact that fires a beam capable of freezing anything into a thick sheet of solid ice. Batman pieces together the stolen items and discovers what the mysterious man is building: a massive cannon capable of casting a magnified ice beam, and that it is complete save for a single vital piece of equipment from GothCorp. Acting rapidly, he arrives at the GothCorp offices to witness the theft, to be frozen into an icicle, as the perpetrators of the theft leave behind one of their own when Batman escapes, frozen solid by the effect of "Mr. Freeze"'s gun. Batman helps the man, and pieces together the true identity of Mr. Freeze — a former cryogenics scientist for GothCorp, Victor Fries, who was apparently killed in a freak laboratory accident while trying to help his dying wife Nora, in which he was rendered unable to live outside of a sub-zero condition, caused by ruthless, mercenary GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle. Bruce Wayne talks to Boyle, who seems not to have any regrets about his behavior, or any lament for Fries' demise.

During a dinner where Boyle was to be presented with a humanitarian prize, Freeze arrives, his cannon completed. He fires the immense ice gun at the building, slowly freezing it completely. As Batman attacks the cannon, Mr. Freeze takes a shortcut to the floor where Boyle is. There, he freezes him to the waist and nearly makes a block of ice out of him before Batman foils his plan, shattering his specialized helmet by dousing it with hot chicken soup to induce thermal shock. With Freeze subdued, Batman presents evidence of Boyle's crime to guarantee his arrest.

Freeze is taken to Arkham Asylum, in a special cell designed to hold him, while he laments above the same ballerina effigy he pondered over at the start of the episode, wondering whether his beloved has forgiven him or not.

[edit] Cast

Actor Role
Kevin Conroy Batman/Bruce Wayne
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Alfred Pennyworth
Michael Ansara Mr. Freeze / Victor Fries
Mari Devon Summer Gleeson
Mark Hamill Ferris Boyle
Michael Bell Additional Voice
Robert David Hall Additional Voice
John Mariano Additional Voice

[edit] Trivia

  • In February 2002, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Batman: The Animated Series, polls were held at the website The World's Finest to determine the best episode of the show. "Heart of Ice" was the winner and so received its own subsite, complete with exclusive comments on the episode provided by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and other officials behind the show[1].
  • This is the first episode to be directed by Bruce Timm.
  • Mark Hamill, playing Boyle here, later made the first of many memorable appearances as the Joker in the DC Universe.
  • Batman's uttering of "My God!" at the tape is unusual in a cartoon, as the censors considered any mention of religion unpassable.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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