Heart of Ice (Batman episode)

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“Heart of Ice”

Batman: The Animated Series episode

Episode no.

Season 1
Episode 14

Written by

Paul Dini

Directed by

Bruce Timm

Original airdate

September 7, 1992

Episode chronology
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"The Cat and the Claw"	"See No Evil"

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 the first appearance in the series of Mr. Freeze. In comics, Freeze first appeared in 1959 in Batman #121.^[1].

The episode rocketed the series to fame, after it won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program^[2].

1 Plot Summary
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Goofs and Cultural References
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot Summary

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", a weapon 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, only to be partially frozen under a sheet of ice after fighting with the thieves; as the perpetrators of the theft escape, they leave behind one of their own, his legs frozen by accident by the mastermind behind the thefts. 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 GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle (an obvious pun on the word "Boil", the polar opposite of "Freeze"). Bruce Wayne talks to Boyle, who seems not to have any regrets about his behavior, or any lament for Fries' demise.

Mr. Freeze

During a dinner where Boyle was to be presented with a humanitarian prize, Freeze arrives, his cannon completed. He fires the immense weapon at the building, slowly freezing it from bottom to top. As Batman attacks the cannon, Mr. Freeze kicks open a fire hydrant and freezes the water with his freeze gun to get to the floor where Boyle is. Once there, he manages to freeze Boyle to the waist before Batman foils his plan, shattering his specialized helmet by dousing it with hot chicken soup to induce thermal shock ("the only way to fight a cold", as Alfred had said to him when he gave him the soup earlier). With Freeze subdued, Batman presents evidence of Boyle's crime to bring him to justice as well.

Freeze is taken to Arkham Asylum and put in a frozen 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] Production

This is the first episode of the series directed by Bruce Timm and written by Paul Dini. Timm first thought of Anthony Hopkins to play Freeze. ^[3] But later came up with Michael Ansara to play Mr. Freeze.^[4] While doing the voice for Freeze, Ansara had a lot of problems because Bruce Timm wanted Freeze to sound like a robot, without showing any emotion. Everyone said that this would make the character sound too flat, but it was done anyway.^[5]

The original idea for the flashback video was to have Freeze cling to Nora's cryogenic tank and realize in horror that his hair, now frozen, is breaking off in chunks. Paul Dini stated that he wanted to do this in pre-production, but they were over air time and cut it out.^{[citation needed]}

Spectrum Animation Studios, who created this episode, added the hint of frost around Freeze's helmet, giving it a sense of realism. Bruce Timm wanted a thin white line around his head, implying it was a helmet, but he admitted he was impressed with the final product.^{[citation needed]}

Batman's uttering of "My God!" at the tape is unusual in a cartoon, as the censors considered any mention of religion or any expletive unpassable. Bruce Timm mentioned on the commentary for the episode that he considers it strange they never caught it. The Toon Disney airing of this episode has the phrase removed. They have also removed the part where Freeze says "I'd kill for that."^[6]

The planned ending was to have a weeping Freeze in his cell, with his tears freezing and turning into snowflakes. Timm and Dini mentioned that if they could go back and do any episode again, they would do Heart of Ice and would include this.^[1]

The police officer in the scene which introduces Mr. Freeze was voiced by Bob Hastings, who voiced Commissioner Gordon.^[7] Mark Hamill, playing Ferris Boyle here, later made the first of many memorable appearances as the Joker in the DC Animated Universe. He originally got the role of Boyle and offered to play one of the villains, preferably Joker, who was his favorite. The producers informed him Tim Curry had been already cast in the role, but when Curry dropped out, Hamill was happy to oblige in playing the Joker.^[8]

[edit] Reception

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 ^[9]. In 2005, Wizard Magazine selected this episode as the best of the series.^{[citation needed]} This episode is widely considered the best individual episode of Batman: The Animated Series. The execution for 'Heart of Ice' was near flawless, with both comic and animation fans appreciating the revamp of the Mr. Freeze character.^[4] This episode provided such a burst in the popularity of Mr. Freeze that his comics' counterpart had his origins retconned to more closely resemble this episode.^[4]