Batman: The Animated Series

loved every minute of this episode. the animation was brilliant - the ice and the ice weapon were superbly drawn and well coloured. Mr Freeze himself was well designed despite Paul Dini commenting on the design changes he would want to incorporate if he did this episode again. Batman was good in this episode too. he was sympathetic and carefully fought Freeze with wits as opposed to fists. Feris Boyle was cold and harsh - which suits the theme just fine in this episode.

this episode contains some of the best dialogue written including that oh-so-knowing Klingon Proverb. Great Stuff! Best episode ever.

Out of all of the villian in the Batman universe Mr. Freeze I always thought was the most sympathetic. Like some complex villian it wasn't so much just by choice alone but circumstance to drive them to that choice.



The way he is portrayed is menising from those red eyes, the weapon and superstrength he whields to that Darth Vader like voice which has such coldness. However is also one I couldn't help but feel heavy pathos for because we understood why, down to his voice which also carried a sadness within it.



The real villan to me was that corporate mongul Feris who is the one that truely has a heart of ice, Mark Hamell's performance of this guy is great. You really don't like this nor does Bruce/Batman in one scene; he's greedy, self serving even though he does support humanitarian causes he's doing it for all the wrong reasons it's all for glory just to boost his ego. And as we see the secret of Mr.Freeze when Batman watches a video tape, we see Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze was a good man that was building a way to save many lives by utilized Crogenic Freeze. Which would put people into suspended animation for many years till a cure for their uncurable diesase can be found. And the first on for it is of course his beloved wife. But as we see Feris of coruse cancels the project for no good reason and kills Freeze's wife. I hated that Feris's guys guts at that point, he did all that to save himself money he could of lived without.



The final scene I'll admit but a tear or two in my eye when we see Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze in Archam Asylam in his cell and he looks at the snow globe which reminds him of his deceeded wife and delivers sad monalogue that just proves Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze truely does have a warm heart.

This in my opinion is one of the top 5 episodes of this series. The story starts out with a strange sequence of cold related crimes against Goth Corp. Ferris Boyle the CEO of Goth Corp seems as lost as everyone else in regards to these thefts. Bruce Wayne comes to learn of a disgruntled ex-employee named Dr. Victor Fries who was caught using company equipment for his own purposes. When Batman investigates he sees that Fries is just attempting to store his beloved wife Nora in a cryogenic freezing chamber until they can cure her inoperable disease. Ferris Boyle interjects and tries to pull the plug, stuff goes down , there an explosion and Mr. Freeze is born. He goes after Ferris Boyle to avenge his wife. Batman tries to stop him. Watch this episode for yourself .... its great. Good ol' chicken soup ... the only way to fight a cold!!

A powerful, thought-provoking episode. Dr Victor Fries wants only to save his beloved wife, but his plans are thwarted by a greedy and evil businessman, and Fries is turned into a monster - a monster thirsting for revenge. The title of the episode, "Heart of Ice", can be interpreted as referring to Dr Fries/Dr Freeze now having a frozen heart. However, it is revealed that he still loves his dead wife. Perhaps the one with the true "Heart of Ice" is the one who turned him into Dr Freeze.

It is amazing that Mr. Freeze started off as a comedic, ice-themed villain in the comics with very fourth class, typical superpowered villain plots, having the name Mr. Zero to begin with and being casually killed off by the Joker which originally had no impact. He then went on to appear in the Adam West 1960s Batman series in a very campish interpretation(as to be expected). This episode changes that 100%.



Mr. Freeze is obviously the main focus of the episode. He is no longer a clown who has the ability to freeze people with his ice gun. He is a tragic, complex character who has suffered a terrible loss that he just cannot get over. His wife has died thanks to the selfish, foolish nature of the greedy Ferris Boyle, and his rage has driven him mad, especially since he was pushed into a container of icy fluids that made him cold-blooded and forced him to remain in an icy suit. Mr. Freeze has lost everything, and revenge is now all he lives for. This is nothing like how he was originally portrayed, and it is no surprise that after this episode, the comics chose to resurrect him and change his origin to this far superior one, which essentially makes Mr. Freeze a far better and more interesting character. It is hard to believe that the notorious 'Batman and Robin' changed him back to the camp, cringe-worthy version that he started off as.



Although Mr. Freeze is what catches your attention, the music, visuals and dialogue are all the best that BTAS has to offer. This is very possibly the greatest Batman ever. 5/5.

The basic premise of the episode is thus: Mr. Freeze is driven by thoughts of revenge to destroy Ferris Boyle, the CEO of Gothcorp who interfered with Freeze's experiment to cryogenically freeze his terminally ill wife. The end result is Mr Freeze's current condition.



The episode handles the subject matter seriously and tastefully. Freeze is shown as cruel when he leaves one of his own henchmen behind when he is accidentally hit with a freeze ray, and he is clearly willing to kill Boyle. Yet even as Freeze is shown as a dangerous man, he is also made into a sympathetic villain.



The holes the story -- how Freeze lived and how he hid the fact that he lived -- are excusable and do not detract from the story. But Freeze does make some very amateurish mistakes, being an amateur and all, like the 60s-esque way in which he just leaves Batman -- twice! -- instead of finishing him off.



It is critical to note that this telling of Freeze's backstory was completely original to BTAS. Before this episode, Mr. Freeze was nothing more than a standard, gimmicky villain. The BTAS writers completely reinvented him, and their twist of Mr. Freeze into a tragic character ended up bleeding back into the comics due to its popularity, changing the character forever.

This is the best episode of the series yet, it is the first one with Mr Freeze and the story is exellent. One of the best things that this series did was redo a lot of the villans that had been lame and one dimensional in the past. They did it spectacularly with Two-Face and they do it even better with Mr Freeze, turning him into a tragic villan who wants to take revenge on the man who took away his wife and his happiness. Resulting into what is without a doubt the best depection of the character yet. It had exellent animation (once again by spectrum) and a strong story and script. The one very minor flaw was the Bat symbol constantly inverting (with the oval turning black and the bat turning yellow). But like I said , that is only a minor flaw and does little damage to the episode.

Excellent new background-story for Mr. Freeze.



It became the de-facto beginning story both in the comic and the ill-fated movie.



The villain (Mr. Boyle) is very well represented.



The only thing missing on this episode is Batman showing more concern about Fries condition (unlike the Clayface episodes, where he seems genuine in showing some concern of Clay´s problem..)

Before Batman the Animated Series Victor Fries was nothing more than another villain who had a cheap gimmick. Thanks to the Animated Series Mr. Freeze was turned into a character with dimensions and intrest. This episode is definately true to the core of what Batman is and shows once again that the Animated Series like the comic doesn\'t always have a happy ending.

I almost feel like docking points because it seems like this episode inspired the plot of Batman and Robin, but I'm not going to. That would be cruel.



Denied the use of equipment to save his wife and exposed to chemicals which make him vulnerable to temperatures over zero degrees, Victor Fries becomes Mr. Freeze, a criminal beyond emotion that wants revenge.



All I can say is...wow. Mr. Freeze is such a brilliant character here. Through his past and his dialogue, the viewer gets to understand his motives, and actually feels sorry for him. He isn't seen as a 'villain' but just someone who is doing what he thinks is right. The execution of this episode is so poignant, especially at the end.



Also, this backstory was created for the cartoon, but was then adapted into the comics. It's not hard to see why.

An episode that is worthy of its awards and accolades. This may be the finest story ever told for weekday afternoon television. It also established Paul Dini as a great writer capable of both tragdy and comedy.



Mr. Freeze is clearly the hero of his own story and Heart of Ice demostrates that.