Heart of Ice (Batman: The Animated Series episode)

This article is about the Batman: The Animated Series episode. For other uses, see Heart of Ice.

"'Heart of Ice'"
Batman: The Animated Series episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 14
Directed by	Bruce Timm
Written by	Paul Dini
Original air date	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 7, 1992, written by Paul Dini, and directed by Bruce Timm. This episode features the first appearance in the series of Mr. Freeze. In the comics, Freeze first appeared in Batman #121 in 1959.

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

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 a "freezing 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 accidentally frozen 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 terminally ill wife Nora, in which he was rendered unable to live outside of a sub-zero condition, caused by ruthless 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 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 freezing gun to get to the floor where Boyle is. Once there, he freezes Boyle to the waist 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 expose the GothCorp CEO himself as a fraud and a murderer and bring him to justice as well. Batman says to Boyle before Batman left, "Goodnight Mr. Humanitarian." Boyle is then taken to jail.

Freeze is taken to Arkham Asylum and put in a frozen cell designed to hold him. The episode ends with Freeze gazing at a snow globe and begging his beloved Nora's forgiveness, while Batman watches from outside.

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

Production

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

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. 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."

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.

The police officer in the scene which introduces Mr. Freeze was voiced by Bob Hastings, who voiced Commissioner Gordon. Mark Hamill, who voiced Ferris Boyle here, later made the first of many 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.

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. 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. Some fans considered the execution for Heart of Ice to be "nearly flawless," with both comic and animation fans appreciating the revamp of the Mr. Freeze character. 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 . This brought about his resurrection in the comics and introduced Nora Fries to the comics as well. His origin was also used as the basis for the one in Batman & Robin.

Errors

Twice in this episode Batman's chest logo colors are reversed.

External links

• Batman: The Animated Series at the Internet Movie Database
• The New Batman Adventures at the Internet Movie Database
• The New Batman/Superman Adventures at the Internet Movie Database
• Batman: The Animated Series/The New Batman Adventures at The World's Finest
• Batman: The Animated Series & The New Batman Adventures at Legions Of Gotham
• The Animated Batman
• Batman: The Animated Series Official Website
• The New Batman Adventures Official Website
• The New Batman Superman Adventures Official Website
• Batman: The Animated Series at TV.com
• Batman: Gotham Knights at TV.com
• Batman Animated at BYTB: Batman Yesterday, Today and Beyond