[.ca] Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero

From Amazon.com:
The Dark Knight and his cohorts Robin and Batgirl do battle with a scarily sympathetic archvillain in this superior animated movie that both kids and adults can watch without feeling insulted. While not quite as inspired as the previous Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (which is still the best portrayal of the title character ever to grace the screen), this well-plotted, awesomely stylish wall-to-wall actioner perfectly captures the fundamental essence of the classic comics, and makes the treatment of the same characters in the painful live-action Batman & Robin look even more ineptly misguided. Simply put, this is how the Masked Manhunter of Gotham should be depicted. --Andrew Wright

Very Good Film!:
While the movie is only 1 hour and 7 minutes in length, it is a very entertaining feature. The story flows along smoothly and at a consistant pace. Which is very hard to find in any film nowadays. The character's portrayals are very well done and the story is solid and doesn't get sidetracked with side plots. All in all, while short, a very entertaining Batman feature worth owning!

SubZero should've been three episodes of the animated TV series:
You might be surprised to see that there is virtually no character development in SubZero, which is in stark contrast to Mask of the Phantasm. If you aren't caught up on the animated TV series, you'll have a hard time appreciating this movie. SubZero focuses too much on action. That's fine for episodes of the animated series, but it's not good when a movie is all action and no heart. This movie feels rushed, like no one put enough effort into making a good movie. It's like they hastily made a three-part story for the TV series, threw in some "fancy" computer animation, then suddenly decided to call it a movie. SubZero would've been a great three-part storyline for the TV series if they'd lose the stupid computer animation. Put simply, SubZero just doesn't work as an animated movie. Robin/Dick Grayson and Batgirl/Barbara Gordon are in the movie just as often as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Robin is a good sidekick for Batman in the animated TV series, and he's also a good addition to this movie. I'm just glad that Robin wasn't annoying, because I still have bad memories of Robin in Joel Schumacher's Batman movies. Unfortunately, Batman has to share his screentime with Batgirl and Robin. Compared to the screentime Batman gets in Mask of the Phantasm, I was disappointed that Batman wasn't in SubZero more often. But then again, it was absolutely necessary for Robin and Batgirl to be central characters in this movie. Mr. Freeze always was a sympathetic character in the TV series. In this movie, he's still trying to find a cure for his wife's disease. And if that wasn't enough, he's also adopted an orphaned Inuit boy. But the boy is annoying, and I would've preferred it if he wasn't in the movie. Shortly after the movie begins, a submarine breaks through the surface in the frozen Arctic Ocean. Mr. Freeze keeps Nora (his wife) in a cryogenic chamber inside an Arctic cave. Unfortunately, the sub has surfaced in the middle of Mr. Freeze's cave, and Nora's chamber has been smashed beyond repair. The chamber kept Nora's disease from becoming fatal. Now that her chamber is destroyed, she only has a few weeks to live. An infuriated Mr. Freeze uses his ice gun to freeze the entire crew of the submarine. Frankly, I find it a little hard to believe Mr. Freeze would be able to single-handedly take over the sub, herd the entire crew outside of the sub, and then freeze everyone. So I take this as further proof that the filmmakers rushed this movie, and didn't put enough thought into certain areas of the plot. One incredibly annoying scene is when Commissioner Gordon is talking about Barbara. He doesn't know his daughter is Batgirl. So while Gordon is going on about how sweet and gentle Barbara is, the movie keeps cutting back to her beating up bad guys while in her Batgirl costume. You can tell the filmmakers just threw that scene into the movie for any viewers who aren't familiar with the TV series, so that everyone will be clear about Barbara's secret identity. Apparently, Nora needs an organ transplant in order to survive. I don't believe they say which organ(s), but that doesn't matter. Barbara is a perfect match, so Freeze tracks her down. At a fancy party for rich people, which Dick and Barbara are attending, Mr. Freeze shows up, demanding that Barbara come with him. Dick tries to intervene, and gets smashed by a full-grown polar bear. One would think he'd at least have the wind knocked out of him, and take a while to recoup. But being smashed by such a huge bear barely fazes him. And did I mention that Freeze's goons are POLAR BEARS? The bears are annoying, and I really wish Mr. Freeze decided to use human goons instead. The movie's computer animated sequences are at their worst when Dick is on the motorcycle. The computer animation is bland, and lifeless. To put it simply, I hate the computer animation. But my main complaint is that when you have the regular animation and the computer animation side by side, it looks awkward. If you ever saw Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings cartoon (which used regular animation and some other kind of live action animation) you'll have an idea of why it's a bad idea to use two very different kinds of animation in the same movie. There's a few other things in SubZero that annoyed me. Instead of creating a theme for this movie, they just borrowed Danny Elfman's theme from Tim Burton's first Batman movie. Michael McCuiston does the background music in this movie. He's not bad, but he's no Shirley Walker. Another thing that annoyed me was that you can see claw marks in the pavement from the robber as Robin was reeling him in, right before throwing the robber in the trash. I could see Superman leaving marks in pavement like that, but not a common thug. My favorite part of the movie is when it shows the Batwing leaving the Batcave. That part was done by computer animation, and I have to admit that it looks cool. But the computer animation looks horrible when it shows the Batwing flying low across the water toward the oil rig. These days I doubt you'd ever see an abandoned oil rig storing vast quantities of oil. But you just know that the whole thing will catch fire and explode at some point during the final showdown. And ONE CHARACTER DIES. But don't get excited about it. Once this particular character has served their purpose in the movie, the character is disposed of by the filmmakers. SubZero is a must-see for fans of the TV series, because a lot of important events happen in this movie. But if you're not familiar with the TV series, I'd advise you to stay away.

Not all good movies come out in theatres.....:
I remember back when this movie came out. I of course, rented it. This was, I mean, is, a good film.The story about Mr. Freeze kidnapping Barbara Gordon,aka Batgirl, was excellent. The minions of Freeze are two awesome polar bears.Filled with a great story line and great action sequences, this is a movie not to be missed. Freeze's motivation for his "life of crime" doesn't strike as wrong, because he is just trying to save his wife, which leads me to believe Freeze has some good in him still. Watch this, rent this, or buy this, for it is good.

Great movie:
From the opening scene of a sub crashing through the Arctic ice, you know this is going to be a great movie. Mr. Freeze is one of the great villians, and it is good that filmakers gave him a vehicle of his own. Subzero is very faithful to the Batman Animated Series, and takes events steps further. These events include the romance between Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson, and the fate of Nora Freeze. The animation is crisp, the action edge of seat, the score and story wonderful. I love Mr. Freeze's polar bears. Why didn't they have them in the animated series? All in all I highly recommend this movie to fans of the animated series and Batman in general.

Good,but there were some flaws:
The work on the soundtrack and animation was great.My biggest problem was if Batgirl was kidnapped,why she didn't use her skills to escape if she was seen beating up the attackers of the girl earlier in the video.Or,she didn't carry a two-way radio with a homing device to call for help.And the people didn't help Robin fight Mr Freeze,and how could he walk passed a lot of people with the two bears?The other parts of the movie was okay.