Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero Blu-ray Movie Review

The Weather Inside Is Frightful

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 4, 2018

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero was a direct-to-video animated adventure that was originally scheduled for release in 1997 as a tie-in to the live-action Batman & Robin, directed by Joel Schumacher and starring George Clooney as Batman and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Freeze. But Batman & Robin was so poorly received that it effectively killed off the franchise started by Tim Burton's Batman. As a result, SubZero's release was postponed until March of the following year, and, for once, rejiggering the schedule proved effective. SubZero avoided being dragged down by Schumacher's misfire, and instead it slipped neatly into the alternative animated DC universe inaugurated by Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series. Voice actors Kevin Conroy and Michael Ansara reprised their roles, thereby reclaiming Batman and Victor Fries from the campy parodies created by Schwarzenegger and Clooney (by far the worst Batman ever to don the cowl). Director and co-writer Boyd Kirkland successfully re-established the playfully serious tone that had made both Burton's films and The Animated Series a popular success.

SubZero is the second DCU feature film to be released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection, joining Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and a host of animated DC TV series. Can Timm's original Animated Series be far behind?

SubZero finds Victor Fries (Ansara) comfortably ensconced in an Arctic cave with two pet polar bears and an adopted Inuit son, while he continues to search for a cure for wife Nora, who remains frozen in stasis. Fries's relatively peaceful existence is rudely shattered when a U.S. submarine on a research mission inadvertently bursts through the ice beneath his lair, destroying Nora's cryogenic chamber so that her disease resumes its deadly progression. In desperation, Fries relocates to Gotham City, where he enlists the aid of former colleague Dr. Gregory Belson (George Dzundza) to save Nora with an organ transplant. The sticking point is that Nora's rare blood type makes it difficult to find a compatible donor. A search of the records at Gotham General reveals that Barbara Gordon (Mary Kay Bergman), daughter of police commissioner James Gordon (Bob Hastings), is a perfect match. Of course, neither Fries nor Belson knows that Barbara is also Batgirl.

The core of SubZero is an extended kidnap-and-rescue adventure, as Fries and Belson attempt to subdue the resistant and resourceful captive they've managed to snatch, while Batman (Conroy) and Robin (Loren Lester) track down the fugitives, who have established their makeshift medical facility on an abandoned oil rig. The film's extended climax borrows liberally from James Cameron's Aliens, as the Batwing attempts to rescue Barbara (and others) from the rig after it has caught fire and is exploding and crumbling around them. As with all well-constructed franchise entries, SubZero's ending leaves room for Batman's iciest adversary to return.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero is a product of traditional hand-drawn animation, and it was finished on 35mm film as if it were a theatrical feature, although no theatrical release was ever intended—hence the 1.33:1 aspect ratio for standard NTSC broadcast and VHS tape. (A 1998 laserdisc released under license by Image Entertainment matted the image to 1.66:1, which was not the intended ratio.) All prior video releases were based on a standard definition transfer derived from a low-contrast print, but for this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new scan of the interpositive, which was performed at 2K by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility. WAC and MPI have made a special effort to limit their customary thorough cleanup to age-related damage, preserving dust and other tiny particles that are inherent markers of the process of photographing hand-drawn cels one frame at a time. The result is a warmly film-like image that instantly distinguishes SubZero from the CG creations of the current DC Animated Universe. Edges are well-defined without CG's razor sharpness, and picture detail is finely reproduced (to the extent that the notion of "fine detail" is even applicable here). Finely rendered film grain adds a subtle depth and texture to scenes that might otherwise seem flat.

The palette of the animated DCU in this era was very different from its contemporary expressions. Bright primaries abound, especially in the superhero costumes and in specific character traits like Barbara Gordon's red hair and Dr. Belson's oddly blue eyes. A monochromatic fog overlays Victor Fries's frozen hideaways, whether in the Arctic or in a refrigerated chamber on the abandoned oil rig that becomes his Gotham headquarters. But even this thick blue haze can be pierced by vivid patches of contrasting color (see, e.g., screenshot 26, where the bright green and yellow indicators monitoring Nora Fries's condition shine through the darkness). Batman's world has seen even more visual variations in the animated realm than it has in live-action features, and while individual preferences will vary, I find the style reflected in SubZero to be particularly engaging, probably because it more closely reflects the Batman comics with which I grew up. Regardless of one's preference, WAC has rendered SubZero with a clarity and intensity previously unseen on home video, and, as usual, the Blu-ray has been authored at a high average bitrate (here, 34.99 Mbps), which is an example that the overseers of the current animated DCU would do well to consider emulating.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rumors of a 5.1 sound mix for SubZero have persisted for years, but WAC performed an extensive search of Warner's archives, as well as contacting any remaining sound engineering staff who worked on the project, to confirm that no such mix exists. Consistent with its origin as a feature intended for SD broadcast, SubZero's sound was mixed as Dolby Surround 2.0. The soundtrack for this Blu-ray has been taken directly from the digital stereo master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA.

It's understandable why some viewers might recall hearing what sounded like a 5.1 mix, because, when the stereo track is played back through a good surround decoder, the results are almost as effective as if the individual channels had been separately encoded. The rear speakers are actively engaged, providing an immersive environment and even an occasional panning effect. Dialogue is clearly rendered and remains firmly anchored to the front center. Bass extension could be deeper, but the mixers were probably compensating for the limits of the era's analog broadcast standards. Discrete multi-channel sound mixes have been with us for a quarter of a century now, and it's easy to forget that, at its best, Dolby Surround 2.0 was a remarkably robust format, capable of separations and immersion rivaling the formats that replaced it. SubZero is a fine example of Dolby Surround's capabilities, and the track is effectively represented on WAC's Blu-ray.

SubZero's energetic adventure score is by Michael McCuistion, a veteran of Batman: The Animated Series, who remains with the DCU to this day (e.g., Batman and Harley Quinn). Note, however, that the film opens with a short excerpt from Danny Elfman's signature theme from Tim Burton's Batman films.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras on WAC's Blu-ray expand significantly on what was included with Warner's 2002 DVD of SubZero. WAC may not have ported over "The Hunt for Mr. Freeze" Game, but it has offered something far more interesting by assembling Mr. Freeze episodes from multiple TV series. Taken together with SubZero, these episodes provide an expanded history of Batman's chilly opponent.

Note that the episodes are in standard definition and have not been remastered in 1080p. The same is true of the film's short "trailer".

• The Mr. Freeze Saga—in Chronological Order (480i; 1.33:1)


• Heart of Ice (from Batman: The Animated Series) (22.28).


• Deep Freeze (from Batman: The Animated Series) (21:13): A note on the Blu-ray's back cover indicates that the events of SubZero occur after this episode.


• Cold Comfort (from The New Batman Adventures) (20:52).


• Meltdown (from Batman Beyond) (20:48).



• Art of Batman: Music Montage (480i; 1.33:1; 2:31): This is a fast-moving assembly of finished footage, concept drawings, storyboards, individual cels and other intermediate stages in the process of creating hand-drawn animation.



• Get the Picture: How to Draw Batman (480i; 1.33:1; 0:51): A quick sketch of Batman being quickly sketched.



• Trailer (480i; 1.33:1; 1:03).

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Veteran fans of the earliest DCU animation should need no encouragement to acquire SubZero, and they can buy with confidence that WAC has delivered a first-rate product. Animated DCU fans who are only familiar with its more recent, CG-generated versions owe it to themselves to experience this earlier expression of Gotham's heroes. Highly recommended.