View source for Heart of Ice (Batman: The Animated Series)

{{Infobox television episode
| image = Heart of Ice (Batman- The Animated Series).png
| series=[[Batman: The Animated Series]]
| season= 1
| episode= 14
| airdate= {{Start date|1992|09|07}}
| writer= [[Paul Dini]]
| director= [[Bruce Timm]]
| guests =
* [[Michael Ansara]] as [[Mr. Freeze]]
* [[Mari Devon]] as [[Summer Gleeson]]
* [[Mark Hamill]] as [[Ferris Boyle]]
| episode_list = List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes
| prev= I've Got Batman in My Basement
|next= [[The Cat and the Claw: Part 1]]
}}
"'''Heart of Ice'''" is the fourth [[List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes|episode]] of the first season of  [[United States|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 February 1959, with this episode providing a complete overhaul of his character, going from [[laughing stock]] to [[tragic villain]].<ref name = "Worlds Finest interview page 2">{{cite web |url=http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/heartofice/interview/ |title=Heart of Ice interview "The Role of Mr. Freeze In The Animated Universe" page 1 - Re-Shaping The Image of Mr. Freeze|access-date=2008-02-08 |publisher= worldsfinestonline.com}}</ref> The episode also introduces Freeze's wife [[Nora Fries]] and his motivation to find a cure for her terminal illness, both of which were later carried over to the [[American comic book|comic books]]. The episode begins a four-episode and one film story arc for Freeze that continues in "[[List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes#Deep Freeze|Deep Freeze]]", the feature film ''[[Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero]]'', ''[[The New Batman Adventures]]'' episode "[[The New Batman Adventures#ep3|Cold Comfort]]" and is concluded in the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode "[[List of Batman Beyond episodes#Season One|Meltdown]]".
"Heart of Ice" is one of the most acclaimed episodes of the series, and won a [[Daytime Emmy Award]] for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.toonzone.net/shows/awards/batman-superman.html |title=Batman / Superman Awards on Toon Zone |access-date=2008-02-08 |publisher=toonzone.net |archive-date=2010-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100131155848/http://www.toonzone.net/shows/awards/batman-superman.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Plot==
[[File:Mister Freeze BTAS.jpg|200px|thumb|Mr. Freeze, as he appears in the episode]]
[[Batman]] follows a strange trail of heists at various GothCorp offices, all by the same man: Mr. Freeze, a strange individual clad in a powerful suit and armed with a "freezing gun", a weapon that fires a beam capable of freezing anything into sheets of ice. Batman pieces together the stolen items and discovers that Freeze is building a massive ice cannon that is nearly complete, save for a single vital piece of equipment from [[GothCorp]]. Acting rapidly, he arrives at the GothCorp offices in time to engage Mr. Freeze, only to be partially frozen by him. As Freeze and his henchmen escape, he orders they leave behind one of their own, his legs accidentally frozen by Freeze's weapon. Batman chooses to help the man rather than chase Freeze.
After using a special chemical bath to revive the man, Batman (who has himself developed a [[common cold|cold]] from the encounter) visits GothCorp CEO [[Ferris Boyle]] as Bruce Wayne, hoping to learn who might have a grudge against the company. Boyle says the only person he can think of is dead: a former employee and research scientist whose funding was cut. He apparently died in a laboratory accident. Later that night, during a dinner where Boyle is to be presented with a humanitarian prize, Batman sneaks into the GothCorp security offices, and finds a tape from the accident. It is a recording of an experiment conducted by [[cryogenics]] scientist Victor Fries. He has placed his [[terminally ill]] wife [[Nora Fries|Nora]] in cryogenic stasis until he can find a cure for her condition. Boyle arrives and orders the experiment to be ended, correctly claiming it is unauthorized and draining his company's funds, showing that Victor was indeed stealing. Boyle ignores Fries' warning that turning off the equipment would sentence her to death. In the ensuing scuffle, Boyle kicks Fries into a table of cryonic chemicals. As Batman watches the tape, Mr. Freeze (now revealed to be Fries himself having survived the accident) sneaks up behind him and captures him with his cold gun. Freeze confirms to Batman that the accident left him unable to live outside of sub-zero conditions. Batman tries to reason with Freeze over how Freeze intends to destroy the man who ruined his life, even if anyone else gets killed in the process, but Freeze refuses to give up his plan.
Leaving Batman, Freeze arrives with his completed cannon at the humanitarian prize dinner. He fires the immense weapon at the building, slowly freezing it from bottom to top. After Batman escapes from captivity and attacks the cannon, Mr. Freeze kicks open a fire hydrant and freezes the water to get to the floor where Boyle is. Once there, he freezes Boyle from the waist down before Batman intervenes. Freeze ends up overpowering Batman until he takes a thermos filled with hot chicken soup (which Alfred had provided for his cold) and breaks it on Freeze's helmet to shatter it and induce [[thermal shock]]. Afterwards, Batman hands over the tape with the evidence of Boyle's crimes to [[Summer Gleeson]], and leaves the still half-frozen Boyle with a disgusted sneer — "Goodnight... humanitarian."
Freeze is taken to [[Arkham Asylum]] and put in a sub-zero cell designed to hold him. The episode ends with Freeze tearfully gazing at a [[music box]] of Nora and begging her forgiveness for, in his wrongfully revenge-driven mind, failing to avenge her, while Batman watches sympathetically from outside.
== Production ==
This is the first episode of the series directed by [[Bruce Timm]] and written by [[Paul Dini]]. During the show's development, Timm, Dini and [[Mitch Brian]] discussed revamping certain Batman villains, and Mr. Freeze came up. Timm suddenly had an idea that "Freeze gets critically wounded when his cryogenics experiment goes awry. From that point on, he considers himself 'dead,' dead to emotions, dead to humanity, literally 'cold as ice,' inside as well as out." The team decided to make a character generally disliked by comic fans into an impactful villain, "a character who was as emotionally cold as he was physically." As Dini wrote the script, he came up with the image of a weeping Freeze in his cell, with his tears freezing and turning into snowflakes, and decided that the best way to create the character's motivations was to make it emotionally charged, in a way that Timm described that "combined my 'dead, cold, emotionless' Freeze with his 'bleeding heart' Freeze".<ref>Harvey, Jim. [https://dcanimated.com/WF/heartofice/interview/ "The Role of Mr. Freeze In The Animated Universe"]</ref> While originally planned for the episode's ending, the scene of the crying wound up not appearing, and 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.<ref name = "Worlds Finest interview page 2"/> It was, however, used in the film ''[[Batman & Robin (film)|Batman & Robin]]''.
Timm first thought of [[Anthony Hopkins]] and [[Anthony Zerbe]] to play Mr. Freeze,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tv.com/batman-the-animated-series/heart-of-ice/episode/68559/summary.html |title=''Batman: The Animated Series: Heart of Ice'' - TV.com<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2006-09-28 |archive-date=2011-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505005451/http://www.tv.com/batman-the-animated-series/heart-of-ice/episode/68559/summary.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> but later came up with [[Michael Ansara]] to voice the character.<ref name ="wf interview page 2">{{cite web |url=http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/heartofice/interview/02.php |title=''Heart of Ice'' interview "The Role of Mr. Freeze In The Animated Universe" page 2 - Finding a Voice|access-date=2008-02-08 |publisher= worldsfinestonline.com}}</ref> Ansara initially clashed with Timm, who wanted Freeze to sound like a robot, without showing any emotion; Ansara said that this would make the character sound too flat. He eventually found the right voice, however.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://anbat.toonzone.net/btas/hoi.html|title= ''Heart of Ice'' on Toon Zone (see production notes section)|access-date= 2008-02-08|publisher= Toon Zone|archive-date= 2008-03-02|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080302194640/http://anbat.toonzone.net/btas/hoi.html|url-status= dead}}</ref>
Batman says "My God!" while watching the tape, which was unusual in a cartoon, as the censors considered any mention of religion or any expletive inappropriate. Timm mentioned on the DVD commentary for the episode that he considers it strange they never caught it. When [[Toon Disney]] aired this episode, the network removed the phrase. They also removed Freeze's line, "I'd kill for that."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.batmanytb.com/animated/tas/episodes/ep14/|title= ''Heart of Ice'' on Batman: Yesterday, Today and Beyond|access-date= 2008-02-08|publisher= batmanytb.com|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080120090213/http://www.batmanytb.com/animated/tas/episodes/ep14/|archive-date= 2008-01-20}}</ref>
The police officer in the scene which introduces Mr. Freeze was voiced by [[Bob Hastings]], who voiced [[James Gordon (comics)|Commissioner Gordon]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/bob-hastings/credits/142342|title=Bob Hastings Credits|access-date=2008-04-18 |publisher= tvguide.com}}</ref> [[Mark Hamill]], who voiced Ferris Boyle here, later made the first of many appearances as [[Joker (character)|the Joker]] in the [[DC Animated Universe]]. He originally got the role of Boyle and offered to play one of the villains. When [[Tim Curry]] dropped out of the role of the Joker, Hamill got the part.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/mark-hamill/credits/164626|title=Mark Hamill Credits at TV Guide|access-date=2008-04-18 |publisher= tvguide.com}}</ref>
== Legacy ==
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.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/heartofice/|title=''Heart of Ice'' – A Look Back|access-date=2008-02-08 |publisher= worldsfinestonline.com}}</ref> In 2005, ''[[Wizard Magazine]]'' selected this episode as the best of the series.<ref>''Wizard: The Comics Magazine #164''</ref>
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.<ref name ="wf interview page 2"/> This episode provided such a burst in the popularity of the character that his comics' counterpart had his origins [[retconned]] to more closely resemble this episode.<ref name ="wf interview page 2"/> This brought about his resurrection in the comics and introduced Nora Fries to the comics as well. His origin was also used in the 1997 film ''[[Batman & Robin (film)|Batman & Robin]]'', which featured Mr. Freeze as one of its primary villains.
The episode was included among the extra features of the two-disc and Blu-ray editions of the film ''[[Batman: Gotham Knight]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/dcuam/gothamknight/reviews/digital/cover2db.jpg |title=Two-disc DVD information |access-date=2011-01-02}}</ref>
The plot and premise of the episode are integrated into Mr. Freeze's origin in the 2011 video game ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' (also written by Paul Dini) - in one of his interview tapes with [[Hugo Strange]], Freeze recounts the events that led him to become a supervillain and the story closely resembles the episode. The 2014 ''[[Batman: Arkham Origins]]'' DLC campaign "Cold, Cold Heart" incorporated several elements of "Heart of Ice" like Ferris Boyle.
In ''[[Injustice 2]]'', Mr. Freeze (who is a special skin of fellow ice villain [[Captain Cold]]) alludes heavily to the episode, mentioning how he misses being able to feel and also how determined he is to cure Nora's condition.
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{IMDb episode|id=0519590}}
{{DC Animated Universe}}
[[Category:1992 American television episodes]]
[[Category:Batman: The Animated Series episodes]]
[[Category:Fiction about suspended animation]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Paul Dini]]
[[Category:Animated television episodes about revenge]]