Heart of Ice

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Batman: The Animated Series episode
"Heart of Ice"
Airdate:	September 7th, 1992
Production Number:	14
Airdate Order:	03
Animation Services by:	Spectrum Animation Studio
Written by:	Paul Dini
Directed by:	Bruce W. Timm
Episode images (9)

"Heart of Ice" is the third episode of Batman: The Animated Series. It was the fourteenth in production order.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Act One 1.2 Act Two 1.3 Act Three 2 Continuity 3 Background Information 3.1 Production Notes 3.2 Production Inconsistencies 3.3 Trivia 4 Cast 5 Quotes

[edit] Plot

[edit] Act One

As a ballerina effigy dances in her glass dome, a strange, armored man talks to the small dancer, promising a revenge against a "monster" for taking her from him.

Later on, Summer Gleeson gives a report on a series of mysterious heists pulled at various offices of GothCorp, all with the same M.O.: a "freeze gun" that creates a cold wave capable of generating thick sheets of ice and snow. Ferris Boyle, GothCorp's CEO, says he doesn't know what the mysterious perpetrator has against GothCorp, "the People Company," but hopes any differences can be patched up.

In the Batcave, Batman examines a list of the stolen devices, and finds that, when combined, they form a larger version of the freeze gun, large enough to become a fully-operational freezing cannon to the extent of being a city-wide threat. However, the machine is still missing one component, meaning Batman knows where the thieves will strike next.

That night, an armored vehicle attacks the GothCorp installation in question. When the Batmobile arrives, a freeze ray from the van creates a sheet of ice that causes the car to spin out of control, into a barely-controlled crash. Batman exits the car and engages the thieves: their ringleader appears, a man in a strange suit of armor calling himself Mr. Freeze. He fires his freeze gun at Batman, but misses and accidentally hits one of his own men in the legs, before managing to freeze Batman. Freeze orders his men to leave his comrade behind, and they escape. Batman manages to shatter the ice on himself, and is forced to take care of the thug, who is dying of hypothermia, rather than pursue Freeze.

[edit] Act Two

After using a special bath to revive the man and melt the ice sheet on his legs, Batman — who has himself developed a cold from the encounter — visits Gothcorp as Bruce Wayne, hoping to learn who might have a grudge against it. Boyle says the only person he can think of is dead: a former research scientist employed by the company whose funding was cut, and who apparently died in a laboratory accident. When Bruce expresses mild surprise, Boyle, in private, reveals his true colors: "Look, Bruce, that 'People Company' line is great PR, but when the wage slaves start acting like they own the place, it's time to pull the plug." As Bruce is leaving, Boyle comments that he is to be presented with a humanitarian award.

Posing as a security guard, Batman sneaks into Gothcorp's offices and finds a security camera tape with footage of the accident: on it, a man named Victor Fries records that he has put his wife, Nora, into cryogenic stasis after she became terminally ill, to give himself time to research a cure. Suddenly, Boyle and a pair of security guards burst in. Boyle says that Fries's funding has been cut and he is using company equipment without authorization. He orders his guards to disconnect the equipment, despite Fries's horrified objections that Nora will die if they do so. In a panic, Fries seizes one of the guard's guns and orders them to stay back. Scared, Boyle attempts to reason with Fries. Fries lowers the gun — and Boyle kicks him in the chest, sending him crashing back onto a table of chemicals, which fill the room with vapor. As Boyle and his guards flee the room, Fries drags a hand over his wife's tank, calling her name.

Watching this, Batman utters a moan of horror, when Fries — now Mr. Freeze, appears behind him and blasts him with his cold gun.

[edit] Act Three

Batman is kept prisoner in Freeze's hideout, partially frozen and without his utility belt. Freeze's men have finished assembling the giant cold gun, with which Freeze plans to attack Boyle's award ceremony. Freeze explains his suit: after the accident, he is incapable of living outside of a sub-zero environment, which the suit maintains.

After Freeze leaves, Batman manages to free himself. At the building, Freeze's cannon opens fire, covering the lower part of the building in ice. Freeze tells his men to go on firing until the entire building is covered, but Batman arrives and barely stops the cannon. Unwilling to admit defeat, Freeze smashes a fire hydrant and uses his gun to convert the fountain of spraying water into a column of ice that lifts him to the top floor of the building. Smashing his way into the awards ceremony, Freeze confronts Boyle and begins freezing him slowly from the legs up. He has just reached Boyle's waist when Batman arrives and distracts him. However, Freeze reveals that his suit's circuitry also triples his strength, and Batman is outmatched.

As Freeze holds Batman aloft, helpless, Batman remembers he is carrying a thermos of hot chicken soup that Alfred gave him for his cold. He dumps the soup onto Freeze's helmet, and the temperature difference causes the helmet to crack and shatter, letting the room-temperature air into Freeze's suit and paralyzing him. Freeze laments that he has been denied justice, but Batman says he won't be: he gives Summer Gleason the video tape of Fries's accident, then leaves, without freeing the still-shivering Boyle.

In Arkham, Freeze laments above the same ballerina effigy, and asks Nora to forgive him for failing to avenge her.

[edit] Continuity

• Mr. Freeze believed Nora died in the accident. It is later revealed that her cryo-tube was salvaged and preserved by Grant Walker in "Deep Freeze."

[edit] Background Information

[edit] Production Notes

• The original idea for the flashback video was to have Freeze cling to Nora's cryogenic tank and realize in horror that his hair, now frozen, is breaking off in chunks. Paul Dini stated that he wanted to do this in pre-production, but they were over air time and cut it out.
• Batman's uttering of "My God!" at the tape is unusual in a cartoon, as the censors generally considered any mention of religion or any expletive unpassable. Bruce Timm mentioned on the commentary for the episode that he considers it strange they never caught it. This was cut from showings in Toon Disney (now Disney XD). (The phrase would later show up in at least one other episode of the series, as well as both movies, and it eventually became fairly common in the DCAU - See List of "God!" utterances in the DCAU.)
• 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 include this. This was used in Batman & Robin.

[edit] Production Inconsistencies

• The henchman that Mr. Freeze froze was wearing shoes. However, when Batman thaws his legs, his shoes are gone.
• When Batman is posing as a security guard, he reaches into his utility belt to pull out a key card. As he does so, the card is not visible, but in the next frame it suddenly appears.
• It is improbable that the security footage of Fries's accident to have editing and camera work, rather, it would more than likely be one fixed, steady shot.
• Twice in this episode Batman's chest logo colors are reversed.

[edit] Trivia

• This is the first episode of the series directed by Bruce Timm.
• This is the first episode of the series written by Paul Dini.
• 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 sub-site, complete with exclusive comments on the episode provided by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and other officials behind the show. [1]
• In 2005, Wizard Magazine selected this episode as the best of the series.
• This episode provided such a burst in the popularity of Mr. Freeze that his comics' counterpart has his origins retconned to more closely resemble this episode.
• Ferris Boyle was Mark Hamill's first-ever voice role for Batman: The Animated Series (and thus, for the DCAU). After getting the role of Boyle, he offered to play one of the villains, preferably Joker, 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, which became his best-known role, and also launched a new career for him as a voice-over actor.
• Spectrum Animation Studios, who created this episode, added the hint of frost around Freeze's helmet, giving it a sense of realism. Bruce Timm wanted a thin white line around his head, implying it was a helmet, but he admitted he was impressed with the final product.
• This episode contains two references to the film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back:
  • Batman trapped upside down in a cold cave is similar to what happened to Luke Skywalker early in the movie;
  • Batman returns a criminal partially frozen by Mr. Freeze to health using a similar device to the "bacta tank" that revives Luke. Interestingly, Luke Skywalker was played by Mark Hamill.
• Ferris Boyle does not appear again in the animated series. He does appear in deleted material meant for issues of the comic book, Batman: Gotham Adventures, in which he is killed by a robotic doppleganger of Mr. Freeze made by Nora Fries's new husband to frame Victor Fries.
• Alfred's line "With all the compartments on your belt, you'd think there'd be one for tissues" is a reference to the 1960s Batman series with his Bat-Belt containing every possible tool to help him in various situations.
• This episode was featured as a bonus episode on the 2-disc DVD of Batman: Gotham Knight.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Kevin Conroy	Bruce Wayne/Batman
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.	Alfred
Michael Ansara	Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze
Mari Devon	Summer Gleeson
Mark Hamill	Ferris Boyle
Michael Bell	Additional voices
Robert David Hall	Additional voices
John Mariano	Additional voices

[edit] Quotes

Mr. Freeze: This is how I will always remember you. Surrounded by winter. Forever young. Forever beautiful. Rest well my love. The monster who took you from me will soon learn that revenge is a dish best served cold.

Batman: Freeze! Mr. Freeze: That's Mister Freeze to you.

(Batman sounds under the weather) Alfred: With all the compartments on your belt, you'd think there'd be one for tissues.

Ferris Boyle: Look Bruce, that People Company line is great P.R., but when the wage slaves start acting like they own the place it's time to pull the plug. Know what I mean?

Ferris Boyle: We're hosting a ceremony tonight for Gotham's humanitarian industrialist of the year. Guess who's winning? Bruce Wayne: I feel ill.

Alfred: If you're going to go sneaking around a crowded office building you'll need this. Batman: Knockout gas? Alfred: Chicken soup - the only way to fight a cold.

(After watching the tape of the accident that created Mr. Freeze) Batman: My God! Mr. Freeze: Yes... It would move me to tears, if I still had tears to shed.

Mr. Freeze: The snow is beautiful, don't you think? Clean. Uncompromising. Batman: ...and cold. Mr. Freeze: Like the swift hand of vengeance. Batman: I saw what happened to your wife. I'm sorry. Mr. Freeze: I'm beyond emotions. They've been frozen dead in me. Batman: That suit you wear... a result of the coolant? Mr. Freeze: Very good... a detective to the last. I can no longer survive out of a sub-zero environment. Tonight I mean to pay back the man who ruined my life... our lives. Batman: Even if you have to kill everyone in the building to do it? Mr. Freeze: Think of it, Batman. To never again walk upon a summer's day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh yes, I'd kill for that.

Mr. Freeze: Let the evil that walks inside be cleansed by pure unforgiving ice.

Mr. Freeze: The cold eyes of vengeance are upon you, Boyle.

Ferris Boyle: (being frozen) Stop... Please... I beg you! Mr. Freeze: You beg? In my nightmares I see my Nora behind the glass begging to me with frozen eyes. How I've longed to see that look frozen on you!

Mr. Freeze: Sooner or later all who stand in my way must feel the icy touch of death!

Mr. Freeze: I failed you. I wish there were another way for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness and pray you hear me somehow... someplace. Someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.

Previously produced episode: "The Cat and the Claw, Part I"	Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series	Next produced episode: "See No Evil"
Previously aired episode: "On Leather Wings"		Next aired episode: "Feat of Clay, Part I"