Mr. Freeze’s tragic five-part tale is the closest the masterminds behind the DC Animated Universe came to a fully fleshed out character arc. When Dini risked continuing his story in Deep Freeze after his introduction in Heart of ice, a glistening masterpiece of deft narrative structure and ambitious tragic overtones, Freeze became a character that would be brought back again in The New Batman Adventures, as well as the futuristic Batman Beyond. Sub-Zero, a sixty-minute film released exclusively on video, must be evaluated as part of the character’s five-part saga, but at the same time it remains an extended feature of stand-alone status. In its length, that of three individual installments, it ran the gamut of potential overindulgence, a fate that befell Mask of the Phantasm.
The crucial problem of Sub-Zero is that its story carries the same wallop as a Deep Freeze, but takes far too long to achieve its inevitable effect, dabbling in pointless secondary characters, establishing Gotham City for DCAU virgins, and indulging CGI set pieces now unfortunately dated. The first fifteen minutes, close to a quarter of the film, consist of a lengthy credits sequence that dissolves into a lengthy introduction culminating in the destruction of Nora’s cryogenic chamber, an obligatory sequence in which Batman and Robin apprehend a criminal, and a socialite banquet that conjoins the major supporting characters. Whatever the aesthetic high points found here, the sepia humidity of midday Gotham bleeding into a dark-blue world of alleyways and close-knit buildings that collectively block out all sunlight, a tonal association between the cold palette of the chase sequence and the earlier arctic shrine of Freeze and his indigenous pal Kunac, and the painstaking effort put into crafting individualized banquet patrons (Kirkland’s design work may be the film’s strongest attribute), it mostly proves dull and wasteful.
Soon it becomes apparent that Kirkland’s dreams are even loftier than merely attempting to sustain an extended Freeze story. This is also part of the Barbara Gordon character arc—by some perfect coincidence she becomes Freeze’s primary target when her blood type is found to match Nora’s. Her presence is troubling to say the least. The only character development involves implied information about her relationship with Dick Grayson, which began sometime before the events of the film; Kirkland spends time fleshing out their curious courtship (swing dancing is involved) before Barbara is degradingly reduced to the unflattering position of damsel-in-distress. The centerpiece in this transition from slice of college of life to boring action narrative is a bravura chase sequence, well directed but thinly disguised as a further elongation of the already heavily padded story.
The next phase consists of Bruce and Dick sleuthing around while Barbara tries to evade Freeze and Belson, the self-centered doctor who is to administer the organ transplant. The chase around the oilrig supplies one slight instance of exposition (Barbara finds out what she’s there for) and several minutes of tiresome time-consumption. Freeze is little more than a knee-jerk reactionary who must be kept in check by Belson; the two are a bumbling duo of sorts, and Freeze comes out looking foolish and irrational, his endangerment of the woman who is to save his wife utterly implausible. Even worse is that the only way Kirkland assure us of Freeze’s credibility as a human being is through Kunac’s presence as the man’s adopted son (never mind that only a few seconds in the first few scenes and at the end are allotted to Freeze expressing anything other than bestial fury). The best Batman stories are those that have a greater repository of possible resolutions than one, and while Nora’s death remains a lingering possibility, we know for certain that Barbara is not going to be part of the surgical procedure. The tension does not register when the structure is anything but taut and so much time is wasted on non-essentials.
The finale pops and sizzles like any action-packed finale should. Beautifully animated explosions and chases and skirmishes adorn the climax, a visually festive but thematically boring way to go out. It is merely an extension of the set pieces already put together by Kirkland and crew, and fails to offer any character-driven moments of desperation or motivation outside of the most obvious and endlessly clarified—Dick likes Barbara, Freeze loves Nora, and Batman is heroic. Freeze remains an angry, underdeveloped loose canon till he is buried under slabs of rubble, at which point he becomes a poor, whimpering weakling pleading wide-eyed for Nora.
The very ending informs us that Nora has been successfully revived, making me doubt Freeze’s refusal to submit her to hospital care. In a way this conveniently optimistic conclusion renders the entirety of Sub-Zero frustratingly worthless. Freeze spent an angry hour’s worth of filmic narration trying to save his wife’s life via illegal organ transplant, only for her to be saved under regular hospital care, much to his teary-eyed relief. My gut reaction is one of relief as well, as the isolated minute that relays Freeze’s peaceful fulfillment is a beautiful one independent of context. If Timm and his crew hurtled Mr. Freeze back into the realm of tragedy come Cold Comfort, I imagine it is because the rest of Sub-Zero was too sloppy to mark the true end of his story.
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