In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero, a panel was held at WonderCon to promote the remastered Blu-Ray release and to discuss the evolution of the character both in and out of the context of Batman: The Animated Series.
The panel was moderated by Gary Miereanu and was comprised of Matthew Patterson and D.W. Ferranti, hosts of the “Warner Archive Podcast,” Randy Rogel, writer of BtAS, Dr. Andrea Letamendi, psychologist and host of “The Arkham Sessions,” and Loren Lester, the voice of Dick Grayson in the beloved animated series.
The panel started with a clip of the first on-screen appearance of Mr. Freeze, the ’66 Batman series, then turned to the development of the character from there. Ferranti said that Batman: The Animated Series was responsible for turning the character “from a joke to a Shakespearian-level hero/anti-hero,” thanks to the Paul Dini episode that introduced Freeze to the series. “The whole series was meant to take cartoons to a different level,” added Rogel.
This aspiration paid off, as Dr. Letamendi commented that Freeze in BtAS, who is motivated by love, “is a character that we truly see a meaningful arch throughout the animated series into Subzero, and then [Batman] Beyond.” She also agreed with Rogel that Freeze is “a victim of his circumstances,” and added, “the way that he is, his behaviors are better explained because of the trauma that he’s endured, and that story has helped me with communicating about psychological science.” It was this kind of psychological and realistic approach to Victor Fries that made Batman: The Animated Series‘ version of the character THE definitive Mr. Freeze.
The panelists went on to talk about the origins of the Subzero film. It resulted from Warner Brothers attempting to capitalize on Batman & Robin, which both lead to an animated film being funded and (after the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze) Mr. Freeze being set as the villain. Ironically, the very thing that ended up green-lighting Subzero also lead to a 10-month delay in its release, due to the poor reception of the infamously campy film.
The discussion later went into the evolution of Dick Grayson’s character, a topic that stemmed from Robin’s major role in SubZero, which gave Loren Lester the chance to speak on playing a young Robin and an adult Nightwing as the series and character progressed. He commented on the fact that the character started out as sort of clueless, but then “more and more, they were making them (Batman and Robin) partners, and then in The New Batman Adventures, they were truly equals, to the point of actually butting heads.” He also said he enjoyed having somewhere to go with the character, and that the episode “Old Wounds” was one of his favorites, because he got to play both Robin in flashbacks and Nightwing in present day.
In response to Rogel’s statement, “there’s a duality of victor where he’s sort of pushed and pulled back from his worse self to his better nature, Dr. Letani finished up the Mr. Freeze conversation with a simple, but conclusive quote about the character of Mr. Frieze, “That is why this character is so fascinating, and actually quite realistic – if people just get out of his way, he’s not gonna cause destruction.”
To take a trip back down the deep, dark psychological rabbit hole that is Batman: The Animated Series’ Mr. Freeze, you can get a copy of the remastered Subzero Blu-Ray on March 27.
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