It’s so weird. The Batman movies by Tim Burton set the tone (quite literally, with the theme song) for the animated series. And they went ahead and gave Mr Freeze a tragic backstory.
Only for Joel Schumacher to pick up the Tim Burton series, throw away the tone (that kids loved from the show) to be more kid friendly, but keep the tragic backstory while portraying him as some punny goofball.
unintentionally realistic portrayal of a well documented common psychological response to trauma (become a giant goofball about it)
Damn I remember how excited I was for Mr Freeze on the big screen only to be left confused and bewildered as a child. It’s difficult at a young age to view media critally especially when it’s something you love.
I hope we can see Freeze given a movie he doesn’t have to share with another rogue and they do it justice.
Listen to Joel’s director’s commentary on Batman Forever. It’s basically an apology tour.
His reasoning was that comic books (the source material) was colorful and campy, and he just leaned into it.
Hard to be mad at him for that.
The Animated Series variant was brilliantly voiced by Star Trek alum Michael Ansara.
Properly captured the pain and conviction of that character.
Didn’t Arnold just say something in the lines of “I am in pain and therefore I will make everyone else in the city suffer with me” ?
I mean, it’s pretty much Mr Freeze’s entire motivation as a villain. But put like that it just felt like it was written by a toddler.
