"The Icy Depths" Talkback/Discussion

[Binker]

THE ICY DEPTHS

REVIEW:
Before, or during Season Three, I can't remember. But anyway, one of the crew of TB revealed that one epsiode would feature Mr. Freeze and The Penguin. After "Thunder", we had two more episodes left of the season and I knew that this episode wouldn't be suitable as the finale episode. So we waited and waited, it kinda seemed long but it was actually three months. But the month before its US airing, this epsiode aired, along with the finale, aired elsewhere and the people who caught loved it. Now it has aired, let's check it out.

The episode is like this: there is this auction of an rare umbrella and Freeze and Penguin are after it. After a fight between them and Batman, the umbrella ends up in the hands of one of the bidders who shows up at Bruce´s house after that. Its then revealed he is an old friend of Alfred named Urin. He asks for an old book containing maps of as the umbrella has clues to get to a secret hideout inside the old city tunnels. There is treasure, and Penguin and Freeze are after it unless Batman has something to say about that.

This episode was actually pretty nice. The reviews of this I heard before hand were right. It was good. The relationship between Alfred and Urin would be the first highlight. I originally thought they would be good friends, but its the opposite. Alfred doesn't he like Urin that much and same would go for Urin himself and his face when Bruce asks for Alfred to join him with his search. Its obivious Urin is one level thinking on getting hands of the tresure and nothing else.

The return of Penguin & Freeze, again, were expected from that interview. I can believe though that it was every person's believablilty that Penguin was gonna appear once more since he offen does. However, I can't remember if this had happen before in the show in some form or another, but Penguin's umbrella popped out a blade to a guy. So Penguin was threatening somebody wth a knife, sorta speak. That was....unexpected for this kinda of show.

Throughout the whole episode, I've been wondering how Mr. Freeze would know the treasure that hardly anyone knew about except for Urin and Penguin. The fact that it wasn't mention doesn't ruin it but I would've liked to know. Same thing Pengin had, Freeze threatened Alfred using ice in a stabbing weapon. The exact action was how T-1000 did it in T2 but the fact that they did in this show was expected similar before.

Overall; animation, voice acting, and sound were good as usual. I would treat this episode in the ok/good section of things. The story was fine, but it kinda was losing something that makes the rating go down. Like "the punch" if that makes any sense. While this episode was okay, the next one will be better.

RATING: 6.9/10

 

[Rowen]

This epsidoe was boring, like you said Binker it lacked the punch this show is supposed to have, but failed miserabily again. hopefully the next episode will be good.

 

[Dread]

I missed this episode. And I honestly didn't care. Is that a good thing?

Besides, I'll catch it in reruns.

 

[Binker]

I know the reason why I didn't care much for it: D.A.V.E.

I wanna see the next one so badly that I wish I was warching it today, instead of Icy Depths.

 

[The Overlord]

I missed this episode. And I honestly didn't care. Is that a good thing?

Besides, I'll catch it in reruns.

That's too bad, I like your reviews, even when you don't like the show, actually especially when you don't like the show.

 

[ghost113]

It was an okay episode but it was kind of boring it lacked a lot of action, Don't they know most kids have A.D.D. Also freeze lacking the ice gun is kind of weak.

 

[jusblaze21]

I missed this episode, But it sounds like I did'nt miss anything Important.

 

[ghost113]

I was just another random episode ait until the four season when we get to see new characters and hopefully good storylines.

 

[kage88]

i liked it.

 

[Dread]

I caught this episode for the first time in this morning's rerun. It was the only episode of THE BATMAN that I missed, so, call me a completist. The season finale with D.A.V.E. was stronger, IMO. On the plus side, this episode didn't have Batgirl, a sidekick who is all but running out her welcome this season. On the downside, it had Penguin. Seriously, can anyone think of an episode of THE BATMAN that had Penguin in it that was above mediocre? The best I can figure is "The Laughing Bat", and Penguin's role there was so small that he may as well been forgotten.

A rare umbrella is up for auction, and therefore you can almost tell that Penguin is going to arrive to steal it, and he does. Batman manages to spank him with a good cape manuver; seriously, without the action sequences, this show has almost nothing this season. But who else should show up but Mr. Freeze! Clancy Brown in a way reminds me of Gina Gershon; an actor who gives life and vigor to every line he has in the role, just its a pity those lines are so terrible (he's still saying, "Have an Ice Day!"). Thrown into the duel for the umbrella is Ewan Fripp, an English chap who ultimately is an old friend of Alfred's. Of course he is. The accent was a dead giveaway. So what do they all want with some old umbrella? Its the key to some secret burried tresure that was burried by past generations of the Copplepot family; Penguin's relations. I guess theft runs in the family, and that's the most clever bit of the episode.

As usual, Batman is in his "straight superhero" role, with none of the mystique, or the grit, or the darkness that he had in the first 2 Seasons (to an extent), and that is what is making this show get boring. Naturally, Ewan tricks his way into the Wayne home to find some clues, and it becomes a three-way race to get the treasure. Aside for providing some more cool ice-action sequences, Mr. Freeze feels pretty worthless, like a lot of those "villian team up episodes" from the 60's Batman show. Y'know, when Joker would team up with King Tutt, just because. The treasure ends up being a few fathoms underwater, which Mr. Freeze freezes solid to get to. But when the ice starts to melt, Batman has to get Ewan and Alfred out of there, lest they be drowned. But couldn't Mr. Freeze have simply refrozen or reinforced his ice with his Iceman-esque powers? Feh. There was a cool 3-way brawl between Batman, Penguin and Mr. Freeze, but it was far too short and most of it was off panel for it to elevate the episode above average. Batman's involved himself in a few 3-way fights, he really should learn to let his enemies bat themselves silly for a while and then pick the winner (so long as no one dies). He'd have a much easier time that way.

This Mr. Freeze stinks. Sure, some purist will go, "they simply took the old school Mr. Freeze from the comics, not the post-BTAS one". That's fine. They took a character that started out one-note, found new life, and then made him one-note again. Brilliant. Call it whatever you want, regression in the name of nostalgia is still regression.

Not much more to say about this one. The animation was nice, the actors try to do well with whatever stilted, crappy lines they have, and the action is the best part. Just generic superhero cartoon action, like most of this season. Its amazing that THE BATMAN seems to be adhering to the recent trend to make cartoons "light and kid friendly" instead of "dark", considering that even the first 2 seasons weren't anything TOO aweful or innovative (although darker than this season). And the show continues to make better episodes out of C and lower list villians like Ventriloquist, Cluemaster, and Spellbinder than it usually does with Joker, Penguin, Mr. Freeze or Catwoman.