Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero

We’ll start Bat-Month off with one of the animated features. Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero is the second of three animated features spun-off from Batman: The Animated Series. The film was directed by Boyd Kirkland, and unlike it’s predecessor, Mask of the Phantasm, SubZero was released direct-to-video. Like Mask of the Phantasm, however, it continues to use the regular series voice actors for the characters, and primarily uses the same style of animation.

I say primarily, because there are several scenes, most particularly in the opening sequence but also during some chase scenes, where they use some computer animation to create the scenes. Although the CG animation is well done, this is one of the significant flaws of the film, as it is not just obvious, it also becomes rather distracting. It doesn’t blend well at all with the regular animation style that the cartoon uses, and which the film uses in most scenes.

It’s Bat-Month

Just two weeks from now, the third part of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy” will finally be released to theatres. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were both great movies, and though I’ll admit the trailers for The Dark Knight Rises haven’t completely sold me on Bane as a villain, I have faith that the movie will be a worthy finale to the trilogy. As a Batman fan, I’ve really enjoyed seeing Nolan’s take on the character, and not to put the cart before the horse, but as a comic book fan it’ll be nice to finally have three good movies in a row in a comic book franchise.

I had moderately big plans for the blog for this month, in celebration of the conclusion of the trilogy. A problem with my car’s transmission has put a slight hitch in those plans — among other things, I don’t yet know if I’ll actually be able to see The Dark Knight Rises this month. But I’ve decided not to let that ruin all my fun. I’m officially declaring July to be “Bat-Month”. (Those of you who are adding a “Na na na na” in front of that are encouraged to do so.) I have four Batman movies that I plan on reviewing, two of them Favorite Films reviews, and if all goes well it’ll be six — if I can get to the theatre for The Dark Knight Rises, and if I can get my hands on The Dark Knight for a Favorite Films review. I may have some other posts on the subject as well, depending on where inspiration takes me.

The first part of Bat-Month will be up later today. In the meantime, if you haven’t already checked them out, take a look at my review of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and my article Devil’s Advocate: Adam West’s Batman.