My name is Freeze!

[enyawd72]

Learn it well...for it's the chilling sound of your DOOM!

Lots of folks hate it, but Batman and Robin is one of my most guilty pleasures and Arnold might be my favorite cinematic Bat-villain!

He's just so awesome looking in that film, and Kenner captured him perfectly.

[Hedji]

Love the lighting here, Dwayne.

For the record, I like parts of B & R, just not the whole thing. It collapses under its own weight, but it's fun, colorful, and accidentally (?) similar in tone to the 66 Batman. I just have a problem with the score and the noise levels by the time you reach the third act.

[hedrap]

Ahhh....the sordid history of B&R.

Mr Freeze...IIRC Uslan(?) wanted Patrick Stewart. The studio wanted a bigger name and Arnold was at WB from Erasure. Arnold read the part as it was written for Stewart, which was based on Dini's TAS Freeze episodes, which was voiced by Michael Ansara who was the Soldier from the Outer Limits episode The Terminator "borrowed" it's plotline from. So Arnold thought he was playing the Terminator, and then just like Kilmer on Forever, he found out Shumacher had his own drug-fueled vision. Clooney also found out the hard way.

That's the irony of Shumacher. People signed up thinking the director of Lost Boys, Flatliners and Falling Down was making a Batman movie. Instead they got the guy who wrote The Wiz.

I had the original Stewart script. You would never read it the way it's portrayed on screen. You can hear Ansara's TAS voice or Stewart's Locutus. The lines are flat and emotionless. The Poison Ivy stuff is secondary and feels jammed in. I don't think Bane was in there at that point. Floronic Man had a bigger part to it.

[thunderbolt]

I remember Stewart's name mentioned for Freeze, he was in danger of becoming typecast as every bald comic character. Was Uma always the choice for Ivy?

[hedrap]

Julia Roberts, Annette Benning, and of course Sharon Stone.

[enyawd72]

^I'm glad they went with Uma. She was insanely hot as Poison Ivy.

Whether accidental or not, I love Arnie's Mr. Freeze. There's a level of absurdity to nearly all Batman's villains, and when taken too seriously, they don't hold up IMO.

[Mr.Marion]

I draw the line on Kenner Batman. Even though I really like the Iron wretch Batman. Some of the vehicles and playsets get pricy.
Toy Biz Batman is another story I had most of them as a kid and the design isn't far off from their classic costumes.
I thought about only being a Batman collector but ultimately I enjoy Mego Trek, WGSH, etc more than I do every pre-90's bat-item under the sun.

Back on topic I don't think B&R is a complete Trainwreck but it isn't worth revisiting every couple years. Arnold chewed the scenery as Freeze though.

[enyawd72]

I made some improvements...added the Batman & Robin logo, recreated the cardback figure text, added a little glow to Freeze's goggles and a couple reflections off his armor.

[Hedji]

That could easily be ripped from a Kenner catalogue.

[Earth 2 Chris]

It was a nice figure, or figures, and these photos are very well done. I have fun dishing on B&R, but the last time I watched it, I found it as cringe worthy as its reputation would paint it. It's a sillier remake of the superior Batman Forever in my opinion, and it isn't nearly as clever as Batman '66 at its best. But hey, if folks legitimately love it, good on you! Go against the grain man. Love what you love, unabashedly, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.

Heck, I have totes full of the figures from this film, so who am I to judge?

Chris

[Werewolf]

Jet Wing Freeze is giving me a Silverhawks vibe.

[enyawd72]

^Yeah, B & R is silly, yet it does have some moments. Two scenes with Mr. Freeze really stand out...the one where we first see Nora in the tank while he looks on while some great haunting music plays, and my favorite one...when he's in Arkham and carves the miniature of Nora and puts it under glass. Very touching scene.

[hedrap]

^Those two scenes are in the first script and play out identically. Think of the rest of Freeze's scenes with that context and you can see how far off into la-la land Shumacher went.

My favorite post-release memory is when Joel got called out for just revamping '66, he blamed it on his nephew saying the kid loved the re-runs and he talked him into it!

[enyawd72]

^Those two scenes are in the first script and play out identically. Think of the rest of Freeze's scenes with that context and you can see how far off into la-la land Shumacher went.

My favorite post-release memory is when Joel got called out for just revamping '66, he blamed it on his nephew saying the kid loved the re-runs and he talked him into it!

LOL...I can see that, and it's exactly why I love it so much. I remember seeing it in the theatre and grinning ear to ear throughout the entire thing. I kept thinking...this is the TV show with a HUGE budget. I also think Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy is right up there with Julie Newmar's Catwoman on the hotness scale.

[enyawd72]

Two new additions to the Mr. Freeze collection!