I never get tired of watching that awesome rockin' intro, it sets just the right mood and puts the viewer into the world of the show every time. Aliens are attacking again, and this episode has "The Thing" written all over it. From the shape-shifting alien doppelgangers who's only weakness is heat, to the look of the research station's icy corridors and a character that looks an awful lot like Wilford Brimley! The story is inspired by the arctic-themed Doom Zone "Mighty Max Liquidates the Ice Alien", and I think they made a fun gem of a story out of it, the idea of making their own little homage/parody of the 1982 chilling John Carpenter classic really works and makes it stand out as unique in the series. The aliens are nothing like in the movie, even though they can make themselves into copies of human beings, they do it without killing them, and their big plan is to shift the Earth's orbit in order to create a new ice age because, like Mr.Freeze from "Batman the Animated Series", they can only survive in a sub-zero environment. I like their own spin on the test idea that they used by making them able to discover who was an alien in disguise by having them touch something hot, which would cause them to revert to their true forms, which were almost dinosaur-like. And the design of the aliens was alright and menacing enough, but I thought they looked a little too chunky, they sort of looked like fat monster snowmen. I loved the animation that was done when the aliens would melt and burst into flames. Fire, smoke effects and explosions always seemed to be something that this show never had any problems animating exceptionally well. Also the swirling snow that's used a lot in this episode looked very effective, how intuitive of them to have Max actually wearing winter clothing this time around since he was last in a snowy setting! It makes me laugh how Max still wisecracks even when there is no one else around to hear him! Perhaps he says all that stuff as a way of keeping himself from freaking out as any normal kid would in such dangerous situations. The line where he sees a paranoid guy holding out thermometers and says something like "I hope you're not planning to put those where I think you are!", is quite outrageous. You don't get too many jokes like that in kids shows these days, or even all that much back then, now that I think about it.. The best lines of this episode for me are in the scene where Max and co have a hilarious exchange with a raving paranoid survivor of the research station all about who's really who and who may be an alien. Whoever wrote all that's said in that sequence was a comical genius! "I'm not even sure if I'm who I think I am!" Hm, quite existential for Norman! After several weaker episodes, one comes around that brings back a lot of the fun. Great movie, good episode, have a good one!
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