Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote, "If you love comic books but can't bear the unnecessary bother of turning pages, 'Fire and Ice' [...] may be for you. It would help if you were a sex-obsessed 12-year old boy, but it isn't essential." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film two stars out of four and called it "attractive to look at, but its slow-moving, predictable story makes viewing it much like reading a comic book with pages made of lead." He added that "the constant rhythm of Teegra being captured and rescued and captured and rescued is, after a while, more than a bit tiring." Sheila Benson of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that "in spite of all the glorious washes in the background, which do indeed have the Frazetta look, 'Fire and Ice' is as unintentionally funny a fantasy as you could hope for." Donald Greig of "The Monthly Film Bulletin" called the action sequences "impressive enough" but stated that "the animators' fetishistic fascination with the human form ... underlines the two-dimensionality of the script, for the artwork is certainly the only fleshing-out that characters receive."