Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Soooo... the Aztecs are the good guys?

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 18, 2025

The flexible nature of Batman's origin story and mythos have lent themselves to any number of loose interpretations throughout the last several decades, including of course replanting its roots in foreign soil as seen in the fairly recent animated films Batman Ninja and Soul of the Dragon. This trend continues with Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, a new joint venture between the Mexican studio Ánima and WB Animation written by Ernie Altbacker and director Juan Meza-León. As its title implies, this brisk 90-minute effort reimagines the origins of Batman and company as part of the Aztec Empire's fate circa 1520, beginning soon before the arrival of Hernán Cortés and his men. Creatively weaving in several familiar characters while leaving seams showing in the fabric, Clash of Empires is an ambitious but slightly uneven production that will nonetheless appeal to long-time fans looking for something a little different.

I'll keep the basic synopsis short and free from major spoilers, since Clash of Empires' main strengths hinge on a few crucial plot twists and the way that a number of familiar Batman friends and foes are revealed as the story progresses. Essentially, though, Aztec Batman plays most of its hand fairly straight, introducing us to young Yohualli Coatl (Horacio García Rojas in the original Spanish, Jay Hernandez in the English dub), a boy born into nobility who's devastated once his father is murdered by Hernán Cortés (Álvaro Morte) and his band of conquistadors soon after they "come in peace". Yohualli flees his village for the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan to warn King Moctezuma II, who ignores his pleas due to the influence of his self-serving religious advisor Yoka (Omar Chaparro). Choosing to take matters into his own hands, Yohualli heeds visions of the Bat God and crafts weaponry and a costume to battle Cortés and his men, eventually forming an unsteady alliance with "Jaguar Woman" and several others who align with his cause.

It should come as no surprise that a few Rogues' Gallery villains such as Two-Face, The Joker, Poison Ivy, and others eventually show their faces, but the way that Clash of Empires integrates them into this sweetened historical drama is admirable. There are more than a few creative revelations along the way, most of them stemming from the film's heavy focus on religious imagery, which even gives certain villains something of a sympathetic layer while others, like "Jaguar Woman", are inverted from their typical portrayal into more of a Robin Hood figure. The story is smoothly paced and achieves a decently epic scope during crucial moments, although some are slightly hindered by stiff animation and an unwillingness to venture into hard-"R" territory. (While Clash of Empires is an unavoidably violent tale that serves up shocking deaths and betrayals, it pulls most of its punches where on-screen gore is concerned.)

Even so, it's nothing if not a fairly refreshing take on familiar material, and what's more is that this original Spanish-language production even earned a theatrical run in its native Mexico that coincidentally begins today, less than a week before its worldwide streaming launch and domestic home video debut from Warner Bros. While the option of a full 4K edition alongside the Blu-ray is appreciated, WB has predictably dropped the ball in regards to Aztec Batman's original language roots, though thankfully not enough to consider these discs a total missed opportunity.

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: These screenshots are sourced from the Blu-ray edition, available separately and reviewed here.

Clash of Empires' native 2K visuals translate nicely enough to UHD on Warner Bros.' serviceable 2160p/HDR10 transfer, offering an uptick in color reproduction, contrast levels, and a tighter appearance thanks to better encoding and slightly higher disc real estate. It's an appropriately vivid production at times, thanks to both the bold colors of Aztec costumes and architecture as well as ample supernatural elements, all of which frequently serve up colorfully gauzy and dream-like palettes with soft focus meant to invoke a somewhat hypnotic state. Line details are smoothly consistent and there are no obvious signs of banding, artifacts, bleed, or of course macro blocking, which isn't a surprise given the bit rate afforded to a film that features more flat hues and character designs than complex gradients and heavy textures. It's not a standout UHD presentation, instead tweaking the already-solid Blu-ray to a tighter end product, but those already set up for 4K with medium to larger screens should notice the appreciable differences on display here.

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Despite the fact that Clash of Empires' original language is in fact Spanish (more on that in the next paragraph), as evidenced by the mouth movements and opening/closing credits, WB makes English the default option with a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio dub. It's predictably forceful and nuanced with a strong dynamic that really sells the action even when some of the stiffer animation falls a little short. The dubbing voices are mostly unremarkable but decently emotive, while music and background effects are balanced well enough to be easily identified whether it's a chaotic or more intimate or personal scene. If you're absolutely allergic to reading subtitles, it'll get the job done.

Enough about that, because it's much better to view Clash of Empires in its original Spanish... but sadly, WB has only included a secondary Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at a DVD-grade 448kpps bit rate. I understand not making it the default option, but not including a lossless track for the original language is an awful decision. It's doubly disappointing because this Spanish track runs laps around the English dub; not just because voices match mouth movements, but the Spanish voice acting cast does a far superior job of committing to their respective roles. (Jaguar Woman and The Joker are obvious standouts, but it's a clean sweep overall.) While this lossy track is by no means a total bust and does serve up crisp dialogue, well-prioritized surround activity, and occasionally deep LFE drops, I've got no choice but to dock the audio rating at least a full point on principle alone. While the studio's traditional catalog titles have thankfully taken great strides forward in the area of original audio tracks, the animation arm continues to struggle.

The default English subtitle track translates on-screen text only, and a second English option thankfully translates the Spanish audio rather than matching the dub. French and Spanish subtitles are on board as well.

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with attractive cover artwork; no slipcover is included, but we do get a Digital Copy redemption code. The extras are sadly short and surface-level, again leaning into the English dub.

• The Battle Cry of Aztec Batman (3:46) - English dub voice actor Jay Hernandez (Yohualli AKA Batman) provides his thoughts on fulfilling vocal duties for the film along with brief comments from voice director Wes Gleason. Unsurprisingly, the original Spanish language track is given the short end of the stick here.

• The Batman Mythology and Aztec Inspiration (6:26) - This more all-purpose (but again, way too short) behind-the-scenes featurette focuses on transplanting Batman's origin story to the early 16th century with brief comments from Jay Hernandez and writer Ernie Altbacker, who speaks about working with director Juan Meza-León and historians to merge both disparate halves into a more cohesive whole.

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Juan Meza-León's Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, a new joint venture between the Mexican studio Ánima and Warner Bros. Animation, offers a surprisingly refreshing take on the Batman mythos by transplanting his origin into the Aztec Empire circa 1520. It's not a wholly cohesive effort but features solid pacing, a sporadically epic scope (even at just 90 minutes), and a few rather clever integrations of familiar franchise friends and foes. Warner Bros.' separate 4K and Blu-ray options are a mixed bag, however, serving up solid visuals for this native 2K production but only lossless secondary audio for the original Spanish language track and a weak pair of bonus features. It's still worth checking out, at least thanks to the strength of the main feature, and thus comes decently Recommended to interested fans.