Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires Blu-ray Movie Review

The further adventures of El Rata Alada.

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.

For a full synopsis and critique, please seen my recent 4K review. This separate Blu-ray edition offers a straighter port of this native 2K production but, like the UHD disc, struggles a bit with the audio and bonus features.

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

As usual, for a general overview of Clash of Empires' visual aesthetic, please see my recent 4K review. In comparison, this Blu-ray's 1080p/SDR transfer fares well enough and should prove to be more than sufficient for any audiences with small to medium-sized displays, offering a solid port of the native 2K visuals with good color reproduction and a crisp, stable appearance that cleanly supports the film's varied locations and moods. There are occasional whiffs of banding and macro blocking during some of the film's most visually complex sequences, and overall the Blu-ray admittedly has a slightly brighter and less dialed-in atmosphere than the UHD, but it still sports a truly attractive picture that plays smoothly during the bulk of this 90-minute production. Running at a supportively high bit rate on this dual-layered disc, the Blu-ray edition is a surprisingly strong runner-up for those looking to add this film to their collection.

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires 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 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, and both lean 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 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.