The Martial Soul of the Batman. A review of the Batman’s martial art animated movie Batman: Soul of the Dragon, that surprises dc fans a year ago.
Batman’s animated movies
After the worldwide release of The Batman, already acclaimed by the critics and the audience, I decided to tribute the dark crusader writing about a peculiar animated movie. Batman: Soul of the Dragon launched direct-to-video in 2021, and it was very welcomed. Assuming that Batman has a long list of animated movies, there are quite a lot number of titles that are really original and recent, suggesting a really appreciated response from the audience, but also a bravery work of the producers, worthy of the name of the dark knight.
Soul of the Bat
Batman: Soul of the Dragon is the animated movie from the Batman universe, that focus on martial arts as never before. Part of the animated movie is of course a tribute to the martial art world, taking a lot of elements from Bruce Lee movies, in particular from Enter the Dragon. But it is not only about old glory martial art movies, the DC universe has a large rooster of incredible martial artists apart from Batman, and in this animated movie a few will show up…
The very best DC Martial artists
The characters of Batman: Soul of the Dragon are maybe the most central elements of the show. The producers reinvented the most powerful martial artist of the DC universe by carrying them into a 70s martial art movie. Here a list of the cast:
- Batman, who in this film is one of the students of O-Sensei, the martial art master of Nanda Parbat. Along with five other fighters, after the training Bruce will channel all his anger in the obscurity and becoming the Batman that we all know.
- Richard Dragon, re-imagined as a young Bruce Lee, is dubbed by the legendary Mark Dacascos. The DC Kung Fu fighter has of course a central role in the animated movie, acting as the protagonist of the story along with Bruce.
- Lady Shiva, the famous skilled combatant of the DC universe could not miss to participate in this animated movie. Dubbed by the talented Kelly Hu, the enemy/ally of the Bat family is in Batman: Soul of the Dragon one of the six students of O-Sensei.
- Ben Turner, key character in the DC comic Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter, is also here a central figure. Dubbed by the great Michael Jay White, who interpreted the character in the Arrow tv series., Ben Turner is better known by his alter ego Bronze Tiger. The lethal weapon of Central City in this movie homages the actor Jim Kelly.
- Jade Nguyen, “The most dangerous woman alive” is known as an enemy of the Teen Titans in the comics and one of the six martial art students of Nanda Parbat in Batman: Soul of the Dragon.
- Rip Jagger, who in the comics became Judomaster is also one of the students of O-Sensei.
The Martial Soul of the Batman is full of Chi in Batman: Soul of the Dragon. What is your favorite martial art character from DC? And your favorite Batman’s animated movie?