Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires (Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios) is the first team-up between Warner Bros. Animation, Mexico’s Ánima and The Book of Life producer Chatrone. It’s a colorful synthesis of art and storytelling that will have audiences experiencing the Batman universe through the volatile lens of 16th century Mesoamerica, when Hernán Cortés and his Spanish exploration crew first came into contact with the mighty Aztec civilization.
Executive produced by Sam Register and Tomás Yankelevich, the feature-length Aztec Batman film is directed by Juan Meza-León (Harley Quinn), with Ánima’s José C. García de Letona and Fernando de Fuentes producing alongside Chatrone’s Aaron D. Berger and Carina Schulze. The feature gets its national digital release in September.
Meet the Caballero de Noche
Looking back at the genesis of the ambitious project, Meza-León tells Animation Magazine, “Batman Azteca or Aztec Batman. Those two words together were just … Pow! It just sounds crazy enough, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ It came to me from the people at Ánima Estudios. They had this idea, and they were looking to work with somebody new that was into more of that comic book kind of stuff, to try something different and come up with a cool story and a dynamic way to tell it.”
He says the challenge was to make it all seem authentic and to treat the property with the utmost care and respect. “I’m a huge Batman fan, and I have little collectibles and everything. I also grew up listening to all the mythology of the Aztec empire, and [bringing] those together were a unique opportunity. The challenge was to try and put as much period accuracy and Indigenous culture in, as far as the way they were dressed and the language. Also, a huge amount of research went into getting the backgrounds right and how to get the cities accurately, and what the colors meant.”
The mashup tale focuses on a young Aztec boy named Yohualli whose chieftain father is murdered by Spanish conquistadors. He travels to the city of Tenochtitlan to warn King Moctezuma II and his high priest of this imminent threat. The story unfolds with our hero seeking retribution. Using the temple of Tzinacan, the bat god, as a lair, Yohualli trains with his mentor and assistant, Acatzin, developing equipment and weaponry to confront the Spaniard invasion, protect Moctezuma’s temple and avenge his father’s death.
“We had anthropologist Dr. Alejandro Barriga supervising the whole project and approving the material and also offering ideas,” explains Meza-León. “Because there’s no photographs [from that time period], everything’s just written and interpreted. It was a lot of work creating that world and mixing history with fantasy. If you’re a comics fan, this is an Elseworlds edition of Batman. It was difficult to find a doctor that understood what we were trying to do. Dr. Barriga, being a comic-book fan, he got it. You’ve got to have childhood wonder, and he was very helpful in getting us to develop this beautiful art.”
Much of the project’s mystique emanates from the mythic structure that’s already baked into most superhero origin stories, but especially Bruce Wayne’s, with his embracing of the bat as a symbol of nocturnal fear and intimidation in his quest for vengeance against evil forces.
Marvick Núñez’s provocative character designs and Diego Olascoaga’s art direction on Aztec Batman drew upon many historical and artistic sources to manifest this cinematic collision.
“When I was 11 years old, Tim Burton’s Batman came out and that was it. I fell into the bat cave and never came out.”
— Writer-director Juan Meza-León
“We became really good friends because we collaborate a lot together,” Meza-León shares. “This was the first time Marvick did human characters; [before] it was all cartoons. He put a lot of effort into it. From the get-go, I wanted it to have that epic quality of movies like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven, but in animated form. Hopefully, you’d get so involved in the story you’d forget it was an animated film.”
Giving Aztec Batman the essential ingredients for an entertaining, accessible Batman movie was at the top of Meza-León’s mind during the whole creative process.
“In every Elseworlds story, there is the spirit of vengeance and trying to turn tragedy into motivation for good,” Meza-León notes. “It’s a human option, and I think it works in every culture everywhere. A lot of the stories of Batman involve a bit of the supernatural and mysticism, and the Aztec culture is loaded with that. And there is such a thing as bat gods in Mexican culture. There used to be an Aztec bat god called Tzinacan and also in the Mayan culture called Camazotz. The worshipping of a bat deity did exist. So the possibility of a warrior donning the cape or the mask of this deity in the Aztec culture seems very real. That’s why you see jaguars and eagles and all these animal warriors, because they believed they would embody the spirit of the animal or deity.
“I wanted to bring that element of mystery, the spookiness, the darkness, to it that Batman has. And hopefully, if we continue to explore it, we’ll see more of that detective side of Batman, not just the superhero. So we lay the groundwork for it, and it would be cool to keep exploring that.”
Digging around the Batman sandbox to convert the Dark Knight’s notorious rogues’ gallery into Aztec iterations proved too enticing to resist for Meza-León and his team, who give Mesoamerican makeovers to Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Two-Face, Joker, plus a few surprises.
“Of course, the Aztec version of the Joker had to be there,” says the director. “We set him up to be an amazing villain. For Poison Ivy, we needed a goddess to introduce us a little bit into the mythic world of the Aztec culture, and what better way to show it than through Mother Earth? Growing up in Mexico, we had smaller versions of comics, and that was the first time I got into Batman and the TV show of the 1960s. So I’ve always been a fan, and later on, I read The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. Then, of course, when I was 11 years old, Tim Burton’s Batman came out and that was it. I fell into the bat cave and never came out.”
A Musical Collaboration
Another of Aztec Batman’s indelible charms is Ego Plum’s rousing score, which manages to bring a rhythmic tribal energy while feeling like an organic extension of the story and is also subtlety interwoven with Oscar-winning composer Danny Elfman’s heroic notes from Burton’s 1989 Batman feature.
“We got [Elfman’s] blessing, and so Warner Bros. was cool enough to agree with it,” he adds. “We just borrowed a few bars, the ones that hit you right in the feels about Batman. It was key to have those bars to make you feel that it’s part of the world, yet it’s its own thing at the same time.”
Animation duties were split between animation studios in Mexico, Peru and Brazil in an international effort that made scheduling meetings difficult due to the time difference. Distribution was handled by several animation houses in Latin America and Mexico with Ánima.
“What I love most about this project is getting to share in the enthusiasm of artists from across Latin America who not only had the opportunity to work on a DC film, but got to see their own culture and identity celebrated in the work they were creating,” says producer Aaron D. Berger, CEO and co-founder of Chatrone. “I hope audiences around the world see this animated film as a chance to reimagine their own mythologies — and to recognize the shared threads that connect us all through today’s superhero stories.”
“This was a huge learning curve for all these small animation studios, because up to that point it was all Saturday morning cartoon stuff,” concludes Meza-León. “It was [like] going from SpongeBob to Mask of the Phantasm, so that leap was huge, and I think they did an amazing job. It couldn’t have been done without the collaboration of a huge team from Mexico and Latin America. I hope this movie brings a spotlight to all that talent so we can continue growing as an industry and also show some of the rich culture of Mexico.”
Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires debuts in theaters in Mexico on September 18. It will be released digitally on September 19.
