"Batman: Soul of the Dragon" Animated Feature News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

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Otaku-sempai

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I would love a Neal Adams/Irv Novick/Jim Aparo tinged look to the designs. Give it a real 70's vibe... with Conroy voicing Batman (as his voice wonderfully suits that era/art style).
You mean like this?
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RoyalRubble

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The Hollywood Reporter confirmed a new animated DTV movie, Batman: Soul of the Dragon set for an early 2021 release. A first image from the movie is included in the article.
The film is an original tale, rather than based on a specific comic book storyline. It sees Bruce Wayne face a deadly menace from his past, with the help of three former classmates: world-renowned martial artists Richard Dragon, Ben Turner and Lady Shiva.
Soul of the Dragon stars David Giuntoli as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Mark Dacascos as Richard Dragon, Kelly Hu as Lady Shiva, Michael Jai White as Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger, James Hong as O-Sensei and Josh Keaton as Jeffrey Burr. Batman: The Animated Series' Bruce Timm is executive producing, with Sam Liu, known for Reign of the Supermen and Batman: The Killing Joke, directing and producing. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge writer Jeremy Adams penned the script.
 
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I can't say I was ever expecting a Batman movie styled after an 80's martial arts movie, right down to the retro character designs, but I'll take it ;).

Man, it's good to see the yellow oval in animation again :).

David Guintoli as Batman should be interesting, but I'm pumped to hear Kelly Hu and Michael Jai White reprising Shiva and Bronze Tiger :D.

Is the first time Richard Dragon has been in animation? I can't think of any other time he would've been in a cartoon. Hopefully this appearance does him more justice than Arrow did :cool:.

Burr means Kobra, so I guess they're the villains :confused:?
 

Yojimbo

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Ok, so basically DC mixed with 70s Bruce Lee movies like Enter the Dragon or Game of Death. Sold.

EDIT: And Dragon basically looks like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon in his traditional garb before he goes shirtless rather than the white guy original look in the comics. Lady Shiva kinda looks like Mei Ling, I think the part when they confer about the mission in his room. And Ben looks like a melding of Luke Cage and Williams.
 
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Otaku-sempai

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If it all works, I may count this in my head-canon as DCAU. That design is just too similar.
If the 1970s setting is fact, that pretty much sets it apart from the DCAU.

I'm not gonna lie, based on that picture, this looks a bit cheesy, but of course it's just a picture, I'm imagining the rest. Hopefully it will be a solid movie. I like Batman's design!
Well, the high concept seems to be Enter the Dragon, but with Batman. So, yeah, this could be gloriously cheesy.
 

Pfeiffer-Pfan

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I'm liking everything I see about this one. I love the idea of a 70's set BATMAN movie, with a heavy focus on martial arts and I'm sure Timm had alot of fun with the visuals/soundtrack. They need to bring it though with the fight choreography as both Batman vs TMNT and that new Mortal Kombat movie set the bar high.

My only tiny, silly, pay no attention to complaint is that Conroy is not voicing Batman. Especially as the design looks so similar to the B:TAS suit design. It's so similar, it'll be weird to hear another voice coming out of it. Oh well... hopefully Timm has him lined up for something soon.
 
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Yojimbo

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Just watched the sneak peek on Man of Tomorrow. I'm definitely more excited when it was mentioned they're also cherry picking from the 80s, too, like Big Trouble in Little China (which is also cool since James Hong was Lo Pan in it).

Sam Liu's anecdote about when he heard Bruce Timm wanted to do a 70s martial arts movie was hilarious and made me chuckle. But I don't blame him - animating martial arts right, getting a good studio and team to animate it are valid concerns. But in the past they have pulled it off. That opening scene in Bad Blood still gets me. Jay Oliva was really good at pushing detail with Batman's moves, though I forget if it was ever revealed who boarded the cold open.

Also like with The Batman, I'm loving the 70s muscle car Batmobile design in Soul of the Dragon! Very Neal Adams and Dick Giordano-esque. Though I think this one is more of a Charger than a Corvette.

I know it will never happen but a small part of holds out hope that one day, JIm Krieg will rope Bruce Timm into dressing up with him. lol. Also loved how meta Jim got about what a producer does.
 
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