We just can’t get enough Batman, can we? I mean, how many animated DC movies has he had? Forget about the live-action movies, because those will never end. However, as a big fan of the DC animated movies, I’ve noticed a pattern that they tend to follow. If you’ve been keeping up with the DC animated movies, you’ll notice that they tend to give Batman a lot of attention. Like, a lot. Even when it’s not really a Batman movie, they still find a way to squeeze him in there and make him a vital character to the story. Examples? Batman: Assault on Arkham and Justice League Dark. Batman is a central character in those movies, but he’s not really the main protagonist.
But you know what? Batman sells and if his name’s in the title or if he’s on the cover, we comic book fans will watch it. Hey man, who doesn’t love Batman? Since we’re talking about animated DC movies, you all really need to check out the latest animated film. And guess what? It’s an animated movie about Batman. Surprised? Well, in this animated movie, Batman is more of a secondary protagonist. The main protagonist of the movie is Bruce Lee. Okay, not really, but the character might as well be Bruce Lee. Heck, this is probably the closest thing we’ll ever get to a Bruce Lee/Batman team-up. As you probably guessed, it’s a movie about martial arts and there’s a lot of kung fu style fight scenes. If you’re a martial arts nut, this is the DC animated film for you.
The name of the movie is Batman: Soul of the Dragon. Sound familiar, Bruce Lee fans? That’s only the beginning. The “Bruce Lee” character Batman teams-up with is actually Richard Dragon, one of the greatest martial artist of the DC Universe. The comic version of Richard Dragon is a white male with red hair. For the Soul of the Dragon movie, the writers pretty much turned him into Bruce Lee. That’s fine by me, because it fits the setting and tone of the movie.
Speaking of the setting, this movie isn’t set in the modern day. Soul of the Dragon goes all out with the Bruce Lee nostalgia by taking us to the 1970’s. This will take Bruce Lee fans back to the final years of Bruce Lee, especially when Enter the Dragon was released. Soul of the Dragon takes very many cues from Enter the Dragon, the most notable being how similar they made Richard Dragon look like Bruce Lee’s character. Just watch the opening scene of the movie, and you’ll see Richard Dragon kicking butt looking like secret agent Lee. Oh, but it doesn’t stop there.
Probably the funnest cue Soul of the Dragon took from Enter the Dragon was when Richard Dragon went to go meet Bruce Wayne. To get inside Bruce Wayne’s tower, he had to get past the very big doorman. When Richard Dragon tried to reason with the doorman, the hot-headed doorman boldly claimed that he knew karate and that made him tougher than Richard. Well, Richard Dragon wasn’t really impressed by the doorman’s tough guy talk and he needed to get inside. So, he decided to challenge the doorman to a fight, which the doorman agreed to. Richard Dragon didn’t want to fight in front of the building, so he tricked the doorman into going into the alley on the side of the building. He then “won” the fight by locking the gate and trapping the angry doorman in the alley.
This scene pays direct tribute to a particularly hilarious and incredible scene from Enter the Dragon. When Bruce Lee’s character (named Lee) was on the boat heading to Han’s island, he was challenged by Parsons, a cocky martial artist. Lee wasn’t not interested in fighting, but Parsons was persistent, so Lee wanted to show him his style, which he called “the art of fighting without fighting”. Lee told Parsons to get into a smaller boat so they could sail to the island together, only Lee set the boat away with Parsons in it. Parsons was angry and the guys working on the boat had fun keeping him at bay.
We Enter the Dragon lovers remember that scene with great pleasure. For Soul of the Dragon, Richard Dragon embodied the physical characteristics and even the fighting philosophy of Bruce Lee. What’s even cooler is that he was even voiced by Mark Dacascos. If you’re unfamiliar with him, he was the assassin Zero who fought John Wick in the third movie. He’s a legitimate martial artist in real life and an underrated action star.
But the list of martial artist DC characters doesn’t stop there. The cast also included popular martial artist star Michael Jai White as Bronze Tiger and Kelly Hu as Lady Shiva. These two actors are actually DC veterans, with Michael Jai White playing a live-action version of Bronze Tiger in the Arrow show. Kelly Hu, on the other hand, voiced Lady Shiva before in the 2013 video game, Batman: Arkham Origins. Both of these actors were brought back to voice these characters because they’re the best actors to make the characters seem authentic. Along with Mark Dacascos, Michael Jai White and Kelly Hu are all legitimate martial artist and that’s how they understand their characters.
Enter the Dragon isn’t the only movie Soul of the Dragon took inspiration from. There’s also a good splash of Big Trouble in Little China in there as well. Who do Batman and the kung fu masters fight in the movie? A deranged cult called Kobra. Their mission: to open a gate so they can bring their god Naga to Earth. The main antagonist, Jeffery Burr, or just Kobra, is the head of this cult and wishes to appease his god, similar to David Lo Pan. Much like Big Trouble in Little China, things get weird because of the cult and Batman and his fellow martial artist have some awesome fight scenes with Kobra’s followers.
Magic, martial arts, and that 70’s cheesiness is what makes Soul of the Dragon fun to watch. If you’re a fan of Bruce Lee movies or martial arts, you should watch it. Or if you’re just a big Batman fan like me, you should watch it. I’ll just say, Richard Dragon is more the star of this movie than Batman. That’s okay, because he made for a great protagonist. It’s always fun when we get to see lesser-known comic book characters get time in the spotlight. Martial arts, crazy cult magic, 70’s and 80’s movie vibes and DC rolled into one movie? It made for a great combination.
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