Bruce Wayne isn’t Batman–a minimum of not in Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires. DC’s new animated movie tells the story of Yohualli Coatl, an Aztec boy whose father is murdered by Spanish conquistadors in Hernán Cortés’ entourage, on his hunt for revenge. The story reinvents traditional Batman rogues together with Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and the Joker (in Aztec Batman, Yoka).
ScreenRant’s Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires evaluate states the setting and time interval for the movie “couldn’t have been extra proper,” and one of many film’s parts that creates the type of concord behind its success is undoubtedly its musical rating. That comes courtesy of The Cuphead Present! and SpongeBob SquarePants composer Ego Plum.
For ScreenRant, Ego Plum mentioned his daring musical selections for the very a lot R-rated Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires and why punk drums and loud guitars truly are within the Aztec spirit. Plus, the composer revealed how his private relationship with Batman (1989) composer Danny Elfman got here in helpful.
Spoilers on the backside; preserve your eyes peeled for a warning.
Ego Plum May Do No Incorrect On Aztec Batman: Conflict Of Empires
Ego Plum might have felt very constrained scoring Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires. Regardless of being a story of gods and monsters that reimagined Hernán Cortés as Batman villain Two-Face, the film additionally chased historic accuracy to a outstanding extent. “They needed to rent precise consultants and even examine with the Mexican authorities to get approval of sure issues,” Plum stated.
For example of Aztec Batman‘s historic accuracy, when talking with ScreenRant at San Diego Comedian Con, producer Aaron Berger revealed that the residents of Tenochtitlan received’t be seen sporting the colour blue, as a result of “that was reserved for deities.”
Pair that with the lengthy musical legacy of Batman as a personality, and it’s straightforward to think about Plum being beholden to each conventional Aztec music and the established Batman scores of composers like Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. However the composer had a selected mindset that served him nicely.
“I come from punk rock,” Plum stated on a Zoom name shortly earlier than the discharge of Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires, “I’m irreverent in the best way I method music.” “I by no means discovered the way to learn or write music, [and] all the pieces I preferred [was from] people who didn’t know the way to play devices–people who have been breaking guidelines.”
So, whereas Plum did do analysis (noting, sadly, that “loads of their historic data aren’t round; they have been destroyed”) and did use conventional Aztec devices, he had a revelation that broke the entire venture open. “I used to be born in Los Angeles,” he stated, “however my dad and mom are immigrants from Mexico.”
“Aztec blood does run by way of my veins. I might do no matter I need, and it will probably’t be unsuitable, as a result of that is who I’m.”
Aztec Loss of life Whistle: Not Simply A Nice Band Title
“It was loopy to strive to do that,” Plum stated of the world of sound he created for Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires.
For the method he labeled as “reverence mixed with full irreverence,” Plum took conventional Aztec devices, mixed them with the “grand Gothic sound that was created by, say, Danny Elfman in Batman ‘89 together with Shirley Walker within the Batman animated sequence,” and blended all the above with “my very own form of spin on it.”
The rating started extra conventional, utilizing clay flutes, cylindrical drums known as teponaztlis, and the notorious Aztec dying whistle. “[It’s] this horrific type of banshee screech,” Plum stated of the latter, including, “apparently, when the Aztecs have been marching into battle, there can be, like, 100 of those taking part in directly in the dead of night.”
However, the composer specified, “As soon as I had [these instruments], I used them in my very own methods.” This was particularly the case upon the arrival of the film’s major villain.
“When Cortés arrives to the New World,” Plum shared, “he brings armor and gunpowder and issues that by no means existed right here. So when these first fights begin occurring within the movie, I’ve electrical guitars going into this primitive tribal drumming after which precise metallic punk drums taking part in by way of it.”
Plum even enlisted a California-based band known as Heavenly Journey to Hell for the “actually hardcore metallic stuff,” to take issues to the subsequent degree. To the composer, it was about “bringing electrical energy” which, he clarified, “was not what that they had, however symbolically, it type of displays what’s happening within the movie.”
However no villain supplied the type of musical alternative for Plum that Yoka did. “I’ve type of, for higher or for worse, pigeonholed myself as this cartoon man,” the composer stated. “That is the primary time I’ve actually simply gone off the deep finish and executed one thing darkish.”
“I obtained to simply be scary, noisy, dissonant, [and] abrasive, and all of that occurred particularly with the Joker.”
“It’s loads of harsh noise stuff,” Plum stated of his dissonant music for Yoka, “which was form of stepping exterior of my very own musical consolation zone … he’s a reasonably intense villain, in order that was loads of enjoyable.”
Batman’s Iconic Theme Simply Barely Discovered Its Manner To Mesoameria
There’s a second in Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires during which Ego Plum summons Danny Elfman’s beloved Batman theme. It was not a musical second to be taken frivolously, nor was it a musical second that was at all times going to seek out its manner into the movie. “I had this concept early on,” Plum admitted, for one motive.
“To me, what Danny wrote for Batman ‘89 is the true Batman theme.”
The way it discovered its manner into the movie, although, is its personal story.
“One time I used to be with him at his home, proper after he did Justice League,” Plum shared, “and I stated, ‘Hey, I seen that you simply used John Williams’ Superman theme within the movie. You would have simply written your personal factor, however you used that. How did that come about?’”
Elfman’s response, the composer stated, was easy: “He stated, ‘Effectively, to me, that’s the one actual Superman theme. These notes that John Williams wrote are as essential because the crimson tights and the cape.’”
“I am going, ‘So, did you ask him?’” Plum stated, revealing that Elfman did in reality “ask [Williams] for his blessing.”
Flash-forward to Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires, and Plum discovered himself in an analogous place. “I despatched this lengthy e mail to Danny explaining the imaginative and prescient,” he stated, “hoping that he’d be receptive. I wrote this actually lengthy letter and he simply wrote again one sentence: ‘Sounds nice, do it.’”
However that wasn’t the one hurdle. “Warner Brothers technically owns that,” Plum stated. “Someway they needed to do some authorized stuff, even inside their very own firm, to make it occur. It nearly didn’t occur, which is type of loopy … however it was nice to have that little second of these Danny notes.”
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF AZTEC BATMAN: CLASH OF EMPIRES BELOW
How Aztec Batman’s Publish-Credit Units Up A Big Villain Twist
One in every of Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires’ most fun moments happens after the credit begin to roll. A brand new villain is launched because the Penguin, masked and sporting robes that make him appear like a cross between an historic plague physician and Darth Vader, waddles onto a seashore within the New World.
The villain is accompanied by one thing new to the world of the movie: organ music. “It’s going to give away somewhat bit,” Plum stated when requested in regards to the cue, “however there is a non secular form of high quality to this character. Maybe he is like a priest.”
“With having an affiliation of the church, with the grand organs, after all, that comes later in historical past, however there’s this good non secular high quality to organ taking part in and organ melodies that I believed can be acceptable,” Plum stated, “although it’s a bit anachronistic so far as time.”
The composer left it there, saying “we should not discuss that an excessive amount of as a result of that’s what would occur subsequent,” though he made assurances that “the director has tons of concepts and different potential characters, and has talked a few bunch of actually cool concepts.”
“If it was as much as me, this might be a sequence of movies that simply goes on endlessly.“
Aztec Batman: Conflict of Empires is streaming now on HBO Max.
- Launch Date
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September 18, 2025
- Runtime
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87 Minutes
- Director
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Juan Jose Meza-Leon
- Writers
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Invoice Finger, Bob Kane, Juan Jose Meza-Leon, Alfredo Mendoza
- Producers
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Aaron Berger, Fernando de Fuentes Sainz, Jose C. Garcia de Letona
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Horacio García Rojas
Yohualli Coatl (voice)
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