Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon

Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon is a 2009 animated marital arts fantasy adventure film based on the Skyscore series Wu Xie: Legendary Warrior. The film was directed and written by Barry Lenson. It features the series' regular voice cast consisting of Brian Drummond, Andrea Libman, Carolyn Lawrence, E.G. Daily, John DiMaggio, Kathleen Barr, Maurice LaMarche, Scott McNeil, and Tom Kenny, with guest roles from Michael Clarke Duncan, Michelle Yeoh, Jonah Hill, Yoko Shimada, Justin Long, and Anne Hathaway. The film follows Wu Xie and his friends on a mission to stop the emperor Zenox from destroying the world.

In 2002, Skyscore began development of the film and a writing team consisting of TBA was assembled. Various ideas were thought of including one by TBA which ended up being made into the film. The film experiences over hundreds of rewrites and animation lasted until 2007. The story involved Wu Xie in the ultimate life or death battle in his life. The film was originally intended to serve as the series finale, but Skyscore ordered more episodes of the series as it had become increasingly profitable, so Lenson resigned as showrunner, with Everett Peck taking his place.

Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon premiered at Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles in 2009, and was released theatrically in the United States on June 26, 2009 by Universal Pictures. The film ended up becoming a box office success making $446 million over it's $75 million budget. It received generally positive reviews from both critics and fans who praised the story, action, performances and emotional weight.

A sequel is currently in development.

Plot
Coming soon!

Cast

 * Brian Drummond as Wu Xie
 * Andrea Libman as Ling-Ling, a skilled fighter who is Wu's girlfriend.
 * Carolyn Lawrence as Huang Xiuying
 * E.G. Daily as Xiao Zhenya
 * John DiMaggio as Yin Long
 * Kathleen Barr as Su Zhen
 * Maurice LaMarche as Zi, a legendary dragon.
 * Scott McNeil as Xia
 * Tom Kenny
 * Michael Clarke Duncan as Zenox, an evil and powerful emperor.
 * Michelle Yeoh as Michelax
 * Jonah Hill as Loado
 * Yoko Shimada
 * Justin Long
 * Anne Hathaway as Kamila

Development
Coming soon!

Animation
Animation for the film began in January 2008, with the training montage being the first scene to be storyboarded. Lenson rejected making either a live-action or hybrid film, while calling the film's animation the most beautiful for Skyscore. The film was produced in a widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio, to distinguish it from the then 4:3 fullscreen look of the television series, with the animation of the series being more colorful and beyond fluid as well. The film was animated overseas at Rough Draft Studios in Korea as well as in-house at Universal Animation Studios.

Casting
Coming soon!

Release
The film was released into theaters on June 29, 2009, alongside Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in the United States. Originally, the film was scheduled for a 2008 until it was pushed back.

Marketing
Coming soon!

Home media
Coming soon!

Box office
Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon grossed $234.5 million in the United States and Canada and $212.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $446.7 million worldwide.

More coming soon!

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon holds an approval rating of 74% based on 129 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. Its critical consensus reads, "Although the plot can lack depth at times, Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon is an entertaining film adaptation to the beloved series that everyone can enjoy." Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assigned Wu Xie: Battle of the Dragon a score of 66 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel
In 2017, along with the announcement of a revival, Skyscore announced that in it's future slate, it consisted of various animated films as well as Sean Santos, Ace of All Trades, and Wu Xie films. By 2019, it was announced that the film would be scheduled to be released in 2021. It was also announced that the film would receive a possible 3D, release a first for a Wu Xie film. However, by September 2019, Universal announced that the film would be pushed back to 2022. In 2021, the film was taken off Universal's film schedule, citing production troubles with the film being pushed back to a undated release. It was later confirmed at CinemaCon in April 2023 that the sequel is in production with an expected release date in Q4 2025 or Q1 2026 according to Lenson.