Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
PARAMOUNTFrom one of the directors of The Lion King comes Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. Initially titled Blazing Samurai, this homage to Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles was slated to release in 2017 by Open Road Films before the studio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following year. Paramount acquired the rights to the movie in 2022 and released it in cinemas with little to no fanfare and with reason, since it’s one of the worst animated films of the year.
There are certain storytelling and comedic similarities with Blazing Saddles, but any child going into the movie has likely never seen Brooks’ R-rated comedy or cares about it. They want to see animated samurai action, compelling characters, fun physical gags, and visceral animation. Paws of Fury contains several samurai sequences, but none have any lasting impact since the animation on display crafts action in the most unimaginative way possible.
None of the characters are compelling too. Michael Cera plays Hank, a dog who gets sent to the town of Kakamucho by Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) as the new samurai, who believes the entire cat-populated town will kill him so that he can arrest every citizen and take over the town to expand his rule. However, since the Shogun (Mel Brooks) has written a formal letter appointing Hank as Samurai, Kakamucho’s citizens cannot touch him. While trying to hone his skills as a samurai, Hank meets Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson), a washed-up samurai who will accept Hank as his pupil, even if their relationship isn’t exactly friendly.
In some capacity, every main character is inspired by Blazing Saddles’ protagonists, yet none of them retain the same comedic sensibilities or traits that made the characters in Mel Brooks’ film so memorable. The only character resembling their Blazing Saddles counterpart is Sumo (Djimon Hounsou), who has the same personality as Mungo. He even punches a series of horses, exactly like Mungo does in Blazing Saddles. But that callback will only be pertinent to those who have seen Brooks’ movie. This film's target audience is kids, who theoretically shouldn’t have seen the film because of its R-rating. Therefore, no child will know that Jimbo is inspired by Gene Wilder’s The Waco Kid or that Hank is this movie’s, Sherriff Bart.
And since the protagonists do not possess the same comedic timing and personality that made them so hilarious in Blazing Saddles, their callbacks will go unnoticed by most. It also doesn’t help that the comedy is terribly unfunny – the bean joke from Saddles is amped up to 11 (though it wasn’t funny the first time, it’ll certainly make infants laugh), and the rest of it is mostly comprised of cat puns or misunderstandings. It’s the most childish form of comedy possible, with every voice actor phoning their performances to the lowest level of interest, fully knowing they’re in a dud. Even George Takei, who usually brings terrific comedic timing with his “Oh, my!” can’t make those funny.
And the animation is so lifeless and dull that there are barely any interesting elements to say about the film from a purely visual standpoint. There are some cool flashbacks here and there that attempt to emulate the style of a 1950s samurai film, inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa, but there are nowhere near as exciting as the real thing. Of course, if a child watches this, they may want to seek out more samurai films, which is always a good thing, but Paws of Fury is so poorly made that their enthusiasm for samurai pictures might be the mildest one possible.
As a result, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is a highly forgettable animated movie and one that barely pays tribute in a satisfying way to one of the greatest comedies ever made. Even Mel Brooks himself can’t be bothered to care about his [limited] screentime as the shogun. And if Brooks doesn’t give a damn, then no audience member walking into Paws of Fury will. Kids may lightly chuckle at some of the physical humor and be mildly enthralled at some of the action scenes, but since there are far better animated movies out there – especially this year – they will soon forget they ever went to a cinema with their parents to see the most unimaginative, and forgettable, animated film of 2022, that will end up on Walmart bargain bins faster than any other studio-driven animated movie this year. On a side note, a Big Nate short film titled Bad Hamster plays before the movie, and it somehow manages to be worse than Paws of Fury in such a short amount of time. That should give everyone an idea of how bad the actual feature film will be.