REVIEW: Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank

REVIEW: Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank

August 22nd, 2022

Martin Goodman

This is a difficult film to review because, while it is undoubtedly an animated feature, it is also a remake of a live-action comedy. Therefore, how one feels about the film will directly correlate to how one thinks about the original movie. The predecessor to Paws of Fury is the beloved 1974 film Blazing Saddles, a Mel Brooks opus that managed to blend rude comedy with a message about tolerance in the face of unremitting racism. In fact, the original title of the animated version was Blazing Samurai. Brooks’ uneven cinematic record did include three exceptional comedies (The Producers in 1967, Young Frankenstein in 1974, and Blazing Saddles, also in 1974). However, while some cineastes might also include 1970’s The Twelve Chairs, it is more of a run-up to the anarchy of Brooks’ later films.

It is an often-stated point that Blazing Saddles could not be made in the political climate of the 2000s. While the blue humor would have passed muster, the racism would have been far too offensive, no matter how good-natured or well-intended the presentation may have been. Perhaps this is why it was remade in animated form, with the racial animus shifted to cats and dogs. Unfortunately, it is difficult to ascertain what made the times suitable for this remake or why Mel Brooks embraced the project with such vigor.

The film’s production history is a convoluted mess; originally the idea of Sony Pictures Animation, numerous production companies apparently had a hand in it, including Open Road Films, Aniventure, Align, and finally, Nickelodeon Movies via Paramount Pictures. Along the way, the original director, Chris Bailey, left the project, and former Disney director Rob Minkoff took the helm, with veteran Disney animator Mark Koetsier co-directing. Arc Productions first handled the animation, but that studio’s closure shifted the work to Cinesite. Then, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was animated remotely in Cinesite’s Montreal and Vancouver facilities.

This information is included because it is inherently more interesting than the film. The story now takes place in feudal Japan (except when it doesn’t) rather than the mythic American West. Every central character from Blazing Saddles has an animated analogy in animal form (with the understandable exception of Lily Von Shtupp), and entire scenes and lines of dialogue for the live-action film are faithfully replicated. The plotline is the same. The gags are the same. Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart has been replaced by Hank the dog (voiced by Michael Cera). The Waco Kid, first played by Gene Wilder, is now a disgraced samurai warrior named Jimbo (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson). Ricky Gervais now has Hedley LaMarrs’ role, Djimon Hounsou takes over from Alex Karras in the Mongo role, Mel Brooks himself parallels the part of Governor LePetomane, and so on.

Missing is the sexual innuendo and smutty borscht-belt humor that Brooks’ employed in Blazing Saddles, and sad to say, his character Toshi spouts not a word of Yiddish. Still, there are so many borrowed tropes and references from Blazing Saddles that to review Paws of Fury is to review the 1974 film, and why do this?

OK, the animation is passable, if not exceptional, and the voice cast appears to have a campy romp. In the part of the vain, ambitious Ika Chu, Gervais gives an outstanding performance, and Samuel L. Jackson lays down some of his meanest chops since Pulp Fiction. On the other hand, surprisingly pedestrian is Michael Cera in the starring role of Hank the Dog. Still, the character design of Hank is almost indistinguishable from any animated dog on the screen of late and is as generic as the voicework.

Rob Minkoff has fallen a bit since the heady (that’s Hedley!) days of The Lion King, but Minkoff benefits from cleaving to the script of Blazing Saddles: Paws of Fury is very well-paced, and there are few lags between gags, much like the original film. It might have been interesting to see what Chris Bailey, he of Runaway Brain, might have brought to this movie.

In sum, anyone who enjoyed Blazing Saddles may enjoy this film, if only for the frissons of recognition it would bring. Those who loathed the original or consider this a cheap knockoff or even a bastardization of Blazing Saddles would be better served to attend the latest Minions flick instead.

Addendum: I am not going into details naming names or denigrating any particular individuals, but at the theater I attended, Paws of Fury was preceded by a Nickelodeon short that was so humorless and sloppy in its content and execution that I was astonished. Hopefully, it was a one-off and not representative of the content usually found on that quality network. But, as is my duty as a critic, you’ve been warned.