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Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank Blu-ray Review

“Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank” is a watered down “Blazing Saddles.” 

“Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hawk” (formerly known as “Blazing Samurai”) is a CGI Nickelodeon animated feature retelling of Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles.” In fact, Mel Brooks even voices the Shogun character Toshi. Instead of being a western, however, ‘Paws’ has a samurai twist with cat and dog characters. The story concerns a Shogun official (Ika Chu) who is in charge of building a palace for the Shogun. He is displeased by the local village Kakamucho and wants to get rid of its citizens. The town (whose samurai protector ran away) is in need of a new hero and Ika decides to sabotage the situation by hiring a dog samurai named Hank who possesses no samurai skills whatsoever. Keep in mind it’s a no dogs allowed town. With the help of a former samurai Jimbo though, Hank just be able to become the hero Kakamucho needs.

Turning an iconic, hilarious and edgy comedy like “Blazing Saddles” into a kid friendly animated movie is a strange choice to begin with. What’s even stranger is that “Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank” is basically a watered down version that is filled with cliches, stereotypes, cat and dog jokes and puns galore, fourth wall breaking, recycled Mel Brooks movie lines and gags, and groan worthy toilet humor (there’s even a giant toilet called the Super Bowl). There’s also an inordinate amount of movie references (from “Yojimbo” to “Rocky”) and pop culture references about tweets and Mentos. Sure, directors Rob Minkoff, Chris Bailey and Mark Koetsier keep the gag filled movie about inclusion and race moving at a brisk pace, but you’re left just wanting to watch “Blazing Saddles” instead. On top of that, the samurai theme just does not work for a kids movie. Samurai films are dark, brutal and violent and you can’t do any of that in an animated kids movie.

However one may feel about ‘Paws,’ there’s no denying that the voice cast is filled with stars that include Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Yeoh, George Takei, Ricky Gervais, Gabriel Iglesias and Djimon Hounsou. Samuel L. Jackson steals the whole movie as Jimbo. Not only his performance the best, but he has the best character to work with as the mentor.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 2.39:1 1080p. How does it look? The animation looks crisp and colorful in hi-def.

Audio Track: Dolby Atmos. How does it sound? From the action to the voice acting, this Atmos track delivers the goods.

Extras:
* Digital copy
* “Giving Voice To “Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank””- A look at the voice cast
* “Cool Cats One Hot Dog!”- An overview of the cast of characters
* “In The Drawing Room With Director Rob Minkoff”- A look at how to draw 2 characters.

October 5, 2022 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Animated Film, Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks, Paws of Fury: The Legend Of Hank Blu-ray Review, Samuel L. Jackson