Michael Cera stars as an anthropomorphic dog, who is in training to be a samurai, and Samuel L. Jackson plays his washed-up feline mentor in Paramount’s latest animated family flick, “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.” The film sounds like standard CGI family fare, until you learn that the movie, originally titled “Blazing Samurai,” is a PG adaptation of Mel Brooks’s 1974 satire of Western films and race relations, “Blazing Saddles.”

Sure enough, the basic story elements of “Blazing Saddles” are all here — only now, rather than an evil railroad baron employing an unwitting Black prisoner to be the sheriff of a racist town, a conniving cat (Ricky Gervais) convinces Hank, a lost beagle, to become the samurai for a village with a prejudice against canines. (Brooks even reprises his “Blazing Saddles” role as the Governor, now reimagined as a geriatric shogun.) Many of the same slapstick jokes and gags from Brooks’s film are referenced, too, though they have been retooled to remove any outdated references or obscenity. Some quips, however, still slip under the radar: At one point, Jackson’s character, the retired samurai Jimbo, refers to a group of village invaders as “N.W.A. — Ninjas With Attitude.”

Despite its risqué origins, “Paws of Fury” manages to dish out lighthearted fun, swashbuckling action and surface-level messaging about following your dreams, though not every joke lands. The anachronistic sight gags in “Blazing Saddles” don’t work as well in the hyperreal world of a children’s cartoon, where the sight of a dog and a cat in kimonos attending a bottle-service nightclub circa 2009 isn’t as absurd as it would be in live action. Still, if watching those same characters sword-fight around the bowl of an enormous jade toilet sounds like fun to you or your children, this may be the movie of the summer for you.


Parents need to know that Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is an animated comic adventure loosely based on Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles. Hank (voiced by Michael Cera) is a dog who wants nothing more than to become a samurai, even though that honor is always bestowed upon cats. He ends up assigned to defend an all-cat village and convinces a retired samurai named Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson) to become his mentor. The adventure is mostly appropriate for families with younger kids but does include lots of martial arts-based cartoon violence -- some of it with weapons. There's also rude/potty humor (jokes about flatulence, burping, butts, spay and neutering) and insult language ("idiot," "imbecile," "dimwits," "suck," etc.). One line, "mother cocker spaniel," sounds a bit like Jackson's infamous cursing. Catnip is depicted as an addictive substance that can be abused, and a major character is portrayed as being dependent on it. Although the movie isn't educational in nature, its themes encourage courage, empathy, and teamwork, as well as tolerance and acceptance.


PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK takes place in an animated universe reminiscent of Japan during the age of the samurai. Hank (voiced by Michael Cera) is a dog who naively travels to an all-cat village, where nefarious ruling cat Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) assigns Hank to be the new samurai of Kakamucho. Ika Chu's hope is that Hank's ineptitude will cause the destruction of the town. Unbeknownst to Ika Chu, the town is home to the retired, once-great samurai Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson), who agrees to train Hank to pass a series of tests of cat-like agility to prove that he's got what it takes to be a samurai (an honor typically bestowed on cats, not dogs). The townsfolk are initially unwelcoming, but eventually they warm to Hank. Young Emiko (Kylie Kuioka) even hopes that she, too, can become a samurai. But will Hank's newfound skills be enough to defeat Ika Chu? An announced visit from the shogun (Mel Brooks) gives Hank a small window to be good enough to successfully defend Kakamucho.