There’s this idea that some comedies can’t be remade because sensibilities have changed and jokes that used to be made a lot more freely are now considered off-limits for one reason or another. The best example of this one would probably be Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks comedy co-written by, among others, Richard Pryor, that used some ethnic slurs rather liberally. Yes, the message of the movie is racism is wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a lot of language in the movie that I somehow doubt any major studio would allow to go into any movie today.
And yet, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, an animated family film about a dog learning to be a samurai, doesn’t even hide the fact that it’s a remake of the movie, up to and including casting Brooks as the voice of the shogun in a world that looks like feudal Japan but inhabited by anthropomorphic cats.
Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) wants to expand his grand palace before the Shogun (Brooks, like I said above) comes for a visit. The only problem is the small village of Kakamucho is ruining his view. As such, he’s sent his ninja minions under the command of his general Ohga (George Takei) to try and get the villagers to leave. The town’s samurai, seeing an army of ninjas galloping towards, town turns tail and runs, so the villagers appeal to the Shogun for a new samurai. The Shogun gives Chu the task, so he picks a dog named Hank (Michael Cera). Dogs are forbidden in this land on pain of death, and naming Hank the samurai will perhaps get Hank killed, and killing a samurai would be good enough to disband the village. However, the villagers don’t quite get around to killing Hank, and he manages to find a mentor in the form of disgraced, washed-up samurai Jimbo (Samuel L Jackson). See, Hank wants to be a samurai. It’s why he even traveled to this land.
As it is, Hank is clumsy but does manage to win over the villagers, in part when he defeats the giant Sumo (Djimon Hounsou), sort of. However, Chu is nothing if not persistent, and he has no problem doing whatever it takes to force the villagers to move, even if it means dealing with Hank personally. Can Hank save the village?
Like I said, this movie doesn’t hide the fact it’s a Blazing Saddles remake. From the opening song, anyone at all familiar with Blazing Saddles will recognize it for what it is. Then again, the movie also credits the original movie’s screenwriters for the story idea here, and even recycles whole jokes and lines. Oddly enough, despite the fact I adore Blazing Saddles, it was the recycled lines and jokes that I enjoyed the least. About the only one I thought was really clever was when the characters, as in the original, managed to escape the movie into the real world, but that may be because it’s more of a short throwaway compared to a lot of the other bits. Will Brooks say it’s good to be the Shogun? Even though it’s from a completely different movie? Of course he will.
That said, the movie does have a few moments where it almost works with some unique and clever gags. Jackson actually gets a lot of good lines, and he delivers them with a bit a gusto. However, when it isn’t copying Blazing Saddles, it’s mostly a by-the-numbers kids cartoon with some decent animation and slapstick comedy interspersed with jokes that came from a movie that is most definitively not for kids. Does it have a kid-friendly message about why racism is wrong? More or less. Does the fact Hank is a dog actually come in handy since he lacks many of the cat-specific skills a samurai should have? Yeah. As a movie, it’s ultimately harmless.
Grade: C
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