You couldn’t make Blazing Saddles these days, most over the age of thirty believe. Think again, old timer. Here it is. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is a grating display of obvious lifts from the Mel Brooks classic. His inclusion in this Michael Cera-led animated feature is a seal of approval to fire through with a family-friendly attempt at a film where original focus, commentary and gag-reel were race-related. Stuffed full of talent and Gabriel Iglesias, these overlapping stars all have the crucial experience in relating a broad story to a younger audience. Development hell has both dated and destroyed any potential for Paws of Fury, a promising feature on paper. But that paper has been covered with coffee stains, yellowed and torn apart over the twelve years it trundled on.
Modern-day miracles are few and far between, but to see Paws of Fury is a genuine triumph. An awful movie, but the absolute and unmoving dedication to ripping off Kung Fu Panda and delaying it by twelve years is a stunning, big-budget misfire. Ricky Gervais’ villainous turn as Ika Chu (missing a P, there, as one of many obvious jokes maintains), gives his performance a high vocal pitch that rubbishes the usual comic intonation he relies on. Ball jokes and toilet gags are thick and fast. No comic would survive. Brooks rattles on as a Shogun whose stand-up routine was booted off the comedy circuit decades ago. The last time it worked was Robots, but only because Bigweld had literal screws loose in his robo-brain. No business like Shogunbusiness, his character spits toward the camera. It is hard to talk of Paws of Fury in the context of itself when all of it is a reference point.
Chinese whispers, references to now-closed businesses and lazy physical comedy, Paws of Fury is horrendous in its waste of Samuel L. Jackson and Cera. Fourth wall breaks are a sign of poor writing. Paws of Fury is loaded with it, asking the audience for help in bringing the Rob Minkoff, Chris Bailey and Mark Koetsier-directed piece to life. Beat for beat, set for scene, Paws of Fury has a large tonal consistency to that of Blazing Saddles. Unfortunately, it tries to form a narrative from loosely connected sketches and re-apply the screenplay to a new generation, Paws of Fury has nice animation. It feels as though it was completed half a decade ago and still looks good, it is a shame that each actor is told to perform gags and one-liners that refer to their most notable roles. Wasteful references to Kill Bill, Star Wars and every other pop culture relevance of the last century.
Any feature that mocks the potential of a sequel is asking for trouble. From limp fourth wall breaks to the lazy title track, written before the feature changed its name. Turns out, you can make Blazing Saddles for a new generation. Doing so means removing the bitter gags of the original and replacing them with dishevelled, lowbrow Asian stereotypes and acceptable visuals, from zeroing in on Zen gardens to Shogan subversion. Repeated, lazy gags are used to pad the coming-of-age hero story. Other gags like the opening fireworks are lifted straight from Kung Fu Panda with an unashamed look of smugness. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank has some nerve looking down on the Jack Black animated feature of finding a warrior when it fails to find anything original to entertain itself or the audience.
