Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank tries to be a self-aware animated action movie, but ends up being cheesy, slow, and a bit boring.
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is undoubtedly made for a younger audience. However even kids will be rolling their eyes at the amount of potty humor included in this film. At least they picked a theme and ran with it — although the jokes are cheesy at best.
The story follows Hank, a dog who wants nothing more in life than to become a Samurai because one saved him when he was just a puppy. The problem is that all Samurai’s are cats. When he is sent to a village to be their protector, thanks to someone with ulterior motives, he must prove that dogs have what it takes too.
This movie tries to be self-aware, in that the lead character, Hank, even mentions that they are in a movie several times. While this works in some cases, it just throws the vibe off of this story. It follows Hank on his journey to become the first dog Samurai and the flow is disrupted every time he mentions what part of the movie we are at.
As if that isn’t bad enough, they fully lean in to the stereotype of the actors they have voicing the characters. What we mean by that is that Samuel L. Jackson’s character says every single F-word under the sun except for the one he is known for. They really push the envelope trying to poke fun at the fact that he often says that bad word.
When it comes to George Takei, he utters his signature “Oh my.” more times than we can count. This is lazy writing that just takes advantage of what the actors are known for instead of coming up with something new.
So with Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank leaning heavily on childish humor and quips that the actors are known for, it becomes a struggle to get through. Even older children will stop laughing as the same types of jokes are recycled throughout the movie.
As for the viewers takeaway, the messaging is quite the generic one — don’t judge a book by its cover. Viewers are shown why people can surprise you, and even if they are different than you, they deserve a chance. This is starting to be very over used when it comes to family programming. Yes, it is an important message, but there has to be a unique way of expressing it. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank follows every trope that audiences are used to. It is extremely predictable with not even one surprise for viewers.
The best part of this movie is that the animation is of decent quality. Other than that the characters feel all too familiar, the story “twists” are easy to see coming, and the jokes feel repetitive and dull. So is it worth watching? Some kids will love it solely because it has cute dogs and cats — so throw this one for them in the background, but there is no need to sit down and watch it yourself. Trust us.
Rating: 1 out of 5
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About Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
A down-on-his-luck hound finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain’s evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant trainer, the underdog must assume the role of fearsome samurai and team up with the felines to save the day. The only problem is — they all hate dogs.
