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In honor of its 30th anniversary, I am listening to:

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022)

Distributor: Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies
Director: Rob Minkoff, Mark Koetsier, Chris Bailey
Cast: Michael Cera (Hank), Samuel L. Jackson (Jimbo), Ricky Gervais (Ika Chu), Mel Brooks (Shogun Toshi), George Takei (Ohga), Aasif Mandvi (Ichiro), Gabriel Iglesias (Chuck), Djimon Hounsou (Sumo), Michelle Yeoh (Yuki), Kylie Kuioka (Emiko)
Rumtime: 98 min.
MPAA rating: PG (violence, rude humor, some language)

This movie, set in a feudal Japan-esque land of anthropomorphized pets, stars a beagle prisoner named Hank who is to executed for his past crimes but he is spared when Ika Chu, a high-ranking official of the Shogun, decides to appoint him the samurai to defend the impoverished town of Kakamucho. This is all an elaborate plot, for Hank is appointed this role to offend the cat-inhabited town and demoralize everyone; Ika Chu plots to wipe Kakamucho off the map to expand his palace. After an initial hostile introduction, Hank seeks out the tutorage of Jimbo, a former samurai warrior now addled by catnip. With the whole town of Kakamucho in need of a hero, can Hank save the residents and stop Ika Chu from decimating it?

Are you familiar with Mel Brooks? Sure you are, he is a very notable director who was best known for making comedies. He did make some movies like The Producers, Twelve Chairs and Silent Movie, but he’s best known for making parodies. He did movies like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs and the TV series When Things Were Rotten. At least three of his movies were included on the NFI’s Top 100 Comedies of the past 100 years. While he seemed to peter out after a while (his last movie was the 1995 dud Dracula: Dead and Loving It), no one can deny what he did for comedy.

That brings me to Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. This movie did have a long history of being trapped in Development Hell. It dated all the way back to 2010 when it was made as a response to taking Asian movies and Westernizing them. Back then, it was called “Blazing Samurai” and was coming through Sony Pictures Animation. This movie was planned to finally be released in 2017, but got delayed several times, the production process was long and complicated and at one point, people thought it may have been canceled. That changed in 2019 when it seemed it was coming back, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the animators and voice actors had to do their jobs from their homes. We would finally get this movie in 2022 when the COVID-19 pandemic was on its way out in the summer of that year. Being a loose remake of Blazing Saddles with a Kung Fu Panda slant, the movie got mixed reviews from critics and did okay with audiences. Financially, it was written off as a dud.

When I saw this movie during the summer of that year, I did not think it was that great. I felt it was watchable but one of the weaker animated films of 2022. Forces seemed to have conspired to get me to do this review though, as I found it as an option on Prime Video and then, I happened to have found it again, rotting away in the bargain bin over at Wal-Mart.

Ironically, it was right next to a 2002 DVD copy of Blazing Saddles.

But in any case, I will now give my thoughts on Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.

For the movie’s story, again you have a loose remake of Blazing Saddles, this time meant for kids with an anthropomorphized pets angle. Now, because the movie is being told from a more modern viewpoint and Westerns have long since been written off as dead, a fresher aspect was taken by well, rather than going West, they went East—and by that they went Oriental. In a commentary about how Asian movies wind up Westernized, and because kids are always going to be fascinated with ninjas and Samurai. Not to mention the furry side as kids like seeing talking animals. This should be a great movie!

…so, what happened? Why didn’t this movie seem to resonate with me? Well, I can think of a few things.

If you are familiar with the story of Blazing Saddles, you would know that it is a movie about a greedy attorney general Hedley Lamarr who wants to get the people of Rock Ridge to leave their hometown due to the fact it will be worth millions and a railroad being built to cross through. He persuades the Governor to hire Bart, a black railroad worker, to be the sheriff so he can offend the townspeople and drive them from their homes.

To make this a little more PC in these very sanitary times, we have a beagle who is hired to be a samurai in a town full of cats so that the villainous landlord can expand his palace. This does lead to a few issues. For one, because this is a kiddie-fied answer to Blazing Saddles, it feels much safer than before and as a result, feels toothless. The theme they go for about overcoming prejudice is a theme at first, but unlike Zootopia where that theme was consistent, they lose that in favor of a “finding a hero within” angle. What’s not helping is the seeming contentedness to mix Western and Oriental themes in a movie that’s supposed to be drawing a lot of inspiration from Japan. Then you have some other factors like how the writing isn’t all that great, like how they never have Hank acknowledge how he truthfully won his first fight.

But is it at least funny? Well… kinda. Some of the humor does get through, whether it would be some occasional fourth-wall breaking or some meta-humor. Then of course, there is some of the other sort of humor that kids do find funny which tends to be of things like fart jokes and other lowbrow comedy. Still, the humor level does feel low.

So yeah. It’s not terribly inspired. It just doesn’t feel like the story has a lot of weight, especially considering the movie it’s supposed to be remaking is just a better made, and much more comical, movie.

The movie’s animation? That does fare a bit better. They go and have plenty of Japanese influence in movie’s backdrops and the way the characters look in their attire, but again, there is the prospect of Westernized 1940s-era animation in the way the characters look and act. It is smooth enough, and there tends to be a good amount of textures, an example being the characters’ fur. Another clever aspect is like how they go for a more stylized form of animation in the beginning, where they use a black-and-white scroll like motif to describe the heroism that a samurai warrior would have to perform. However, most of the animation for the backgrounds tends to be repetitive—Kakamucho tends to have somewhat bland wood buildings on a stretch of sand that makes up most of the picture. The only other piece we get to see is the inside of Ika Chu’s palace, but you will have to wait until we are nearing the climax to see it for how awesome it is. I understand that this movie was only made on about $45 million, which is a low budget but still reasonable.

Again, I’m trying not to be too hard especially when you take into account the fact that so many animators had to work at home in order to finish this movie thanks to the pandemic. I just feel that you don’t get to see very much that will truly inspire you as a moviegoer, and it has to say something if the live actors feel more like toons than the actual toons. Still, I guess it looks okay.

The movie’s characters were supposed to be expies of their original characters. If you have seen Blazing Saddles, you will spot some of the original characters now in animation. For the movie’s hero, Hank the Beagle is an aspiring samurai who wants to be like the hero who saved him. However, his fumbling and clueless nature interfere and he just isn’t the best at his job. He may be the hero and clearly the answer to Bart, the original railroad worker turned sheriff in the original movie. This doesn’t mean he’s likely the gateway into the movie’s world, however. As I said, he doesn’t have much to allow you to think he’s the identifiable character; he was just picked on a lot and now wants to be a samurai. He’s not the most likable either, as he wants to celebrate after winning just once and it wasn’t even because of him. Michael Cera also tends to make him seem rather whiny as well and that doesn’t bode well for a character that you would want to root for. His mentor figure, Jimbo, clearly the movie’s answer to Jim the Waco Kid from the original, is the sage samurai who had felt he lost his code of honor due to a mistake and now he has fallen into quote-unquote alcoholism. He might be the best character and Samuel L. Jackson does his recognizable self with a good level of humor. Another character of note is the Shogun, the movie’s answer to the Governor with Mel Brooks reprising the role. He does not appear much but I did like the fact that he does this and it shows commitment to his work. The movie’s villain, Ika Chu, is the greedy landlord who wants to take Kakamucho and flatten it to expand his palace. He doesn’t have much of a motivation for his goal other than his own greed. I’ll also say Ricky Gervais has a tendency to always deliver his lines in a monotone voice and it makes him sound like Ika Chu just doesn’t have a lot of range. For the most part, that would end up making most of the characters; there are a few exceptions no one else truly stands out. The only ones that do would have to be Sumo, the spin on Mongo’s character, and Emiko, the girl kitten. For the former, he is the muscle-turned-ally with a twist being that instead of being a dumb brute he is a philosophical sumo fighter, I will admit I liked him. Emiko the girl kitten is the movie’s original character. She takes a part of Bart’s character in that she is the most sensible character, in all honesty I can’t help but think she probably would have been a better hero than Hank. As you can see, the characters don’t perform as well as they originally did; and the good ones aren’t enough to make up for the surplus of weak and lazily-written characters.

I’ve seen movies like Arctic Dogs and Rock Dog go on to become franchises despite not having been immediately successful, but for Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank… all I can truthfully say is it’s going to be kids’ entertainment on a budget for the forseeable future. For all the crap this movie had to undergo plus a global pandemic it had to ride out, the biggest kick in the nads had to have been the fact that once it was finally released in July 2022, you had very little reason to go see it! Even if you wanted to go see a fun summer movie that took you back to the 1970s to joke about Kung Fu Fighting, just two weeks earlier we got Minions: the Rise of Gru and that movie was a lot funnier than this! That is honestly hard to say especially taking how long it took to get here and I imagine a lot of blood and sweat went into the movie. It is most certainly better than the short cartoon that proceeds it, a Big Nate cartoon called "Big Hamster". That cartoon was just weird and I didn’t miss not seeing it when I got to revisit the movie. I won’t say the movie was truly terrible because it is watchable and contains some laughs, but the movie wound up being less than the sum of its parts; truly less than meets the eye.

This may not have been intentional, but if you wait for the end credits scene, Ika Chu does lament about how he won’t have to partake in a sequel. Cruel irony, indeed.



Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022)
TreyVore rates it: D+

I'm also going to add that at least Shirley and Fifi were going to be on the show without question.

Remember for the 2020 Animaniacs series, they did cut Hello Nurse and Minerva Mink from the show.

Things are clearly going to be different because times changed since the early 90s.

I haven't watched it yet, but I look forward to it.

Hey guys! I know it's been a bit, but I had some issues that I was grappling with. Now that I'm cool, I thought it is time to go give you my thoughts on:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Distributor: Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies/Point Grey Pictures
Director: Jeff Rowe
Cast: Nicolas Cantu (Leonardo), Brady Noon (Raphael), Micah Abbey (Donatello), Shamon Brown Jr. (Michelangelo), Ayo Edebiri (April O’Neil), Maya Rudolph (Cynthia Utrom), Seth Rogen (Bebop), John Cena (Rocksteady), Rose Byrne (Leatherhead), Natasia Demetriou (Wingnut), Giancarlo Esposito (Baxter Stockman), Hannibal Buress (Genghis Frog), Post Malone (Ray Fillet), Jackie Chan (Splinter), Ice Cube (Superfly), Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko)
Runtime: 100 min.
MPAA rating: PG (violence, mild profanity, rude humor)

This movie, based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, is about the 4 Turtle brothers—Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo—all having been trained in the art of ninjutsu and living as sewer rats under their father figure Splinter, who does not trust humans after an incident 15 years ago. Longing to live like human teenagers, they get their chance to prove themselves after some thieves steal a moped from a human teenage girl named April O’Neil. April herself is an aspiring journalist who wants to get past a viral video that was posed of her getting her chance only to barf on camera. The Turtles in turn, get their link to human robberies as April has been following a series of robberies led by a criminal called “Superfly”. When they get the chance, the Turtles meet their target only to find out he is a mutant fly, and has a gang of mutants that serve him! His plan is to use stolen technology to begin a wide series of mutations where they will assert dominance over the humans. What can the Turtles do to stop him?

Before I start this review, I will recount a prior time in my past. There was a time when I once asked my mom about what a kiddie matinee movie was. She told me that it’s the type of critic-proof movie meant to appeal to kids. It doesn’t matter if it feels like it has no direction, no acting, no script, the story makes no sense, the characters are not developed, the sets look fake, the animation is crude, the mature references feel like pandering, the messages are easily broken, it feels like a long toy commercial, if it will be forgotten in a few months… it doesn’t matter because kids don’t care about that kind of thing, it’s something that will appeal to them, they will beg their parents to see it, they may meet their friends there and they’ll treat it like it is the best thing ever. Her example was “That’s like those Ninja Turtle movies…”, other examples would be the Power Ranger movies, the Pokémon movies… and yeah, those movies based on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and PAW Patrol? Those are kiddie matinee movies.

Having said that, I do have a long history with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Having grown up with the classic 80s cartoon and the extensive toyline from Playmates which children of the late 80s/early 90s could not get enough of, I did learn a lot about what you may have to do if you were to take a graphic novel and you were to try to make it appeal to kiddie culture. For one, in the classic 80s cartoon, they were supposed to actually be heroes, it was different from their original description where they felt more like assassins that go around committing murders.

Cementing my history with the Ninja Turtles was the fact that the first set of movies all seemed to come within close proximity of my birthday. The original movie from 1990 was a mindful adaptation of their original story and while it did feel dark and moody many times, and while it most certainly was not a good movie it was one of the biggest hits of the year especially considering its budget and was the first movie about anthropomorphized animal superhero characters that was a hit! With costumes courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, it was a massive risk they took, especially when you take into account the last movie of that type was the 1986 movie Howard the Duck, and that was a gargantuan critical and commercial bomb!

With a major hit having been scored, they immediately got to work on a sequel. 8 days short of a full year later, we got Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: the Secret of the Ooze in 1991. This movie was much goofier likely in response to the dark nature of the original and felt very much like a lot of inspiration was being drawn from the 80s cartoon that was such a hit on CBS. Much more of a guilty pleasure by contrast, it appears on many peoples’ lists for worst superhero movies.

But why that movie? Why not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 from 1993? The one where they went back in time to feudal Japan? No… that should not be judged as one of the worst because that’s giving it too much credit!

By that time though, the third movie did make money, but it was still seen as a Franchise Killer for a wide number of reasons. At the same time, it was just coming in when the Turtle craze was starting to wane. In 1993, it was going on for 6 years, and during that time if the original fans were in kindergarten/1st grade in 1987, they would have been in 6th/7th grade in 1993 and would have to start adding some new interests. Adding to this was the fact that in 1993 we were introduced to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and they suddenly took the world by storm.

We would not see another Ninja Turtle movie until 2007, when we got the CGI-animated movie TMNT. I was not sure what to make of this movie when I first saw it, but I understand that it is meant to be seen as the fourth film. It got mixed reviews, but still turned a profit. However, any plans for future movies were scrapped after Peter Laird sold the rights to the franchise to Viacom, and it would go to Nickelodeon.

From there, we would get the 2014 remake which was produced by Michael Bay. This movie got largely negative reviews from critics and audience reception was much more divided. It was the most financially successful film in the franchise and that would of course mean sequel. We would get Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows in 2016, and while critics generally thought it was a slight improvement, it wasn’t enough to turn a profit financially and was regarded as a bomb—audiences thought it was an improvement as well, but not enough to want this version of the Ninja Turtles to continue.

With the third movie in the Michael Bay-produced Ninja Turtles film series having been scrapped, they would go in a different direction with CGI animation spearheaded by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. But what could they bring to them? We saw Pokémon escape the kiddie matinee label when we got Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, so the question is can the Ninja Turtles do the same? Let’s find out.

The story for this movie is going in a different direction than you would expect. I suppose these characters are iconic enough to not need an elaborate re-telling of their backstory, but they do that with some slight differences. For one, due to his distrust of humanity, Splinter has the Turtles use their ninja training for scavenger purposes—he has them only go for supplies and they would live forever in the sewers away from potential harm. Obviously playing up the teenager aspects of these characters, it makes them relatable in that kids don’t want to feel as though they are permanently grounded and they want to get out and experience the world for themselves. It plays up the sweet side that the Turtles are known for and gives it the needed heart.

This does not mean they forgot about the ninja aspects; the movie does give plenty of opportunities for the Turtles to kick some butts using their ninja skills to go with their moments of teenage wackiness you expect; it does give a nice balance as they only use their ninja training to stop bad guys and not just random people. What I did feel was a refreshing change of pace was the fact that this movie does not simply fall back on nostalgia for the 80s cartoon; this I do feel helps as they are not just relying on what kids would already know and allows them to progress as a franchise. Another factor is while they do feel isolated from the rest of the world, the gang of mutants they encounter is an interesting factor. The reason for this is because rather than just another Turtles vs. evil ninja clan story, you have the Turtles make a human friend in April and then have them meet some of their own kin in Superfly’s gang. I will get more into this as I go.

I don’t feel the story is completely perfect, as while I can suspend disbelief on their ninja training, because there are so many mutant characters that are introduced not everyone is going to feel fully developed, but this could change in future movies. The scheme the Turtles are going up against does sound a bit like the original X-Men movie and maybe the first Amazing Spider-Man in that Superfly and his gang are plotting to mutate everyone and while it doesn’t feel too out-of-whack, I just couldn’t help but feel like I heard that story once before. Another thing I did not truly like is the idea of one of the Turtles having a crush on April. This idea was introduced in the 2012 cartoon as in this movie Leonardo has a crush on her and this just would lead to some questions from the kids. Regardless, the movie does give you plenty of great qualities and the sense of heart and fun cannot be understated.

Now, the animation is something else too. For the most part it is in CGI, looking a bit like Claymation with hints of markers and pen sketching. Seeming to take its cues from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the movie uses this to make it feel like you are seeing it all from a teenager’s viewpoint together with a street graffiti look. This does work for the movie in that rather than try to look realistic, they go for more of an angsty street culture vibe and it gives the idea that the team behind the movie would understand kids and feels appropriate for the fact this movie did begin life as an underground comic book and it is a change from trying to do yet another live-action movie. I understand that the animation was one of the most difficult aspects of the movie but it was well worth it!

Now I get to discuss the characters. You probably know the Ninja Turtles; Leonardo is the responsible leader, Donatello is the tech dork, Raphael is the brawn and Michelangelo is the party-loving heart. They don’t have only these traits as they all have a raging urge to fit in despite having to obey their father figure, never shying away from dunking on each other and dropping pop culture nods. They are an easy gateway into the movie’s world and never lost sight of their relatability. Their father figure, Splinter the rat, is in a way their jailer in that while he wants his sons to be safe and never see them come to harm, he unintentionally makes them feel isolated because he’s cutting them off from the world. We have heard this type of character having been done several times before, but the strong performance by Jackie Chan helps elevate Splinter above feeling cookie cutter. April O’Neil is their kin spirit in that she also feels like an outcast because in her chance to be a reporter, she barfed on camera and now feels embarrassed. She is able to relate to the Turtles because they also want to be excepted by society and the string of robberies have caused her school’s prom to be cancelled. While I’m not sure exactly how I feel about her being an urban teenager (the idea was introduced on the 2018 series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) but… I suppose it helps add to the idea of prejudice that she is supposed to feel?

On the other side of things, we have Superfly and his gang. Superfly, being the film’s villain, is supposed to be the eldest of his ‘siblings’ in that they were all once Baxter Stockman’s ‘children’ before he was taken into custody. With his father figure gone, he essentially had to take the reins and raise his family on his own. This does give the Turtles someone they feel they can relate to being they found another family of mutants longing for acceptance; however, they are taking a more extreme measure in that they are stealing materials to build a piece of technology to mutate people so they will be forced to accept mutants. In a way, they are like the Turtles but have darker motives. Ice Cube does lend his voice well to the character, making him seem level-headed but simultaneously menacing. His gang, consisting of Bebop, Rocksteady, Leatherhead, Wingnut, Ray Fillet, Genghis Frog, Mondo Gecko and Scumbug—all tend to get beats but don’t get a ton of development; while this could change in future movies it doesn’t bother me that much because it does have the feeling like what it is like when you would take your action figures and have them all bounce off each other. It does leave something to your imagination and I like that. The other character that comes to mind is Cynthia Utrom, the TCRI agent who wants to drain the Turtles’ mutagen for her own sinister purposes. The characters all lend a big sense of fun and it’s very welcome!

I have to say, these Turtle boys have come a long way from their kiddie matinee days! I’ve always loved how the Turtles had a wide range of versatility and never lost sight of heart, and it shines through here! The fact it goes full-animation is a plus as it goes back to their roots and never loses its sense of fun. We all remember our histories with the Turtles and this movie works very well as a love letter to the fans and the franchise. I would mostly definitely recommend Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and would even say, best Turtles film! I guess all that’s left to say is, “Turtle Power!”



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
TreyVore rates it: A-

Well there has been lots of hype surrounding it and this is going to be Disney's 100th year.

Plus there will be lots of people wanting to see it being that it's coming out for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hopefully it will more than make up for Strange World.