Review: 'Paws of Fury' is a fast and furry comedy about cats and dogs — and old-timers won't believe the source material

Mel Brooks’ 1974 Western send-up “Blazing Saddles” is one of the funniest movies ever made — so a movie that borrows from that one, it stands to reason, can’t help but be funny, right? 

The animated “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank” — which takes from the plot of “Blazing Saddles” enough that the original screenwriters (Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor and Alan User) get credit here — manages to be quite funny, and only old movie lovers who remember a 48-year-old movie will notice what’s missing.

Instead of the Old West, the story is transferred to feudal Japan, though a Japan where everyone is a cat. The greedy warlord Ika Chu (voiced by Ricky Gervais) is fulfilling his plans of an opulent castle where he can wield power snd impress the Shogun (voiced by Brooks, of course). Ika Chu has one last step in his plan: Getting rid of the podunk town of Kakamucho. He’s been sending in bandits to terrorize the townsfolk and scare off the town’s samurai protector.

The Shogun tells Ika Chu that the town must have a samurai, so Ika Chu sends one he knows the town will never accept: A dog, Hank, voiced by Michael Cera. Sure enough, the townsfolk hate Hank, who has to retreat to the town jail — which is where Hank meets Jimbo (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), a washed-up former samurai who’s been hitting the catnip a little too hard. 

Can Hank learn from Jimbo about how to be a samurai? Can he win over the people of Kakamucho by defeating the giant-sized cat Sumo (voiced by Djimon Hounsou)? Anyone who saw “Blazing Saddles,” or understands how movies generally work, can answer those questions.

For old-timers like me, it’s fun to see how some jokes — like when the bad guys eat beans — still provoke laughs. It’s also fun to watch how directors Rob Minkoff, Chris Bailey and Mark Koetsier can take some of the ideas from the old movie, such as the breaking-the-fourth-wall references to how this is all a movie, and spruce them up for a new audience, who won’t know “Blazing Saddles” but might confuse this with a “Kung Fu Panda” entry.

Of course, since this is a kid-friendly movie, some of the saltier parts of “Blazing Saddles” don’t make the cut — such as any character to approximate the double entendres Madeline Kahn brought to Lilly von Schtupp. But the ragged, laugh-seeking spirit of the original is alive and well, and gives “Paws of Fury” more than enough laughs to make the effort worth it.

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‘Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank’

★★★

Opens Friday, July 15, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for action, violence, rude and suggestive humor, and some language. Running time: 97 minutes.