Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank (2022) - Movie Review

Ever hear the argument that political correctness has gone so screwy that you couldn’t make a Mel Brooks movie today? Well, outside of how much of a chode point-of-view that is to begin (and how the existence of films like Jojo Rabbit pretty much defeat that line of reasoning), it is at least partially correct in this film’s case. Originally titled Blazing Samurai, this loose remake of Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (to the point where all five of Saddles’ co-writers are credited on this) has been in numerous states of production and release limbo for several years. And we’re not just talking about the COVID shuffle either; this thing has been batting around since 2010.

Considering my lengthy history with sub-par animated films starring talking animals, and how much I respect Brooks’ work on the original, I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that enthused about this film even in its early stages with that crack of sumo cat teaser poster. It finally seeing release after spending so long percolating must have been a massive relief for all parties involved, and I certainly get that (any film that makes it all the way from conception to public release is nothing short of a miracle if you know anything about the industry), but how does that translate into the viewing experience? Well… it’s kinda complicated.

Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) - Movie Review

If you spent any amount of time watching Cartoon Network during its heyday, or even grew up on it like I did, then you owe a lot to one Genndy Tartakovsky. The man’s work on shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack and the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated mini-series has gone on to make him one of the most vibrant creative minds that Hanna-Barbera has ever been associated with… yes, seriously. As such, the next big step in terms of flexing animated muscle is going on to do feature films, and so he was brought on to direct 2012’s Hotel Transylvania. That is, he was brought on as the sixth reported director of the film. Usually a pretty bad sign, especially for a first-time film director, but he nevertheless gave it his all and made the film his own. The result was a surprisingly fun and not-surprisingly well animated family film; sure, it had its annoying/stupid moments but the good points far outweighed the bad. Since it made over four times its budget at the box office, it of course got a sequel. Let’s hope that this isn’t another sequel made for its own sake, because I want to maintain my respect for Genndy as best I can.