Loosely inspired by the Mel Brooks’ 1974 groundbreaking comedy classic “Blazing Saddles” (and originally titled “Blazing Samurai”) and set in a mythical Japan inhabited mostly by cats, the computer-generated animated production “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank” tells the story of a beagle named Hank (Michael Cera).
Sent to a small town (pop. 248) full of cats as their samurai to protect them from marauding cat bandits i.e., cat vikings, cat pirates, etc., Hank meets much opposition. The evil cat leader Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais), who is obsessed with a giant jade toilet and the lavish castle he inhabits, sends Hank to be the new samurai protector of the adjacent town of Kakamucho, assuming that the cats will never accept a dog as their samurai. Ika Chu wants Kakamucho razed to the ground.
What he does not know is that clueless Hank will win the townsfolk over by befriending some and by being sincere about becoming a samurai and protecting them from the enemies Ika Chu secretly sends to destroy them. Hank’s biggest asset is worldly former samurai Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson), an out-of-shape tuxedo cat who becomes Hank’s reluctant sensei.
