Review: 'Paws of Fury' cashes in on fart jokes
Posted Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 3:27 PM Central
by John Couture
How many fart jokes are too many in an animated children's film?
According to Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank and my son, it's a trick question. There is no such thing as too many fart jokes.
Eschewing the common practice lately of making animated films for the whole family, Paws of Fury makes it pretty clear that they are targeting a certain demographic more than any other. That said audience is boys under the age of ten.
Case in point, my daughter simply rolled her eyes at most of the egregious fart jokes found in Paws of Fury, while my son loved every minute and laughed spectacularly during the massive beans/fart sequence. If there was an Oscar to be handed out for best use of a fart in a film, my son would have handed the statuette to the producers of Paws of Fury right then and there.
But no such category exists and while I did find the film to be enjoyable at times, if a bit juvenile, I couldn't help but wonder if they may have alienated a large portion of its target audience with its choices.
A hard-on-his-luck hound Hank (Michael Cera) finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain's (Ricky Gervais) evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant teacher (Samuel L. Jackson) to train him, our underdog must assume the role of town samurai and team up with the villagers to save the day. The only problem... cats hate dogs!
The rule of thumb in the age of Pixar and Illumination is that animated films are no longer just for kids. During Disney's heyday, their animated offerings were more than passable as repeatable entertainment for kids but didn't really cater to the parents who were dragged to see it in theaters.
More recent animated fare seems more balanced in terms of providing entertainment for kids, but also by sneaking in some jokes that are clearly intended to sail over the younger set's heads and land squarely on our funny bones. As the parents of two children under 11, I have greatly appreciated the attempts of filmmakers to make these types of films more accessible to the older set.
Paws of Fury is the first animated film that I've seen in a while that has unabashedly targeted a younger, male audience with its reliance on fart jokes. My daughter loves cats and she was interested in this movie primarily for the feline funnies, but she was rather unimpressed with the sophomoric humor.
Alert! Someone send the de-aging police to my house. My daughter is growing up too fast we need to do something about it. I am not ready for her to start dating and rolling her eyes at all of my stellar Dad jokes. Someone make it stop!
Sorry, I digress.
The two main audiences that Paws of Fury caters to is the under the 10 male crowd and those of us old enough to appreciate the parallels between Paws of Fury and another Mel Brooks film, Blazing Saddles. All of the Western clichés aside, the idea of a non-traditional sheriff (samurai here) protecting a small village of people from a different culture (or species) is quite a connection between the two films.
But alas, the writing of the more recent film pales in comparison to Blazing Saddles despite several comedic legends contributing to the screenplay. When in doubt, Paws of Fury chose the fart joke and my son couldn't have been happier that they did.
As a whole, it's not a bad watch, but I don't think it will hold up to as many repeat viewings as its brethren from Pixar or Illumination. My son, on the other hand, has been begging me to re-watch it, and so far, my will has been strong. But, it's only a matter of time before he catches me in a weak moment and I have to re-immerse myself in all of that flatulence.
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
