One of the animated movies that I missed in the theaters this year is available to rent on Vudu at a decent price so I rented Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.

After watching it, I am not unhappy that I missed this one in the theater.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “A down-on-his-luck hound finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain’s evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant trainer, the underdog must assume the role of fearsome samurai and team up with the felines to save the day. The only problem is — they all hate dogs.”

While the animation was fine, the story is a basic rehash of Kung Fu Panda with a dog and simplistic characterization. It is colorful and quick-moving, but lacks any real depth. My guess is this would be something that a young child would enjoy, but it did not appeal to me at all.

The voice cast was strong with Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, Ricky Gervais, Mel Brooks, Aasif Mandvi, George Takei, Michelle Yeoh, Djimon Hounsou, Gabriel Iglesias, and Kylie Kuioka.

The film used almost a breaking of the fourth wall technique in the early part, but it never seemed to work well. The dialogue between the characters was forced and lacked any real humor. What little humor there was in the movie was of the lowest form, farts, pee and bodily function jokes.

I’ve seen worse, but I did not enjoy Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank very much. I suppose I was not the target audience for this, but this is a far way from an intelligent and awesome film.

2.3 stars