Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank Blu-ray review

Oct 05, 2022- Permalink

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank Blu-ray is harmless family film that treads the familiar territory of martial arts master and student. The filmmakers say it’s an homage to Blazing Saddles and Mel Brooks is an executive producer as well as voicing a samurai.

Michael Cera plays Hank, a hound who dreams of being a samurai. His dream comes true when the town of Kakamucho needs a samurai and Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais), a high ranking government official with ulterior motives, sends him there. He figures the cats of Kakamucho will send Hank packing and his thugs can move in, but with the help of a catnip-addicted samurai named Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson), Hank works to win the trust of the cats. Other voice talent includes George Takei, Aasif Mandvi, Gabriel Iglesias, Djimon Hounsou and Michelle Yeoh. Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing the movie on Blu-ray and I had a chance to take a look.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The CG animation looks great here with detail in the environmental textures and character. The colour palette ranges from popping primaries to muted earth tones. Black levels are deep with no crushing and the video does not exhibit any signs of compression artifacts.

On the audio side of things, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos soundtrack as well as French, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai. The Atmos track is an unexpected surprise for a lightweight family film, but the height speakers and surrounds really bring the action scenes and atmosphere to life. Dialogue is clear and centred, music is bright and dynamic, and your subwoofer will add some extra oomph to some scenes.

The Blu-ray disc also comes with a digital code. There are three bonus: a discussion of the characters by the cast, a look at the voice recording process and a longer featurette where director Rob Minkoff shows how to draw Hank and Jimbo.

Though Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank isn’t going to be in the hallowed halls of animation classics, it’s a fun film for the family and boasts excellent audio and video.