Animated films succeed in mashing up genres
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B y B r y a n Va n C a m p e n
hese days, there’s a steady stream of two kinds of movies: superhero films and funny talking animal pictures, with lots of coded gags about poop and dogs sniffing each other’s butts, like “The Secret Life of Pets” series and “Paws of Fury”. So leave it to Jared Stern’s “DC League of Super-Pets” (Warner Bros. Pictures-WAG-Seven Bucks, 2022, 105 min.) to mash the two genres together. That way, the WB gets to launch a potentially lucrative family franchise that’s also a “Justice League” movie and a fairly adroit updating of “Lady and the Tramp” (1955) and “101 Dalmatians” (1961). It’s a good way to go. That way, the filmmakers can use the tropes of two genres to reduce kids and late middle age fanboys to tears. I wept like a little girl twice during the movie, first during the opening scene, when baby Kal-El and his puppy Krypto are launched to Earth as Krypton explodes. Thus, Superman (John Krasinski) and his myth get a re-write; Supes and Krypto (Dwayne Johnson) are now a couple, superhero and pet. Thanks to Lex Luthor (Marc Maron), an evil guinea pig (Kate McKinnon) and a convoluted comic
Merton (Natasha Lyonne), PB (Vanessa Bayer), Krypto (Dwayne Johnson), Chip (Diego Luna) and Ace (Kevin Hart) make up the “DC League of SuperPets.” (Photo: Provided)
book plot, the Man of Steel gets dosed with Kryptonite and abducted. It’s up to Krypto and a bunch of animals in a local shelter to save the good guys. The second time I burst into tears was when Ace (Kevin Hart), a tough pit bull, has a flashback right out of the “Toy Story 2” playbook that explains how he wound up abandoned in the shelter. Next time you cruise HBO Max, type “Batman” into the search engine. You won’t believe how many live action movies, animated movies and TV series come up. And yet there are big differences between the Christopher Nolan Batman movies and, say, “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” or “The LEGO Batman Movie” (2017). “DC League of Super-Pets” brings new characters into the mix and gives the DC world a design facelift that’s reminiscent of “The Incredibles” (2004). There are always flat screens in the background showing cable news channel coverage of the story, with tons of text gags running along the bottom of the screen. In a movie full of well-defined comic book legends, I really liked Keanu Reeves’ vocal take on the Dark Knight and the way that Batman has been re-configured. And when Superman and Krypto frolic in Metropolis’ version of Central Park, I dare you not to think of Roger and Pongo from “101 Dalmatians”. ● ● ●
I was reading the fine print credits at the bottom of the poster for “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank” (Paramount-Nickelodeon Movies-Aniventure-Align-BrooksfilmsFlying Tigers Entertainment-GFM Animation-CinesiteHB Wink Animation, 2022, 95 min.) and I noticed that it’s inspired by Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” (1974); Brooks and the other writers were credited right there. (Brooks even plays a variation on his old Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson) and Hank (Michael Cera) often break the fourth wall in “Paws Of Fury.” (Photo: Provided) part and does new
versions of old jokes.) I stood there wondering how a 1974 comedy about bigotry in the old West was now a 2022 CG animated family film. Sure enough, the makers of “Paws of Fury” have managed to turn a movie about western racism into an Asian fable where dogs and cats don’t get along. Shogun (Brooks), the governor of a town called Kakamucho, populated entirely by cats and off limits to dogs, hires Hank (Michael Cera), a beagle samurai, to keep order in the town. Little do they know that Shogun’s associate Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) is the one hiring all the bad guys, hoping to destroy Kakamucho and expand his palace. “Paws of Fury” helps itself to the plot along with about 15 gags from “Blazing Saddles”. When it’s not doing that, “Paws of Fury”’s sense of humor is as meta as the more bizarre episodes of “Community”. When Hank and Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson) commence a training montage, they’re cracking wise about the cliché of training montages in action movies. All this fourth wall poking keeps the movie moving, and about halfway through, it occurred to me that all this animal animosity would make “Paws of Fury” a great double bill with Wes Anderson’ s “Isle of Dogs” (2018), which plays like an Akira Kurosawa/Rankin-Bass TV special. Things never quite spill out into other Hollywood soundstages, but Cera keeps reminding us that “Paws of Fury” is “an 85-minute movie without credits.” If you weren’t around when “Blazing Saddles” was released, I can’t recapture its seismic impact. (All together now: “Okay, boomer.”) But when Brooks put farting cowboys into the film, eight or nine years earlier, that scene would be unthinkable. Today, “Paws of Fury” not only re-creates the farting scene, but everyone also has torches so now they’re lighting their farts, and that’s PG now. (I’m no prude. Just sayin’.) “DC League of Super-Pets” and “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank” are playing at Regal Stadium 14. Recommended: “Vengeance” at Cinemapolis; “Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99” on Netflix. Read BVC’s interview with “I Love My Dad” filmmaker James Morosini at Ithaca.com. AUGUST 10–16, 2022
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CAPES, CATS AND A DOG
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