Even if, currently, being part of an established saga gives a certain certainty in terms of betting on a film in theaters; Once in a while, original proposals arrive that propose different stories that pleasantly surprise, just to dare to take risks. In that line, Preview “A Samurai Hero: The Legend of Hank”.Directed three-handed by Rob Minkoff, Mark Koetsier and Chris Bailey and was inspired by Mel Brooks’ western comedy ‘Hot Saddles’, which starred in the original dub of the film.
“Hot Saddles” told how in a Far West town, an avid governor wanted the inhabitants of the town of Rock Ridge to leave the village to sell the land to a railway company. Because of this, The individual named a black man who was sentenced to hang as a sheriff, knowing the city will reject him due to the color of his skin. Comedy of 1974 that broke the taboos for the time, daring to conquer the family audience that kind of premise seemed like an almost impossible task, especially for 2022 viewers.
Now, the screenplay by Nate Hopper and Ed Stone, which adapts the original signed by Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor and Alan Uger (who are also the screenwriters of the animated film), turns satire into a fairytale that does not lose that touch of hooligan humor. The film changes the Wild West for feudal Japan and the protagonists become animals instead of people, in a country populated by cats, where dogs are not welcome. These changes allow us to see the proposal in a more current way, also allowing the writers to break some limits of humor that would not have been possible if they had had humans as protagonists.
Fun proposal for the whole family
And it is thanks to this that ‘A Samurai Hero’ has the elements that make it both a comedy with a rogue touch, with an epic story that is very typical of samurai cinema, and a proposal for political intrigue. A very mixed combination with a remarkable animation style, with several sequences with a very different style (the flashbacks are delightful and evoke the aesthetics of films like ‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ or ‘The Bad Guys’) returning to to remember the importance of innovating with a style that brings some elements of the cartoon style but brought to CGI animation technologyleaving a powerful and welcome mix, far from the prevailing hyper-realistic style that had prevailed in recent years, Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ is the most recent example.
Just like ‘Hot Saddles’, “A samurai hero” has that pro-tolerance message, even as it’s buried under the tale of the eternal struggle of cats and dogs. To this is added the charisma of its main characters. Hank turns out to be a tremendously flawed hero, which allows him to connect more with a protagonist who ends up learning his own lessons., something that would not have been possible without some helpers at the last moment, like Jimbo, Hank’s mentor, or Emiko, the adorable white Persian cat who dreams of becoming a samurai when he grows up. That without forgetting the lousy villain of the story, Ika Chu, who has that touch of charismatic and whimsical villain that works very well in this type of proposition.
“A Samurai Hero: The Legend of Hank” is a fun adventure story, with a touch of dark humor, innovative animations and characters clamoring for a sequel. A proposal that brings back a certain spirit of the animated film of the early 2000s, with typical moments of ‘Shrek’ but with other epic sequences worthy of the recent ‘Raya and the last dragon’. An ideal proposal to fight the heat in the family on the big screen.
Note: 7
The best: His animation style, his protagonists and the combination of humor and epic action.
Worse: Some gags suffer from being too scatological or childish, which somewhat blurs their comedic side.
Source: E Cartelera
