'Paws of Fury' review:  Stealth remake of Mel Brooks classic 

If you’ve barely bothered to glance at the posters for the animated film “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank" nobody could blame you. It looks like the same old stuff: cute animals doing martial arts in a late-arriving knock-off of “Kung Fu Panda.” Little in the marketing campaign suggests that this Paramount/Nickelodeon release is actually a stealth remake of a very grown-up comedy.

Which one? You might be able to guess from the setup: In a feudal Japan populated by cats, the evil ruler Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) sends a hapless dog, Hank (Michael Cera), to be the samurai for a little town called Kakamucho. The joke is that cats hate dogs, of course, and Hank quickly becomes canine non grata. Nevertheless, determined to do his duty, Hank seeks help from Jimbo (Samuel L. Jackson), a once great but washed-up samurai. Cue the training montage and one of the film’s many self-referential lines: “Couldn’t we just skip ahead,” asks Hank, “to the part where I get good?”

If you haven’t yet placed the original film, just wait. The light-bulb moment comes when a massive cat, Sumo (Djimon Hounsou), rides into town. One of his first acts: punching a horse in the jaw.

That’s right — you’re watching the kiddie version of “Blazing Saddles,” Mel Brooks’ R-rated, riotously offensive comedy from 1974, about a Wild West town agog at its first Black sheriff. That explains the presence of Brooks himself as the Shogun (“There’s no business like Shogun business!”) and a screenwriting credit for the late Richard Pryor. “Paws of Fury” can’t match the original film’s whipsaw absurdity — and certainly isn’t about to replicate the outrageous jokes about sex and race — but it does have some slyly funny moments, an abundance of fourth wall-breaking and an amiably anarchic spirit.

Much of the humor is what you’d expect, with cat barbers licking their customers’ hair and so on. Occasionally, though, the jokes show something like teeth. Racism is replaced by speciesism: “My dad hated dogs,” says one cat, “and that’s good enough for me.” Elsewhere, a pistol-packing feline tries to reassure the townsfolk: “Guns don’t kill cats. Cars and curiosity kill cats.” As in the original film, characters pop in and out of the movie itself in unexpected ways, at one point even tumbling “into” the theater. Meanwhile, the voice-actors — including Aasif Mandvi, George Takei and Michelle Yeoh in small roles — play to type and do it well.

Granted, the best gags come directly from the source material. Remember the notorious campfire scene? Yep, it’s here. And speaking of potty humor — a Brooks specialty — the movie’s climactic showdown takes place on the seat of an enormous jade toilet. Don’t worry, “Paws of Fury” has been sanitized for your family’s protection. It ought to please parents and children alike, though they might all be laughing for slightly different reasons.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman