Collider is excited to share this exclusive clip from an all-new featurette for the animated comedy Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is now available to purchase or rent on Digital and will be available on Blu-ray & DVD on October 18, 2022.
The brand-new featurette clip clocks in at just under a minute and is called “Working with Child Actor Kylie Kuioka,” which sees the film’s director and producer Rob Minkoff discuss the details of having a child voice a child character in an animated film. Kuioka voices one of the child characters in the film, named Emiko, and Minkoff explains that while it is possible to have adults voice child characters in animation, he prefers it when a child voices a child character. He says there is a “charm of kid that comes through in… that certain performance.” He also says that when working with a young voice talent, they come into it with a lot of enthusiasm for the role and are happy to change up their performances and try new things with different takes and lines. The featurette also shows Kuioka performing her lines as Emiko, with the feature closing with a clip that exemplifies that as it shows Kuioka doing a take of a line read, taking some direction, and doing another take with the changes in mind.
The story of Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank follows a down-on-his-luck beagle named Hank, who dreams of one day becoming a samurai, and seeks out Jimbo, a former samurai cat, to train him in order to protect himself from bullies. In the process, Hank becomes the protector of Jimbo’s village of cats as he is tasked with saving them from a villainous cat known as Ika Chu.
In addition to Kuioka, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank sees Michael Cera play the role of the titular samurai, Hank, with his mentor Jimbo played by Samuel L. Jackson, and Ricky Gervais playing Ika Chu. The rest of the voice cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Djimon Hounsou, George Takei, Mel Brooks, Gabriel Iglesias, Aasif Mandvi, and Cathy Shim. Minkoff directed the film alongside Chris Bailey and Mark Koetsier with a screenplay written by Nate Hopper and Ed Stone loosely inspired by the 1974 movie Blazing Saddles, by Mel Brooks.
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is now available to purchase or rent on Digital and will be available on Blu-ray & DVD October 18, 2022. You can watch the exclusive clip from the bonus feature down below.
