There’s a new mastiff in town in the first stills from Blazing Samurai, an upcoming reboot of Mel Brooks’ classic Western satire, Blazing Saddles, featuring animated dogs and cats in place of live actors. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder star in the edgy 70s meta-comedy, which Brooks directed and co-wrote with a team that included Richard Pryor. Little plays a black sheriff hired in bad faith by an attorney general who plans to stoke racial tension in his town in order to serve his own interests.

Adorable images from the animated remake published in Variety reveal the reboot’s fresh new look. Michael Cera, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ricky Gervais lead Blazing Samurai’s voice cast along with George Takei, Michelle Yeoh, Djimon Hounsou, and Mel Brooks as the shogun. A release date hasn’t been nailed down, but the film is set to come out later this year. Take a look at the pictures below:

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Courtesy of Aniventure & Align/HB Wink Animation/GFM Animation

HB Wink Animation and GFM Animation are behind the furry film, which will be sold on the European Film Market. A host of producers have hopped on board the project, including Align, Aniventure, and Cinesite Montreal. Statements from the creative team suggest the reboot will make a significant departure from the original’s gutsy shock comedy and be more along the lines of a touching parable. Co-director and producer Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) provided this statement about the family-friendly remix:

Blazing Samurai is a freewheeling mash-up of East and West. An action-packed comedy featuring incredible performances from our stellar cast of hilarious characters, it also delivers a great message of inclusion and acceptance. It’s sure to be a treat the whole family can enjoy.

The aforementioned “mastiff” is actually a mutt named Hank, the new sheriff of Kakamucho who dreams of becoming a samurai. When he rolls over into town, Hank realizes his new place of residence has a totally homogenous population of cats. According to GFM, Blazing Samurai “teaches kids and adults alike that embracing diversity is what truly makes you a hero.”

Source: Variety

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Roxanna Pell
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Roxanna Pell is a TV and Movie News Writer for Screen Rant and uses this as an excuse to binge-watch hours of television every day, which she did before anyway. She previously worked as the Social Media Editor of The Week, covered New York City news for Gothamist, and blogged about books at The Rumpus. Roxanna once traveled to Estonia to review hotels and restaurants for Frommer’s Travel Guides and everyone over there absolutely adored her. She’s currently indoctrinating the youth of New York as a tutor for Varsity Tutors. Her favorite movies are Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, A Cinderella Story, Cinderella Man, and Cinderella.

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