Writer Joseph J. Airdo // Photo Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Listen to the podcast version of this story, featuring interview soundbites and audio clips from this weekend’s new releases.

This weekend’s new entertainment releases include a dramatic mystery produced by actress Reese Witherspoon, an animated adventure loosely inspired by the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy “Blazing Saddles,” a drama that is a guaranteed tearjerker and a television reboot of a popular video game and motion picture franchise.

In “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Daisy Edgar Jones plays a young woman who, having raised herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina, is drawn to two young men and opens herself up to a new and startling world. However, when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. The dramatic mystery — which is based on the novel of the same title by Delia Owens — is playing exclusively in theaters.

Meanwhile, in “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank,” Michael Cera voices a down-on-his-luck hound who finds himself in a town full of cats that need a hero to defend them from a ruthless villain’s evil plot to wipe their village off the map. With help from a reluctant trainer, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, the underdog must assume the role of fearsome samurai and team up with the felines to save the day. The animated adventure is playing exclusively in theaters.

“Don’t Make Me Go” stars John Cho as a single father who, upon discovering that he has a terminal disease, decides to try and cram all of the years of love and support he will miss with his teenage daughter — played by Mia Isaac — into the time that he has left with her. With the promise of long-awaited driving lessons, he convinces her to accompany him on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion, where he secretly hopes to reunite her with her mother who left them long ago. The drama is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime.

Finally, “Resident Evil” features several characters in a fight for survival against a world overrun by blood-thirsty infected and mind-shattering creatures. Among them is a woman — played by Ella Balinska — who is haunted by her past in New Raccoon City, her father’s chilling connections to the sinister Umbrella Corporation and what really happened to her sister. The eight-episode series inspired by the popular video game and motion picture franchise of the same title is streaming exclusively on Netflix.

Whether you attempt to solve the mystery of “Where the Crawdads Sing,” brush up on your samurai skills with “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank,” go through an entire box of tissues while watching “Don’t Make Me Go” or witness a world full of carnage in “Resident Evil,” this weekend’s new releases offer three very different entertainment experiences.