Rango tells the tale of a domesticated chameleon that has no doubt been living the life of easy luxury in his aloha shirt and spacious terrarium. But through circumstances beyond a lizards control Rango finds himself stranded in the dry Mojave desert and stumbles upon the dusty hamlet of Dirt. Dirt is inhabited by an array of crusty, hardscrabble desert varmints, most resembling characters straight out of Hollywood Western central casting. Some may see them as cliches', I prefer to see them as homages. Due to the previously mentioned uncontrollable circumstances that led him to Dirt, Rango finds himself hailed as a hero by the townsfolk and is made the Sheriff of the town by the mayor, an ancient tortoise who wears a white cowboy hat and vest and rides in a motorized wheel chair.
Despite being way out of his element--and not brave or heroic by nature--Rango takes to his new role and struts around town, not exactly discouraging the rumors of his supposed exploits. And perhaps blinded by their need for something positive to cling to, the denizens of Dirt look to Rango as their savior. See, things have been tough in Dirt lately. Water is scarce. The water used to flow every Wednesday and the Dirtians would gather their buckets, jars, and pales to gather what they could. But now the water has dried up and no one seems to know why.
Rango meets a young female lizard or gecko or something that owns a ranch near Dirt and thinks something nefarious is afoot and that the mayor is behind it. Rango thinks she may be on to something and wrangles up a posse--which includes a one eared rabbit doctor, a chicken with conjunctivitis, and a Native American crow, among other things--to track down the cause of Dirt's mysterious drought. All the while, the adventure is accompanied by a Mariachi band of small owls in sombreros.
If this all sounds like some one's acid trip, well, I wouldn't be surprised. But I liked it! The above described story is really just window dressing for a pretty straight forward unsuspecting hero narrative. Will Rango fulfill his destiny as the hero, or will his seemingly natural instincts cause him to let the townsfolk down? We already know the answer of course.
The movie is actually a lot of fun and looks incredible. They used motion capture for most of the animation (using the motions of live actors captured and gussied up by computers) and the characters move fluidly and look natural, not like early motion capture attempts like Polar Express. The cinematography is terrific, and I wasn't surprised to see Roger Deakins name in the credits as a consultant. Deakins has been the director of photography for most of the recent amazing looking westerns like True Grit, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and 3:10 to Yuma. The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Los Lobos is great as well, sort of a hybrid of Morricone and Dick Dale.
Besides Johnny Depp as the voice of Rango, the voice talents of Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Stephen Root, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, and Abigail Breslin are also featured. Timothy Olyphant also delivers a spot on riff as The Spirit of the West, which bears a striking resemblance to Cli...oh, I don't want to give it away. Let's just say as a character prominently featured in many a Leone spaghetti western.
All told, I really enjoyed Rango and all it's weirdness. Director Gore Verbinski (who directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies) has made a witty, quirky gem that has some great action sequences. Be warned, however, despite being animated and distributed by Nickelodeon, this isn't exactly a movie for kids. At least not small ones. Most of the jokes would be lost on them, and it is considerably darker than your standard kid fare.
Here's a trailer:
Well written review. We just watched it this past weekend with the girls. I would agree that it isn't the best show for a younger audience. Our older girls liked it better then the younger ones.
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