I'll say it. I love cartoons. I still watch them on TV, well, if there isn't anything else on. [Most of the time, at least] I still consider several animated series to be among my favourites of all time; 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' and 'Samurai Jack' among those. But these are all things I can watch at home, without paying anything other than my cable bill. I don't shill out the big bucks at the theatre for just any animated/kids flicks, that being said there are some of these movies that I don't feel any shame going to, namely anything from Pixar and most of the movies that Dreamworks Animation puts out. 'Rango' falls squarely into this category. Actually 'Rango' falls into a unique category of its' own. It's being advertised as a "family movie" but I honestly don't know if I would take kids to this one. It has a LOT of adult references that would fly right over even the smartest 7 year old's head. More than it's fair share of violence, and a story that's a little bit complicated for munchkins.
'Rango' follows a pet chameleon with a penchant for the dramatic who gets lost in the Mojave Desert. He comes to the drought ridden town of Dirt, where he takes on a heroic persona to ingratiate himself with the townfolk and then must transform into that hero to save the town. A common enough archetype, true, but the wit and charm with which it's done in this movie make it a winner. Rango is verbose to say the least, he likes to hear himself talk, and, for a long time in his terrarium, that's all he has, but he can't seem to break the habit once he meets real people. But it's so well written and delivered by Johnny Depp that you really don't mind.
Not only is the dialogue great but the movie is also visually stunning. There's no doubt in my mind that director Gore Verbinski has done his research watching Sergio Leone and John Ford's old Westerns. The scope that was present there is more certainly present here. One of the best examples of this is near the end as Rango walks over sand dunes in the moonlight, just gorgeous, you almost forget you're watching something animated. There's another interesting visual that anyone who's watched 'Pirates 3' will recognise. While Rango is searching for the Spirit of the West, he comes to a dreamlike place that's white as far as the eye can see, and then he's carried to meet the Spirit [who looks like Clint, of course, but is voiced by Timothy Olyphant] by some hard shelled insects. Sound familiar 'Pirates' fans? When Jack's in Davey Jones' Locker, and is carried on the backs of those white crabs? Perhaps he's reminding us that the next 'Pirates' flick is out later this year. Nonetheless it didn't feel out of place in the movie, it actually fit quite well with the oddball-ness of Rango himself.
There are a lot of little things that I really loved that really made me love whole all the more. There's a charming quartet of tiny mariachi owls that narrate the story, who are adorable and hilarious, often predicting Rango's not-so-inevitable demise, and providing tunes for Rango's heroic sequences. There's also a quick homage to 'Fear and Loathing Las Vegas' when Rango gets stuck on the windshield of the Red Shark. Those are my favourite little bits, but there are plenty of other great parts as well.
As for the not-kid-friendliness I don't want to get too much into it, but let's just say we meet an armadillo that's been run over by a car in the first 10 minutes. It's literally in two halves folks. Don't worry, it survives, but still....
So, overall 'Rango' was a super enjoyable film that I would recommend to anyone over the age of 12 or 13. Kids might enjoy it, but they won't get it. Take my friend Kim's 8 year-old son, when asked what the movie was about, he said 'a lizard,' which I suppose is technically correct, but he seems to have missed the whole water, hero, town-coming-together thing...That's about all for now! See you next week, when I will be reviewing 'Paul'! Which I'm super excited for, I really hope it doesn't let me down...Pffft! What am I talking about!? It has Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and an alien! How can it fail!?!
