Review: Rango

A pet chameleon in an Hawaiian shirt (voiced by Johnny Depp) is accidentally knocked out of his aquarium whilst his human family are in the midst of a road trip. Stuck out in the middle of the Mojave desert, he encounters a philosophical, wounded armadillo (voiced by Alfred Molina) and a Greek chorus mariachi band of owls. He is directed towards the dusty, increasingly dry town of Dirt. Once there, he adopts the name Rango, and claims to be a storied gunslinger of sorts. This doesn’t much impress local iguana Beans (voiced by Isla Fisher), who is too busy trying to save her family’s ranch to care. However, the rest of the town seem desperate for a hero, and when Rango scurries a local outlaw (Bad Bill, a Gila monster voiced by Ray Winstone) out of town, and (accidentally) kills a menacing hawk, he’s swiftly appointed town sheriff by the Mayor (a tortoise, voiced by Ned Beatty). When it appears that some mole bandits (led by Harry Dean Stanton’s Balthazar) have stolen the town’s entire water supply, they look to Rango for answers. Bill Nighy voices the villainous serpent Rattlesnake Jake, Stephen Root voices the local banker Mr. Merrimack, and Timothy Olyphant provides the voice for a character called The Spirit of the West.

It doesn’t surprise me that kids have had a mixed reaction to this 2011 animated offering from ILM (along with Nickelodeon) and director Gore Verbinski (director of the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films). The animated characters don’t look cute or cuddly for the most part, and the film is basically swimming in (and to an extent parodying) a genre that most kids’ grandparents love and isn’t really around anymore. Besides, I think the best animated films (“Pinocchio”, “Robin Hood”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”) are wasted on the young, anyway, and certainly Hunter S. Thompson in-jokes here will go right over the young ‘uns heads (as will visual cues from “High Noon” and aural cues from “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “Apocalypse Now”). I must say, though, that I’m surprised that the reaction from adults has been mixed too. It’s my favourite film of 2011 I’ve thus far seen, and a gorgeous-looking example of CGI animation to boot.

Anyone who doesn’t like this is really missing out, because I felt this film succeeded where “Up” disappointed. It shows ambition in regards to what a family-oriented animated film can be, without seeming so mature that it doesn’t provide the family entertainment that it’s clearly aiming for (This is not intended to be an adult flick, like “Heavy Metal” or “Fritz the Cat”). I felt like the story in “Up” was way too mature, I mean, it was about an elderly widow for crying out loud. This one for me got the balance of sophistication/ambition and family entertainment just about right. Sure, it’s best viewed by adults and the younger kids will find it a bit scary, but by and large, this is still pretty accessible to everyone (I’m single and hate kids, though. So bear that in mind). It worked perfectly for me, at any rate.

I loved the beginning, with the owl mariachi band playing Morricone-esque music, even if it’s over kids heads (El Mariachi, Owl Mariachi, get it? Hilarious). Rango’s first encounter with an armadillo (named Road Kill of course, and voiced by Alfred Molina) is particularly hilarious. And did anyone else notice that the film sorta kinda features nudity? A chameleon is an odd but inspired choice for an animated movie protagonist I must say. I particularly loved that this was seemingly the one chameleon in the world with an inability to blend into their surroundings. Voiced by a perfectly cast Johnny Depp (clearly having fun), Rango is also an immensely and instantly likeable character. The supporting cast is just as good, especially Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Timothy Olyphant, Ray Winstone (whose ‘Bad Bill’- a Gila monster- has an hilarious first encounter with Rango), and a scene-stealing Alex Manugian. Beatty’s pretty much playing an animal version (a turtle) of John Huston in “Chinatown”, and whilst the plot development is a bit predictable, it’s still an hilarious in-joke by screenwriter John Logan (“The Last Samurai”, “Sweeney Todd”). Only a churl would complain that you can figure it out from his first scene. That’s kinda the point, and kids won’t guess it anyway. Bill Nighy’s Rattlesnake Jake is apparently a Lee Van Cleef impersonation, and whilst I can see it, I have to admit, I thought he was imitating Jack Palance. He’s certainly pretty scary, I must say. Timothy Olyphant does such a good impersonation of Clint Eastwood in this that you could almost be forgiven for thinking it’s the real deal. Alex Manugian, however, towers over all in what is essentially the Denver Pyle/Gabby Hayes role, called ‘Spoons’ here. Hell, he even looks and sounds like Pyle (Meanwhile, Stephen Root does his best Burl Ives as Mr. Merrimack, the banker). He gets the film’s funniest line and perhaps the funniest line in any film in 2011 when remarking: ‘I found a human spinal column in my faecal matter once’. I did not expect to hear a line like that in a film like this, I must say.

The animation in this film is simply breathtaking. The level of artistry and detail on display here, especially in the backgrounds and environment, is so astonishingly vivid that you’d swear the film was in 3D. They even animate the sunspots on the camera lens! It’s eye-popping, and at times I though the film was using a new, top-drawer application of stop-motion, because with the combination of characters in the foreground and the vistas in the background, it truly looked unlike any other animated film I had seen. Grass, dirt, and glass bottles all look like you can touch them. The characters aren’t as comparatively photorealistic, but they are nonetheless bright, colourful, and unusual. The fact that the town of Dirt is populated by predominantly by reptiles, amphibians, and rodents might turn some people off if they’re looking for creatures cute and cuddly, but I embraced them. Even the few human characters we see are animated a lot better than the human characters in films like “Toy Story” and “Over the Hedge”, where they just don’t look to have the same level of detail as the non-human characters. Here, the gap is bridged somewhat.

This is a terrific animated film, one of the best of its kind in a very long time. Like many of Verbinski’s films it’s about ten minutes too long, but otherwise, I had a great time with it.

Rating: B+