Movie Review: Rango

Synopsis: Rango is an ordinary chameleon who accidentally winds up in the town of Dirt, a lawless outpost in the Wild West in desperate need of a new sheriff... and water.

It was pretty easy to see from the trailer that this was going to be pretty strange, and having Johnny Depp as the main voice was only going to add to the strangeness I figured. But wow, is this really odd. It's also very smart, creative, fun, action packed and absolutely beautifully animated. Seriously, this animation has more attention to detail than I've ever seen. Not just the characters but the scenery. It's just gorgeous.

But it almost seems aimed at adults more than children. Adults who have done or do drugs even probably will like it best. It's just a mismash of genre and styles... part old spaghetti western like Django, part Chinatown and part Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There are also nods to everything from Apocalypse Now to A Fistful of Dollars to current pop culture throughout.

My favorite part is an owl Mariachi band that narrates who actually had me laughing outloud a few times. But Rango himself is brilliant, especially if you love Don Knotts type characters, and Depp's voice work is exactly what you'd expect... fantastic. I bet he had a blast recording this.

My only problem with this film maybe... a PG rating. In addition to it being quite trippy, some of the subject material is a bit violent and even foul mouthed. Most of the jokes, like I said earlier, probably fly way over kids' heads anyway. They could have just added a few bits to this and made it an R-rating I'd think and it probably should be PG-13 as it is. Not sure how or why they even went for PG.

Overall though it's got a good heart and is a lot of fun I think. This might even grow to be a classic some day, it's just that quirky.

8/10