Cinema Verdict Review: Rango

Rango

OPENING: 03/04/2011

STUDIO: Paramount Pictures

RUN TIME: 107 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Johnny Depp is Rango

Opening Statement
After helming the first three installments of the wildly popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Director Gore Vebinski tackles his first animated feature, bringing the voice talents of Pirates star Johnny Depp along with him. The result is a fun, frisky, visually inventive film that manages to avoid the usual animation-flick conventions.

Facts of the Case
Our hero is a lizard (Johnny Depp, From Hell) named… well, we’re not exactly sure what his name is. But he’s a lizard, he lives in a glass tank and he spends his days participating in some sort of paranoid-schizophrenic community theatre with a variety of inanimate objects. One day, the lizard is flung from his tank into the middle of a dusty road. Suddenly, he finds himself alone in an unfamiliar world. With the aid of an armadillo (Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2) and a terse female lizard named Beans (Isla Fisher, Wedding Crashers), our protagonist finally makes it to the little town of Dirt.

Because no one in Dirt knows the lizard, the little green guy decides to create a new identity for himself. From now on, he will be known as Rango, the roughest, toughest gunslinger in the west. Alas, with such claims inevitably come fights with bad guys. Despite the fact that he’s in way over his head, Rango is determined to tackle his new challenge. Not only will he take on the bad guys; he’ll work to figure out why Dirt’s precious water supply has disappeared.

The Evidence
I really dig Rango, but I’m not sure that you will. Permit me to explain myself. I enjoyed Gore Verbinski’s first Pirates of the Caribbean installment, but I think that series got better in its second and third installments. That’s largely because Verbinski grew less interested in plotting and more interested in exploring his flights of loopy imagination. The third film’s trippy “Multiple Jacks” sequence was a high point of the series for me, but others found it an incredibly irritating bit of self-indulgence. Your feelings towards that sequence may very well inform your feelings towards Rango, which basically picks up where the “Multiple Jacks” sequence left off.

What a weird little movie this is. The plot is simple – too simple, it could be argued – an easily digestible variation on Chinatown with a tortoise played by Ned Beatty replacing John Huston’s Noah Cross. The plot only exists to set up Verbinski’s exercises in visual lunacy, as the director starts with a foundation built by Sergio Leone and goes haywire from there. In one sequence, Verbinski incorporates elements of both Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey in a large-scale action set piece involving a character in drag battling a horde of angry moles riding bats.

If that sounds tedious on paper, be assured that it’s thrilling in execution. The countless movie references present in Rango aren’t wearisome attempts at injecting some pop culture pizzazz into the proceedings (I’m looking at you, Shark Tale). This is a movie madly in love with movies, and it references old Clint Eastwood flicks not to be cute but rather in an attempt to create an experience that generates a similar spine-tingling kick. Rango’s love of cinema extends even further – it could be argued that the film is one which takes place entirely in the head of a movie junkie; a world filled with residents who worship a great movie star. No, really.

The film is largely a fast-paced experience, filled with busy action scenes and lots of physical comedy, but it does have a few serene moments of quiet beauty. While I really appreciated the understated moments, the busy scenes certainly have plenty of fun stuff to offer. While action scenes often feel obligatory in children’s movies, Verbinski loads this movie with so many visual treats that we’re never bored. The film also demonstrates an eagerness to entertain that’s reminiscent of Mel Brooks at times; throwing up one quick joke after another. Some are corny and some are groan-worthy, but they’re delivered so cheerfully and in such quick succession that you’re bound to start giggling after a while.

The voice work is uniformly solid, with Depp in an enjoyably manic turn that veers between Kermit the Frog-style yelps and lusty, deep-throated growls. Old pros like Alfred Molina, Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Stephen Root bring color and gravitas to the gruff supporting cast, while Isla Fisher and Abigail Breslin bring youthful energy to the film’s principle female characters. The character design is absolutely terrific throughout, as the filmmakers seem less interested in creating plastic toys for happy meals than in designing grizzled beasts you can’t take your eyes off of. The cast isn’t very cuddly, but then that’s the case in most westerns.

Most animated flicks these days attempt to offer entertainment for viewers of all ages, but Rango is one of the few likely to play better for adults that it will for children. Young kids will appreciate the film’s energy, but it’s doubtful they’ll grasp its often-subversive wit. Parents may want to take the “Parental Guidance” rating a bit more seriously this time around, as the film features a greater level of innuendo, macabre humor and violence than the majority of animated films (characters are actually killed from time to time). The kids at my screening certainly enjoyed it, even if they did leave the screening quoting lines like, “Can I gut-shoot somebody?”

Closing Statement
While Rango does offer a simple and predictable plot, almost everything else about the movie feels fresh and offbeat. Whether or not you have kids to bring along, this one is well worth checking out.

The Verdict
9/10

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