Imagine this: You are a nameless, Hawaiian shirt-toting pet chameleon who finds himself newly homeless and alone in the middle of the Nevada desert. After asking a passing armadillo for help, you are told to "follow your shadow" to a nearby desert settlement. A few death scares and a surreal dream sequence later, you finally stumble across another lizard: Beans (Isla Fisher), the orphaned daughter of a rancher. Beans takes you home to the good town of Dirt and leaves you to your own devices. Thus begins the story of Rango, Dirt's newest arrival.
Rango (Johnny Depp) soon makes a name for himself among the toughest locals after wandering into the local watering hole and portraying himself as a reckless drifter. He names himself Rango, after the locals' favorite cactus juice liquor, and, with a mix of luck and brazenness, slays the hawk that haunts the town. Delighted to be free of the hawk, the locals appoint Rango sheriff and tell him their plight: The water that has sustained Dirt for years has disappeared, and the ranchers fear their livelihoods may be next. On his quest to save Dirt and integrate himself into the community, Rango must handle a scheming mayor, a mafia of moles, the "Spirit of the West" and a budding romance.
"Rango" is the first animated film created by the special effects company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). It is perhaps this novelty, or the successful working relationship between director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp that started with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" (2003, '06, '07) movies, which helped innovate "Rango" and makes it stand out against the background influx of recent animated films.
After all, "Rango" can hardly claim to have an original plot. Instead, it is the movie's quirkiness and flat-out weirdness that sets it apart from its animated rivals. Take, for example, the mariachi band of owls that shows up intermittently over the course of the film. The band narrates important goings-on in the story and helps the movie segue between scenes, while adding some unexpected comic relief. "Rango" even pulls off a "your mom" joke and a full-fledged bat-flying parody of the classic helicopter attack scene from "Apocalypse Now" (1979) without seeming like it's trying too hard.
Instead of trying to do anything very different or original, "Rango" basks in pointed self-mockery and effectively parodies the Western genre. Though there is a thin line between a film being humorously meta and a film being annoyingly self-referential, "Rango" manages to avoid this pitfall. Comparing "Rango" to an animated version of "Blazing Saddles" (1974) actually wouldn't be too far-fetched.
Even though "Rango" is an animated film with desert animals for characters, it never feels exclusively like a children's film. The language is frequently mature, and a number of the film's scenes rely on alcohol use or violent imagery to drive the plot. After all, what bar scene would be complete without some drunken belligerence? And what chase scene wouldn't improve with some cross-dressing? Still, "Rango" does a remarkably good job of appealing to a wide age-range. Even if children miss some of the more adult jokes or thematic elements, they can appreciate the animation and the action scenes, while adults will enjoy the movie's rapid-fire punning and overly dramatized action scenes.
Also key to the film's success is Johnny Depp's performance. Depp manages to make Rango impressively human and give him a convincing depth of personality. Rango's outlandishness is definitely drawn at least partially from Depp's performances in "Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas" (1998) and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, but these origins do nothing to make Rango any less charming as a bravado-fueled, occasionally inept protagonist. Rango's nascent relationship with Beans seems a tad forced, but this is more a matter of plot priority and audience appeal than of the actors' performances.
With its tight dialogue, humor and unusual blending of the surreal and the classic, "Rango" has already emerged as one of the better animated films of the year. It has wide audience appeal and is definitely worth checking out over spring break.
