‘Rango’ is an animated western directed by Gore Verbinski, starring the voice of Johnny Depp. Slow to start, the film picks up its pace when Depp’s character, a pet chameleon, gets thrown out of his aquarium from the back of
‘Rango’ is an animated western directed by Gore Verbinski, starring the voice of Johnny Depp.
Slow to start, the film picks up its pace when Depp’s character, a pet chameleon, gets thrown out of his aquarium from the back of a car driving down a desert highway. Tumbling through the air and landing on various vehicles, he manages to avoid catastrophe.
Finally, the chameleon lands near an armadillo (voice of Alfred Molina), whose midsection is flattened with a tire mark, and believes in finding some source of salvation by going west. The philosophic undertones of the film are foreshadowed here.
Then, just as the film starts to reveal its deeper side, a trio of owls, dressed as mariachi musicians, play a song and continue to show up throughout the film, adding a splash of humor, satire, and whimsy.
Inanimate objects such as a cactus and what seems to be a rock are brought to life as they warn the chameleon to ‘blend in.’
Blending in is something the chameleon has a tough time doing when he reaches the town of Dirt, after he is befriended by Beans (voice of Isla Fisher). Beans is a female reptilian creature that drives a wooden wagon with empty bottles she hopes to fill with water.
Beans demonstrates her uncanny ability to freeze in a moment of time when she feels emotionally threatened, a clever nuance into the human psyche.
The animation and artistic team of “Rango” pay meticulous attention to detail, and it shows how far an animated film can go while still in the 2D realm. It is easy to imagine characters of a Clint Eastwood film sitting in the saloon of Dirt, disguised as anthropomorphic creatures.
Verbinski used many of his artistic team from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and asked them to break out of their comfort zone to create an animated film in “Rango.”
Convention was broken again when the actors were filmed during vocal recordings rather than being solely audio recorded in the isolation of a studio booth. This was done to provide an element of realism to animators as they used actual facial expressions and body movements for insight.
In the town of Dirt, our green chameleon soon exchanges the red aloha shirt he was donning for a vest, cowboy boots, and sheriff’s badge. He does this after convincing the town brutes and mayor that he’s a fearless sharpshooter named Rango.
Rango was given the privilege of protecting the town of Dirt and the honor of being a hero after he fortuitously kills a huge, metal-beaked hawk. Dirt’s mayor (voice of Ned Beatty), an old, wheelchair-bound tortoise, appoints Rango to be sheriff.
Dirt is a dusty old cowboy town where the residents come together each week at high noon to receive a tiny ration of the town’s dwindling water supply. Here is where “Rango” probes into the worldly issue of overconsumption as it shows an oasis of verdant golf courses amid the barren desert.
Dirt’s mayor plays a game of golf with his companions and tells Rango something along the line of ‘those who control the water control the world.’ Rango must become the hero he pretends to be to save the town of Dirt from its villainous mayor who is hoarding the town’s water supply for his greedy ambitions.
“Rango” delivers classic elements of a western through the clever use of animation and a well written script interwoven with deeper meanings. The film’s philosophical issues will go over the heads of young children and win an adult’s attention.
The film is filled with prophetic and philosophical meaning.
