Rango

Our friends across the pond are churning out so many fucking animated films at the moment that the quality is becoming a little suspect. The main problem for myself is the 3D element that they all inevitably use to market their poor story driven fare. In my humble opinion putting on a cheap pair of plastic glasses that make you look like the kid everyone picked on at school does not make a film. Now due to unforeseen circumstances I ended up seeing Rango and to be honest I expected another 3D piece of shit so plus point number one was that it wasn't in shitty 3D. Plus point number two of course was it's quite simply fucking awesome.

Rango tells the tale of a small chameleon called Lars (voiced by Johnny Depp) who is a pet lizard that shares his tank with a wind up fish and half a barbie for company. Following an accident he ends up lost in the Nevada desert where he stumbles across the town of Dirt a rundown old west style place that has trouble with its water supply. Due the fact his life has been somewhat dull he decides upon arrival to pretend that he is in fact a mysterious character called Rango and winds up becoming sheriff. Now for those without any knowledge of Western films or that matter fuck all else you might not have clicked that this is an homage to Westerns. I mean I don't know for sure but I suspect the name Rango may be inspired by the Spaghetti Western character Django.

Rango goes fast paced from joke to joke and at times it was hard to keep up due to the fact I was laughing so fucking hard. Ned Beatty voices the corrupt mayor who's out to take over the town with the aid of a brilliant voice turn by Bill Nighy as Jake The Snake who is no doubt inspired by one of my favourite Western characters Angel Eyes from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I mean how the fuck do you make an animated character so fucking cool. Rango of course is actually quite an inept individual and everything he pulls off is generally a success through luck rather than skill. The beauty of Rango is all those nods but also the dialogue that quite simply fucking rocks. During one scene (a daring rescue mission by Rango and the townsfolk) they pose as a theatre group to distract the bad guys. One character turns to another and says "What did he say?", "I think he said they're thespians", "Thespians? I thought they were illegal in seven states".

Now interestingly this is the the first animated feature from Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and also the Star Wars boys over at Industrial Light And Magic and what a fucking job they have done. Rango looks and feels just fucking gorgeous and at times the desert scenes are alive. The characters are quirky and interesting and Rango deserves to be seen. Maybe my one criticism would be that with all the nods to Westerns and a shitload of adult humour that maybe it misses it's target audience of little shits but then again fuck it why should they all have the fucking fun?

A Return To The Wild West With Six Guns A Blazing out of 5 

Comments

[The Sardonic Scribe]

I'm a huge fan of Johnny Depp so I'll see this one asap. He's a fuckin' freak of a person, but puts out a good product.