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Joined: 23/6/2006
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Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: John Logan
Starring: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Timothy Olyphant
Synopsis
When an ordinary chameleon (Depp) accidently winds up in the lawless town of Dirt, he becomes their new sheriff and hopes to be a hero to the desperate townsfolk.
Review
Let’s face it, the career of director Gore Verbinski hasn’t been an entirely great one, in the critics’ point of view. Following his useless remake of Ringu, he made the trilogy based entirely on a theme park ride. Even though it is a very flawed franchise despite the box-office success, Pirates of the Caribbean did feature a great performance from Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, who we will see again in Pirates 4 (insert yawn).
Fortunately, Verbinski choose not to return that franchise but again collaborating with Johnny Depp as the director has made his animated debut. For those who have seen the minute-long teaser of Rango, eyebrows certainly raised up as all it featured was an orange toy fish moving sideways.
Rango in many ways is a strange one, because while it is being advertised as a children’s film with its often slapstick humour, it is playing around with complex adult themes of mysticism and the search of identity, but played in a way that is not too challenging for the kids. Story-wise, the town of Dirt is on the brink losing of water which is clearly a nod to Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, as well as a desert tortoise as mayor voiced by Ned Beatty doing an impersonation of John Huston.
As well as slapstick, the comedy is born out of the dialogue which is very witty as if you know anything about the screenwriter John Logan, he has a great focus on characterisation. As well as having a sense of humour, the characters that are essentially anthropomorphic animals are fully fleshed-out beings.
As the town of Dirt and its inhabitants are clearly influenced by the Wild West, the film has many references to the western genre from Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone and most definitely Clint Eastwood in one standout sequence. I suspect a lot of these gags will only be hilarious for adults, but the kids (and their parents) will get a good kick out of the film’s terrific slapstick moments.
For Verbinski’s animated debut, the director hires ILM to create this CGI world, which is a beautifully photo-realised depiction of the Mojave Desert from the largeness of the canyons to tiny cracks of the ground. The character designs are extraordinary as Verbinski and ILM turn various animals into classic Old Western characters. To top everything, you can see it in glorious 2D.
In order to get the feel of the Old West, the actors were given costumes and sets for the voice recording, which is called emotion capture. Johnny Depp’s performance as the titular character is a scene-stealing one as not only is he laugh-out-loud funny, but is the heart of the story as he goes on an emotional journey. The other actors have their moments to shine, particularly Isla Fisher as the sharp-tongued love interest and Bill Nighy as a truly villainous rattlesnake.
Verdict
Following their time on Pirates, the Depp/Verbinski collaboration goes into greater territory as Rango is riotously funny and clever in its references. Whether it’s a kid’s film or not is a debate, but this is a glorious animated adventure that is not in 3D.
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