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Release Date Will Be 12th July 2011
RANGO COMING SOON ON DVD ! Review Dvddistribution
Let me just flat out say it: this really isn't a kids' animated movie. Not because there's anything in it that is not suitable for kids - there isn't - but because 95 percent of what really makes it worth seeing is going to go right over most kids' heads.
Gore Verbinski's animated feature Rango, with voices by Johnny Depp, Ned Beatty and a host of other talented actors, is a hard film to review, mainly because its real target audience is not the kids.
On the surface, the plot is fairly straightforward, at least in the set-up. A terrarium-housed pet chameleon lizard (it's significant after the fact that you never know his real name) ends up stranded in the desert where he is directed to a small town that is on the verge of extinction because of a mysterious water shortage. In his efforts to blend in (he _is_ a chamelon after all), he adopts the name Rango and in quick order suddenly finds himself appointed sheriff and given the mission of finding out what's happened to the town's water.
Stylistically, Verbinski was willing to take some real chances with Rango, and anyone who appreciates animation as an art will find a lot to see here. The level of detail and sheer originality is stunning. Rango does not resemble _anything_ I've seen in an animated film before. Though set in the current day, the world of Rango is essentially an Old West town - aptly named Dirt - that's literally drying up, populated by a cast of animal characters who look like they stepped out of any number of classic Westerns. The difference between Rango and your usual animated take on this theme though is that the residents of Dirt are _not_ cute. In addition to being much closer in look to the real animals they're based on - lizards, tortoises, toads, possums, snakes, prarie dogs and such - they're also grizzled, dusty, sun-bleached and wind-beaten, and in many cases, just downright _ugly_. Including, or even especially, the good guys. One suspects that merchandising for Rango will be somewhat problematic.
But it says something that everything fits together seamlessly. The town really looks like an Old West town on the verge of becoming a ghost town, and the characters look like they really do live there. And again, the level of detail is stunning, from the clothes the characters wear to the characters themselves, the buildings and other structures, the interiors. The four desert-owl mariachi players who sing narration at various points in the film are a case in point. The level of detail that is taken with their intricately shaded feathers, their embroidered mariachi costumes and their musical instruments - and the way all of these things _move_ when the characters do - is amazing. This is a movie you could watch again and again just to appreciate how much the artists put into it.
I have to mention two characters in particular that really stood out: the Mayor (marvelously voiced by Ned Beatty), a tortoise modeled directly on John Huston's genial but chilling Noah Cross from the classic film Chinatown, and Rattlesnake Jake (also marvelously voiced by Bill Nighy), absolutely one of the best animated villains ever created. It's absolutely spell-binding just to watch Jake _move_, a stunning feat of animation. I've never seen an animated character manage to radiate sheer menace on the level that Rattlesnake Jake does. In thinking about it, I now have to amend my earlier statement somewhat; Rattlesnake Jake could definitely scare some younger children. But that said, Rango is worth seeing for Rattlesnake Jake alone.
My mention of Chinatown brings me to the other prospective audience for Rango: film buffs. Rango references a truly astonishing number of movies: several classic Westerns (High Noon; The Good, the Bad & the Ugly; The Quick & The Dead, Paint Your Wagon) as one would expect, but also a number of non-Westerns, some fairly recent (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, A Bug's Life), some classic (Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now) and some obscure (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas). And of course Chinatown, not only for the Mayor character but for a number of scenes (watch for the glasses) and a good deal of the plot. And there's also a key scene that's a nod to a famous actor/director who is still remembered for his association with Westerns and for a certain classic character he created. A good example of the little in-jokes in Rango is what he's carrying around in the back of the golf cart. As I said, most kids are going to miss 95 percent of this stuff. Me, I want to get the DVD just so I can watch it again and pick out all of the references I probably missed the first time around. It's that kind of movie.
About my only real criticism of Rango - other than its being marketed to the wrong audience - is that parts of it are uneven and do tend to drag a bit. I think this is because the parts that do seem to be meant for kids tend not to mesh that well with the rest of the film. The parts that adults will enjoy most will probably be of little interest to kids, and the parts that kids will enjoy most will probably make things drag for adults.
But overall, I highly recommend Rango. It's not your typical animated film, and most kids will probably complain that a lot of it's boring, but for anyone who loves the sheer art of animation or who just loves films that reference all manner of movies from the great to the obscure, this is definitely a film you'll want to see.
Gore Verbinski's animated feature Rango, with voices by Johnny Depp, Ned Beatty and a host of other talented actors, is a hard film to review, mainly because its real target audience is not the kids.
On the surface, the plot is fairly straightforward, at least in the set-up. A terrarium-housed pet chameleon lizard (it's significant after the fact that you never know his real name) ends up stranded in the desert where he is directed to a small town that is on the verge of extinction because of a mysterious water shortage. In his efforts to blend in (he _is_ a chamelon after all), he adopts the name Rango and in quick order suddenly finds himself appointed sheriff and given the mission of finding out what's happened to the town's water.
Stylistically, Verbinski was willing to take some real chances with Rango, and anyone who appreciates animation as an art will find a lot to see here. The level of detail and sheer originality is stunning. Rango does not resemble _anything_ I've seen in an animated film before. Though set in the current day, the world of Rango is essentially an Old West town - aptly named Dirt - that's literally drying up, populated by a cast of animal characters who look like they stepped out of any number of classic Westerns. The difference between Rango and your usual animated take on this theme though is that the residents of Dirt are _not_ cute. In addition to being much closer in look to the real animals they're based on - lizards, tortoises, toads, possums, snakes, prarie dogs and such - they're also grizzled, dusty, sun-bleached and wind-beaten, and in many cases, just downright _ugly_. Including, or even especially, the good guys. One suspects that merchandising for Rango will be somewhat problematic.
But it says something that everything fits together seamlessly. The town really looks like an Old West town on the verge of becoming a ghost town, and the characters look like they really do live there. And again, the level of detail is stunning, from the clothes the characters wear to the characters themselves, the buildings and other structures, the interiors. The four desert-owl mariachi players who sing narration at various points in the film are a case in point. The level of detail that is taken with their intricately shaded feathers, their embroidered mariachi costumes and their musical instruments - and the way all of these things _move_ when the characters do - is amazing. This is a movie you could watch again and again just to appreciate how much the artists put into it.
I have to mention two characters in particular that really stood out: the Mayor (marvelously voiced by Ned Beatty), a tortoise modeled directly on John Huston's genial but chilling Noah Cross from the classic film Chinatown, and Rattlesnake Jake (also marvelously voiced by Bill Nighy), absolutely one of the best animated villains ever created. It's absolutely spell-binding just to watch Jake _move_, a stunning feat of animation. I've never seen an animated character manage to radiate sheer menace on the level that Rattlesnake Jake does. In thinking about it, I now have to amend my earlier statement somewhat; Rattlesnake Jake could definitely scare some younger children. But that said, Rango is worth seeing for Rattlesnake Jake alone.
My mention of Chinatown brings me to the other prospective audience for Rango: film buffs. Rango references a truly astonishing number of movies: several classic Westerns (High Noon; The Good, the Bad & the Ugly; The Quick & The Dead, Paint Your Wagon) as one would expect, but also a number of non-Westerns, some fairly recent (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, A Bug's Life), some classic (Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now) and some obscure (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas). And of course Chinatown, not only for the Mayor character but for a number of scenes (watch for the glasses) and a good deal of the plot. And there's also a key scene that's a nod to a famous actor/director who is still remembered for his association with Westerns and for a certain classic character he created. A good example of the little in-jokes in Rango is what he's carrying around in the back of the golf cart. As I said, most kids are going to miss 95 percent of this stuff. Me, I want to get the DVD just so I can watch it again and pick out all of the references I probably missed the first time around. It's that kind of movie.
About my only real criticism of Rango - other than its being marketed to the wrong audience - is that parts of it are uneven and do tend to drag a bit. I think this is because the parts that do seem to be meant for kids tend not to mesh that well with the rest of the film. The parts that adults will enjoy most will probably be of little interest to kids, and the parts that kids will enjoy most will probably make things drag for adults.
But overall, I highly recommend Rango. It's not your typical animated film, and most kids will probably complain that a lot of it's boring, but for anyone who loves the sheer art of animation or who just loves films that reference all manner of movies from the great to the obscure, this is definitely a film you'll want to see.
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