Rango Review

By: Robert Acosta

Cast:
Johnny Depp as Rango
Isla Fisher as Beans
Abigail Breslin as Priscilla
Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake

Plot: Rango, by no choice of his own, ends up in a town called Dirt. He makes a new life for himself, tries to create himself. But when the town begins to lose it's most precious resource, water, Rango must step into a role that he has never embraced before. Hero.

Review: Johnny Depp has played a shit load of characters. Most of them being extremely weird, and he has plays them well. Surprisingly, the Rango character is one of his more sane characters.

Rango is a chameleon that has a hard time blending in with his surroundings. He had been leading a life of loneliness, with aspirations of getting somewhere, being someone. When a freak accident occurs, Rango gets that chance. Just not exactly the way he saw it. He ends up in a town called Dirt, losing it's precious water. Being in a new town allows him to create a new person, an alter ego. He tries on the tough persona, which backfires quickly and often.

The movie is animated and isn't a Dreamworks picture or Pixar movie. It's straight from Nickolodeon. Yeah, they still make movies. So it would seem hard to give this movie a chance. But to be quite honest, it holds its ground. It doesn't reach the level of Pixar but I didn't expect that, nor do I think anyone else did.

It definitely features an underdog story that people can get behind, and obviously Rango is a likeable character. You wanna see this little ol' chameleon triumph in the end.

The animation is beautiful to say the least. At a few points in the film you honestly feel that some of these shots could have been actual, real life shots. Now are they? I don't think so. I think they went completely CGI on the film and they did it beautifully.

You have a couple of funny characters, starting with main characters Rango and Beans and continuing on to some of the smaller characters such as the mariachi band of owls.

Overall, there isn't a lot to report here. It isn't the gold standard for animated movies, but it also wasn't terrible either. Fun for the kids, fun for adults. A very good movie that will please the audience.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5