Johnny Depp as Rango / Lars
Isla Fisher as Beans (voice)
Abigail Breslin as Priscilla (voice)
Ned Beatty as Mayor (voice)
Rating: PG for violence, language, humor, smoking and drinking. Parents be warned, content of the movie might be best suited for children 7 or older.
Synopsis of the film:
Rango starts with a humorous monologe from our main actor Lars/Rango. While travelng across the Mohave desert with his human owners when suddenly an accident on a highway occurs and our household pet , aspiring actor , chameleon , Lars finds himself stranded. After he speaks with a spiritual armadillo, he sets toward the town of Dirt to find water to survive. After a few run-ins with the preying hawk, he eventually runs into the quirky rancher, Beans, who offers him a ride into town. It doesn't take long for Lars to figure out that in this new town... he can be anybody he wanted. and thus, Rango is created.
Rango puts on a show of strength bravery and toughness that would earn him an Oscar as he tries to win over the town with his dangerous past of saving danzles in distress and killing 7 men with one bullet. As the towns people are in awe with him, the deadly hawk attacks the town and Rango luckily kills him, with one bullet. The town of Dirt declares him a Hero and he is offered the job of sheriff. Rango accepts and thus the journey begins. Will Rango discover what is happening to the town water supply, or will the townspeople expose him as the fraud he is?
My Thoughts:
The animation was spot on. Each character was unique and distinctive. The scales, feathers and fur were life like and inspiring. I admire that Director, Gore Verbinski, opted out of making this film in 3-D. It is so well designed that the gimmicky 3-D was a mute option. Johnny Depp did a stellar job making Rango come to life. It was almost like he squeezed himself into a tiny lizard costume and walked into a western film set. Isla Fisher's character, Beans, didn't fair well in my book. I didn't laugh at the jokes and did not connect well with her. I am blaming her thick western accent as the cause of her jokes failing. I could only understand half of the words she spoke. The overall storyline was unoriginal, we all know who the bad guy is so it's not a huge surprise when it all unfolds, but the entire movie was unique. It transforms from being in a glass cage with Hawaiian shirts, and broken plastic dolls, to the rough Mohave Desert and animal sized old western towns with gun slinging inhabitants. There were a number of parts where I found myself laughing, however, the humor was crude. It's classified as a family movie, but the word "Hell" was very popular, I was shocked by the scene in which our four narrators simulate being hanged in the town prison, and it surprised me how many of the characters were really killed off. Most kids will be distracted by the funny animals to take notice of all of the innuendoes, but parents be for-warned!
