Rango [REVIEW]

It has been over a decade since the western-inspired animated film Rango was released. As such, we figured it was high time to dust this old lizard off to see how well it has held up.

Directed by Gore Verbinski Rango focuses on a chameleon conman (Johnny Depp) who fancies himself as an actor. When suddenly his glass cage falls out of his owner’s car, Rango is caught in a weird odyssey across the desert stumbling on the old town of “Dirt” populated by a variety of townsfolk folk. Here he plays his con playing himself a gunslinger and is so elaborate with his con that he becomes Sheriff. Soon they prepare for a confrontation with a ruthless bandit named Rattlesnake Jake.

Animation

The beauty of Rango is the style of animation. These designers are not animated like others; they don’t look like Disney or DreamWorks characters. In a bizarre way, they actually look and feel more real than most other animated characters. The textures, the expressions, and the camera work give this world a very gritty but realistic feel.

Considering that this film is now a decade old it’s amazing to see how much the animation has held up. The textures, the fur, the faces even the way they move they feel one step short of walking among us onscreen.

This movie while in many ways a generic western story it’s more than made up for with its visual storytelling there are so many scenes that are so visually stimulating you don’t care about genericness. There is a lot of atmosphere to each scene that there really isn’t a boring moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9gn6LVvItk&t=88s

Easily the best scene in the movie is the canyon chase scene see for yourself.

Despite not only being in the last third Rattlesnake Jack was heavily built up as the antagonist when in fact he’s just a hired gun for the mayor in another of those complex schemes you see in other westerns. The fact that Bill Nighy voices Jack is an added bonus as we are essentially hearing Davy Jones as a cowboy, complete with a Gatling Gun for a rattle.