New In Theaters Review: Rango

A pet chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) is living a sheltered life, and dreams of having a more adventurous and fulfilling existence. When an unexpected incident separates him from his owners, and leaves him stranded in the Mohave dessert, he must find a way to survive in the harsh dessert temperatures. He meets a female lizard by the name of Beans (Isla Fisher) who takes him to the town of “Dirt”, a gritty, gun slinging town with no laws. He tells them a far-fetched story of his life, and exploits and that his name is Rango. The town residents make him their new sheriff, and believe that he has been sent to be their savior. He welcomes the position and gets way over his head when he learns that the town is having a water shortage, and it seems like someone is draining the town dry of their precious asset. Rango soon discovers that there are some shady activities going on in the small town. Now with his new found authority and responsibility, he must find out if he has the ability to become the hero, he pretended to be.

This was not Johnny Depp’s first time lending his voice to an animated character, and just like all the one’s that he has done before, this one just seemed to fit in Johnny’s repertoire. Johnny has a way of always making the audience members root for the character he is portraying. He’s usually a nice, fun individual, who has all the luck and fortune in the world. Even when he’s a lizard who embellishes his life, in order to look good among strangers, you know this character has a good heart. This movie had a lot of adult type situations in it, along with some disturbing images, which might not have been suitable for very young children. But then it was rated “PG” as oppose to having a “G” rating. I don’t believe Johnny has ever been in a “G” rated movie, animated or not. There’s usually something very old with his character’s that are always going to have it garnered at least a PG rating.

This movie was fun for the whole family, young and old. Some jokes the kids won’t get or character references that they will not recognize, but that makes it entertaining for the adults as well. One such character was a wink at a role that Johnny once did named Hunter S. Thompson, from the movie “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. It was so funny to see that character pop up, as the scene could have actually been taken from the character’s movie itself, because in that movie there were a lot of scenes in the Mohave dessert, which this movie is based in. Another cameo voice appearance came from Timothy Olyphant, who did a dead on impersonation of Clint Eastwood from the old spaghetti western movies. Other actors who lent their voices to characters were Abigail Breslin as “Priscilla”, Ned Beatty as “Mayor”, and Alfred Molina as “Roadkill”. Then there was Bill Nighy as “Rattlesnake Jake”, Ray Winstone as “Bad Bill”, and Harry Dean Stanton as “Balthazar” All the characters were entertaining and the movie was pretty funny as well. There were some violent scenes in the movie, but like I said before, hence the PG rating.

There were times when it did catch you off guard that your still watching a cartoon geared towards kids, who see this little lizard as just a funny and animated character, and then your hit with a very dramatic scene, and you’re like “Wow” they put that in this movie? It’s a good storyline, and it has an environmental message towards the end, which is always good in my opinion, when it comes to showing how animals must compete with humans taking over their natural habitats. I gave this movie 3 critters, out of 4. When it comes to animated movies, it’s always good to have a film that can keep the attention of all ages involved when watching it. The movie ran 1 hour and 40 mins. It was rated PG for rude humor, language, action and smoking. The film was written by John Logan, Gore Verbinski, and James Ward Byrkit. It was directed by Gore Verbinski. It was produced by GK Films, Blind Wink Productions, and
Industrial Light & Magic. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures.

You never know when your life may take a drastic turn, be prepared to adapt. Ezo
Next movie reviewed: Battle: Los Angeles