March Movie #2: Rango

Starring the voices of: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty
Directed By: Gore Verbinski
Run Time: 1 hour 47 minutes

Rango is about a chameleon (a lizard) who wanders into the gun-slinging Old West town of Dirt. Rango fancies himself an actor and when the townspeople ask about his past, Rango invents one. Little does he know that his story sets him up to be a hero. The townsfolk make him their sheriff. Rango improvs being a sheriff until he inadvertently aids bank robbers who steal the town's water supply, their only supply of water. Now Rango must step up and be the hero he has been pretending to be in order to save the town.

Not all animated movies are for children. Repeat: Not all animated movies are for children. If you watch the first five minutes of this movie, you'll understand that not all animated movies are for children. It's scary and some of the lines/images are not for children. The naked headless Barbie (of whom Rango inquiries, "Are those real?"), the squished armadillo on the road, and the bird chasing a terrified Rango through the desert are all clues that this is not a children's movie. One character is obsessed with the possibility that Rango is going to die. There are many frightening scenes. Picture an old western - like the remake of True Grit - would you take your child to that? Absolutely not (wonderful acting aside; see review of the movie below). This is essentially something like Gunslinger but animated. Just because it's a cartoon does not make the subject and plot suitable for children.

Of course, if you were planning to take your child to this movie (a child that doesn't get scared easily) but decided not to after the smoking controversy, you should forget that controversy and go see it. Several anti-smoking groups are slamming this movie for its rampant depiction of smoking. One: It is only the bad guys smoking and Two: Rango does not smoke (contrary to many sites' claims). He grabs a villian's cigar and eats it and then drinks a shot of cactus juice and burps a fireball at the bad guy. If kids immitate what they see in cartoons, I think there's a much greater risk of them swallowing lit cigars in the hopes of breathing fire at their brothers. I seriously did not notice the smoking and I was watching for it!!

I'm not a huge fan of westerns. I was not a huge fan of this movie. It was decent. Several lines made me laugh. I was more alarmed at how scary it was. The scene at the end with the bird dragging off the turtle made me gasp. And I think I may have nightmares about the scene where the moles come crawling out of the ground surrounding Rango and his gang (I have issues with Zombie-like things).

I loved the homage to Clint Eastwood - from the character to the award statues in the basket. It would have been so excellent if the movie makers had actually gotten Eastwood to voice the character. I think that little bit would have pushed this movie over the edge to greatness. I did love the opening scene (although I thought it was missing a little extra oomph towards greatness) where Johnny Depp was essentially channeling some past characters from other movies (I think I saw a bit of Captian Jack Sparrow as well as Don Juan DeMarco). There was also a small homage to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. That bit made me really laugh (although I was feeling very bad for Rango at that point). I also loved Mr. Timms (the fish) and the full circle involving his "character."

I had a suspicion that this movie was going the way of Happy Feet with a non-publicized but then a sprung on you in-your-face message about the environment about water waste/urban sprawl with the animals' water going to keep golf courses in Las Vegas green. It took a sharp detour at that scene, which in a way was nice but also left me wondering why show that part at all.

I'm also not quite certain I understood the different animals living together. According to this movie, only big birds and snakes are bad guys. Little birds and foxes eat all types of little animals but they were cast as townspeople. And why was a bunny the same size as a chameleon? And why did Beans have hair? Yes, she was a girl but she was a lizard. If you wanted to make it obvious she was a girl (aside from the dress), put a bow on her head. Lizards don't have hair... hence what makes them lizards.

So... I'm not sure if I liked this movie. It wasn't bad. It did have me laughing... at times. But I was more concerned with the impact it would have on all the kids at the theater (I think a pre-school was having an outing). There was so much talk of death and the bad guys were truly scary. There were a lot of tough things going on in this movie. Decent but not great.