Blast From The Past Review: Rango
In recent years, animation has been having a renaissance. Pixar has established itself as the standard for top-notch storytelling, look no further than Wall-E and Up. DreamWorks also found significant success with How to Train Your Dragon. Illumination Studios, a new production company, opened up by the former executive of Fox and well-known animation aficionado Chris Meledandri, created the blockbuster Despicable Me. With all these studios monopolizing the animation industry, critically and financially, there does not seem to be space for other studios. A special effects powerhouse, Illumination Light & Magic, proves to debunk this stigma; validating itself as the next big animation studio to look out for; This is all thanks to Paramount’s Rango (2011), starring Johnny Depp and directed by Gore Verbinski.
Rango begins with Lars, a chameleon (Johnny Depp) who is satisfied as to the lead “thespian” in his isolating tank, befriending inanimate toys. His world is shattered as his tank falls on the highway, unbeknownst by his owners as they drive away in the Mojave Desert. To survive, our hero travels across the desert to the town of Dirt, where he falsely advertises himself as a rough gunslinger and becomes the new sheriff, giving himself the name Rango. As sheriff, Rango is in charge of protecting the town’s most precious resource, Water. Trouble arises when all of the town’s water is stolen, spawning events that force our hero to find his real identity and save the friendly townspeople. The story is a little Three Amigos-esque with the actor-becoming-a-western-gunslinger premise, but still highly enjoyable and has its fantastic quality to create a western family film that’s unparalleled.
With an incredibly talented voice cast in its arsenal, Rango goes beyond the vanity lineup plaguing most projects these days. Johnny Depp plays the titular character with the right amount of cartoony energy and heartfelt emotion; creating a quirky character that deals with an identity crisis. Isla Fisher as the love interest, Beans, compliments Depp’s outrageous humor with a touch of subtle wit giving the film a broad range of fun. Bill Nighy gets one of the movie’s juiciest roles as the villain, Rattlesnake Jake. He gives the venomous creature chilled aggression. How many other villains have a revolver gun attached to their tail? Timothy Olyphant gives his best Clint Eastwood impression as the messiah of the tale, Spirit of the West, a carbon copy of the iconic Man With No Name. Some of the most hysterical characters of Rango are from the Mariachi band composed of owls. Like a Greek chorus, they sing about the impending doom that waits for our hero, yet never comes. Their ending song about how a house accident-related death could be Rango’s demise is comically twisted, like the film itself.
Director Gore Verbinski, known for The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, has created a unique film that has never been stylistically done before with this budget size. As Verbinski’s first animated film ever, he goes at the voice recording process with an unorthodox approach. Instead of having the actors in a separate room speaking to a microphone as most animation studios do nowadays, he had the actors on a sound stage. Altogether, they acted the film out, and Verbinski used those recordings for the film. This practice is what the director has called emotion-capture. Now do not get this confused with motion-capture — the technique used in Avatar where the actors had to don suits and dots and have their actions recorded and animated. Rango’s voice recording method improves on many of these studios because the film accomplishes in maintaining an excellent, genuine quality: energy. You can feel all these characters come to life on the screen in a way other animated films seem to fall flat.
The animation itself is equally comely as it is daring for such a big budgeted flick: it has been estimated to be around $135 million. It is beautiful in the sense that all the characters have precise detail; you can see each scale or pore. The landscape is thriving with vibrant details too. However, the animals are — and this is meant with the best intention possible — beautifully ugly. It is that grit that gives Rango a dynamic character design. These are not the cute woodland creatures that Disney has spoiled us with. Rango’s wide range of mammals and reptiles are wrinkly, bug-eyed, and some just plain slimy-looking. Personally, Rango has visual pizzazz because of its distinct gonzo-style of animation (Speaking of Gonzo, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas fans will highly enjoy a brief cameo by its characters).
Preteens, adults, and everyone in-between should have the benefit of being able to enjoy Rango. Parents bringing any young children to the theater to see this may need to think otherwise. There are enough cussing and violence, as well as murder and abusive fathers, to put Rango close to the PG-13 boundary. That said, older kids will enjoy the slapstick humor, and adults will enjoy the humorous quips interwoven throughout.
Rango is a rare feat in many ways: it has beautifully composed, charming, witty, and adventurous throughout. It is highly re-watchable for its action, and film nerds will love references to other movies. While it may be too dark for young kids, older people will find the appeal, sit back, and enjoy the beautiful ugly that many dare not attempt.