Rango is an
enjoyable animated Western about a lizard thrown out of his comfort zone, however,
the film is directed more towards older kids and adults rather than the
elementary school crowd. The humor in the film, other than the occasional bout
of physical humor, is better suited for an older audience. The dialogue makes
me extremely happy as an English major, but I know most little kids don't
understand words like "conundrum", so they miss out on a lot of the jokes.
Unfortunately, context clues don't really help out a whole lot since the
multi-syllabic words appear all at once.
Some of the plot points are preposterous, and some of the
characters, particularly Rango, seem to realize this. Amazingly, it doesn't
detract from the film; the absurdity just adds to the overall feeling that this
movie is for an older audience. Rango
occasionally shifts into the philosophical or metaphysical, and sometimes those
shifts aren't terribly clear, which can be confusing. There are also a few
instances of blatant swearing, so Rango
fully deserves its PG rating.
The animation of Rango
is beautiful. The main character designs appear somewhat realistic, but some of
the background characters look more cartoon-y. The music style tied in nicely
with the film, and the mariachi owls provide some entertaining sideline
commentary. Johnny Depp translates well to voice acting, but his country accent
makes him sound weirdly like Owen Wilson, which occasionally gets confusing. Despite
being an animated film, some of the sequences seemed more like an action movie,
probably due to Gore Verbinski's previous works. To my knowledge, this is his
first animated feature.
Rango is not a
film that can transcend multiple age barriers. This film is clearly for an
older audience with the ability to understand the dialogue and shifts in tone.
Leave the little ones at home and go enjoy a film that follows a character on
his journey of self-discovery and random acts of hilarity. You'll enjoy it.
