Rango

Brilliant in every sense of the word
Director Gore Verbinski has put together quite the filmography over the years. His first feature film was the family comedy Mousehunt, which he followed up with the R-rated action comedy The Mexican. He also jumped on the successful remake bandwagon before the trend really took off with The Ring. It was the Pirates of the Caribbean films that teamed the director with the hottest actor in Hollywood today; Johnny Depp. Perhaps it's because those films made over a billion dollars at the box office or because they just had fun working together or a little bit of both that Depp was chosen to voice a talking chameleon in Verbinski's bizarre yet spectacular animated adventure known as Rango.

Rango isn't your average animated film. That fact will become abundantly clear during Rango's opening monologue amongst his "friends." The film is actually more adult than any of the trailers let on. Within the first ten minutes of the film, Rango has a rather lengthy conversation with some...

Not for kids - and I'm fine with that
I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to see, but I figured with Verbinski and Depp involved it couldn't be too bad. Boy, did I underestimate them! This movie was hysterical from the opening moments (Mariachi owls, anyone?). I agree with all the reviewers who said it wasn't a kids' film - too dark, and the amount of references and in-jokes lifted it way out of the Saturday morning/Disney category into the realm of inspired parody, but without losing a certain sweetness. The animation and production were outstanding as well, and I'm hoping the boys team up with ILM again soon!

Great animation, but really more for film buffs and lovers of animation than for kids
Gore Verbinski's animated feature Rango, with voices by Johnny Depp, Ned Beatty and a host of other talented actors, is a hard film to review, mainly because its real target audience is not the one it's being marketed towards. Let me just flat out say it: this really isn't a kids' animated movie. Not because there's anything in it that is not suitable for kids - there isn't - but because 95 percent of what really makes it worth seeing is going to go right over most kids' heads.

On the surface, the plot is fairly straightforward, at least in the set-up. A terrarium-housed pet chameleon lizard (it's significant after the fact that you never know his real name) ends up stranded in the desert where he is directed to a small town that is on the verge of extinction because of a mysterious water shortage. In his efforts to blend in (he _is_ a chamelon after all), he adopts the name Rango and in quick order suddenly finds himself appointed sheriff and given the mission of finding...

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