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Gore
Verbinski is most
known for taking the
Pirates of the
Caribbean
movies and making
them big adventurous
affairs. Sure Johnny
Depp did most of the
driving with all of
those movies, but
Verbinski did a very
good job navigating.
Just like a few
other directors
these days- Zach
Snyder with
Legends of the
Guardians,
Wes Anderson with
The
Fantastic Mr. Fox,
Gore Verbinski
brings his
directorial talents
to the animated
family feature genre
with
Rango…
oh and Mr. Depp tags
along too.
In
Rango,
an unnamed pet
iguana played by
Johnny Depp is
traveling in his
tank with his owners
through the Nevada
desert. When an
armadillo causes a
traffic stir and the
iguana’s tank flies
out of the car, It
puts the lizard in a
very unfamiliar
situation. He’s in
the middle of the
desert without water
and alone. He speaks
with the mysterious
armadillo that
causes the accident,
and he gets told to
find a town called
Dirt in the middle
of the desert. He
finds the town,
tells a few tales,
calls himself Rango,
lucks out kills a
hawk, and runs into
the job of being the
town’s sheriff.
It
turns out the job of
sheriff isn’t an
enjoyable one. The
town is in the
middle of a huge
water shortage and
the people are
restless. The bank
with the water
reserves is empty
and the main supply
is washed up as
well. Where the
water’s going is a
bit of a mystery,
and that would be
something that
Sheriff Rango would
have to look into.
Rango
is great on a
variety of levels.
If you made this
into a movie with
real actors and took
away the animal/pet
angle with it, it
would hold up on its
own. It’s written
that well. But it’s
written well on a
number of levels
too. The jokes are
funny sure, but
there are tons of
introspective
moments where Rango
has to figure out
who he is… those are
the really
impressive moments
with the script. The
movie tackles
self-meaning,
something that’s
very rarely been
done in the animated
world. Plus, being
a
movie set in the
‘west’,
Rango
references and pays
homage to tons of
old western movies-
even in its title.
There’s even a cameo
of sorts at the end
of the movie that
pays ultimate homage
to the genre.
Rango
wasn’t just well
written though- it’s
got some beautiful
animation. It’s the
most realistic
looking animated
feature ever made
with a ton of detail
given to everything
in Rango’s world.
The wood in the town
of Dirt is
incredibly detailed
and Rango himself-
well he’s
brilliantly animated
as well. In fact,
all of the
characters in
Rango
are so vividly
animated it’s hard
to imagine another
movie being more
detailed than this
one, at some points
it’s hard to
differentiate
whether it’s
animated or real.
The
animation and the
writing are top
notch but really
everything
surrounding
Rango
is great. Isla
Fisher and Johnny
Depp contribute
their voices to the
project but so do
Timothy Olyphant,
Alfred Molina, and
many others. It’s
brilliantly voiced,
written, and
animated. There’s
not a lot wrong with
Rango.
For special features
on this Blu-ray,
there’s a ton of
content. There’s a
good amount of
deleted scenes, a
very technical
commentary, some
exploration bonus
features about the
animals of the
desert and another
kids feature where
they can virtually
explore the town of
Dirt.
Rango
is a very special
movie, it was made
about as well as one
could have asked for
and the production
down the line from
writing to voice
work was near
flawless. The
references are all
cool to watch
Rango
for, but there’s a
ton of
inner-conflict and
really it’s just a
great story and a
great movie too.
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