6/10
The question I have is this. Is there a market for an animated western featuring a chameleon, which is entirely unsuitable for children? And yes, I know this has Johnny Depp's voice, but I suspect that may not be enough. And I was wrong about Gnomeo & Juliet.
What Rango has going for it is the same thing it has going against it; it is smart and knowing. Consider the early scene on a highway, when a pet chameleon is being bowled around the tarmac by passing cars. One of them is driven by someone who looks and behaves very like Hunter Thompson as played by Johnny Depp in Terry Gilliam's film of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas. Apart from nerdy film critics like me, how many people are going to recognise that, still less care? Then there's the main plot of the film, which is an almost direct steal from Chinatown, complete with a turtle channelling John Huston as Noah Cross. It's deliberate homage, but again, I question what we're supposed to make of it.
Brief plot recap. Chameleon gets cast adrift on the highway in the desert. He escapes from the predatory attentions of a hawk, and is found by Beans, a young female lizard trying to keep her dead father's ranch going, even though there's no water. In the local one horse town called Dirt, the lack of water is so acute that it has become the currency, but the whole place is ruled by this turtle in a wheelchair who is clearly up to no good. The chameleon puts on a tough guy act, says his name is Rango, and becomes sheriff, even though his bluster is all front. Then the shit hits the fan.
There's a lot to admire about the film. The animation is simply wonderful with a full cast of bizarre and hairy creatures of all shapes and sizes, none of them attractive. The western genre is treated with respect and spoofed at the same time (there's a quartet of musical Mexican owls who provide a Greek chorus-like commentary to proceedings). Depp and a terrific supporting cast do a selection of excellent voice overs; the film is witty, dazzling and even engaging. But. At some level it's too clever for its own good, which may be a dumb thing to say, given that I liked it, but I think it could have been an outstanding film if it had been a little less in love with itself.
