Magnificent

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2011)

It is with immense sadness that I eject "Rango" from my Blu-Ray player to send it back from whence it came. And in hindsight, I regret not making it to the theater when this was released. I spent nearly a year ignorant of the magic of this film, a time when something untoward might have happened to me and I could have left this world without having a chance to have seen it.
Get the picture? Often, one can get a better idea of what is great about a film by reading the negative reviews, most of which, for Rango, consist of terrified parents who didn't pay attention to what movie ratings mean. "PG" means that, "some scenes are not suitable for children". What that actually means is, SOME SCENES ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN!!!!!! The movie is gritty where it needs to be gritty, coarse where it needs to be coarse, and terrifying when it intends to be terrifying...and all the more brilliant for it.
Pixar does make fabulous animated films. I was overjoyed by "Monsters, Inc", touched by, "Nemo", and thrilled with, "The Incredibles" but Nickoldeon has financed what is surely the finest animated film of all time. All work in it is spectacular, from the tiniest details to the phenomenal voice-acting. Bill Nighy's briefly seen but essential character rates, to me, as one of the most frightening villains ever put to the screen, such was his performance. The detailing in all of the characters regarding movement, idiosyncrasies, and texture are astounding. In extreme close-up one character, speaking in great fear, has his eyes blinking appropriately to convey his feelings. But one eye, one time skips a tiny, tiny bit and executes a partial double-blink. It's barely perceptible but it conveys the effort this character is having relating his tale. It's something an actor might understand but surely not an animator? But no computer made the decision to animate it that way. That is an example of the depth to which Rango has been produced.
The backgrounds, the texture and feel, the music, the classical Greek convention with a inspired Southwestern twist (you'll see) gives sharper viewers a decent idea of how deep this story will go beyond the obvious.
Rarely, RARELY have I watched any film I liked a second time IMMEDIATELY after finishing it the first time but I began the second, stop-and-go-back viewing the next morning, seeing a thousand things I had missed while watching wide-eyed in the moment on the first go-round. I can imagine that the same Puritan-type parents who whisked their kids straight from the theater and hurried post-haste to post a "don't waste..." on IMDb about this movie are the children of those equally horrified parents who did the same (minus IMDb) when they ran screaming from "Fritz the Cat" in 1972 wondering what the "X" rating was for having probably assumed it meant "Xtra nice for kids".
For you parents who don't know your ABC's well enough to have bothered to understand what "PG" means, for you, there's a big, purple, stupid dinosaur waiting to hug you. For the rest of us who bothered to pay attention, there are amazing films like Rango. Watch it once, watch it again, and marvel at the true mastery of the state-of-the-art