Stunning, dark Depp animated offering is no child's play...

Rating: 5/10 (4 March 2011)

Let's make this simple. "Rango" is one odd movie.
When it comes to "Rango," a theater full of bouncy young kids proves that marketing works - months of commercials pushing a wide-eyed chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp and supplanted by all manner of cheery dance tunes drove kids - and their parents - in droves to the premiere of the highly-hyped animated tale of reptiles, desert animals, and the wild west.
After seeing "Rango," however, and finding it to be anything but a kids animated movie, one can't help but wonder if most of those kids won't leave disappointed, their parents feeling mislead, and musing if even one of them will come back for a return visit. "Rango" is an odd-duck movie that's tough to endure once, but offers almost no compelling reason for a return visit.
"Rango," to be sure, is a visually stunning, nearly photoreal production of a group of slightly scary ragtag desert creatures in a nearly dead town visited by a bright green chameleon stranger sporting an Hawaiian shirt. What follows is just under two hours of an oddly crafted morality play that is one-third classic Western, one-third "Raising Arizona," and one-third Johnny Depp certified oddness. If "Nightmare Before Christmas" cross-bred with "Finding Nemo," "Rango" would almost certainly be among the offspring.
Oddly, in none of those thirds can you say that "Rango" is particularly funny. Sure, there are the requisite cute moments, but the photorealism of the creatures, and the intensity with which some of them are depicted, make drawing out a sustained chuckle a bit of an arduous task. "Rango's" dark theme isn't helped by moments where one wishes for the pace to accelerate - there's only so much computer-textured chameleon introspection you can tolerate in one movie before you start wondering, "okay, what's next?"
"Rango" isn't a bad movie, but it isn't especially good, either. Dragging at times, bizarre at others, when it finally ends you catch yourself leaving the theater with one uniform conclusion:
That was one odd movie. Then again, with Johnny Depp in the lead, could one expect anything else?