Depp Delivers Once Again

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2012)

Rango (2011)
*** (out of 4)
Johnny Depp voices the title character, a lizard who has the perfect life being taken care of by humans but when he gets thrown out of their car in the desert who soon realizes that he's all alone. He eventually comes to a town where his tall tales capture an audience and they soon make him their Sheriff and now he must try and find out where the water supply has gone because the town in on the verge of having no water. After years of getting no recognition, Depp has finally proved himself to be one of the greatest actors working today so with that being said it might be strange to say that he gives one of the greatest performances of his career here. Yes, this is an animated movie and yes he only does vocal work but it's so perfectly that you can't help but think it's some of the greatest work ever done on an animated movie. Just look at how much energy, passion and just outright fire that Depp manages to bring out of Rango and you just sit there amazed at the vocal range and what all he puts into it. Director Gore Verbinski does a very good job at making sure to keep the rest of the energy of the film up to Depp's level and this really makes for a very fun film. I think the best thing is undoubtedly Depp but the visual style of the movie is also very impressive are the supporting characters. The rodents and other creatures are all extremely memorable and even better is that you really do see them as actual characters and not just some sort of animated creatures. The look of the animation is also very impressive and there are also some great jokes and homages to films like CHINATOWN and The Man with No Name trilogy. RANGO is certainly a very memorable movie but at 107-minutes it does go on a tad bit too long. With that said, Depp's work here is so terrific that you can't help but love what you're watching and he's reason enough alone to make it worth seeing.