Not a kids movie, not as good as everyone else thinks (spoilers)

Rating: 4/10 (26 March 2011)

My kids (ages 7 & 9) wanted to see this, so I took them. The first 1/2 to 2/3rds of the movie was good, then it went wacko. There were a lot of other movie references, none of which any kids would get. That's OK, it reminded me of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons with the same 'over the kids heads' jokes.
The animation was good, and the storyline was alright for a while. But when Rango leaves town in disgrace, it all goes to hell. He encounters the Spirit of the West, in the guise of an old Clint Eastwood with Oscar statuettes in the back of his golf cart, using a metal detector in the middle of the desert. Problem #1 - WTF? Problem #2 - SACRILEGE! The mayor is obviously going to be the bad guy, but somehow Rango sees a vision of the future - Las Vegas is using up all of the water. But wait, it's not really the future, because Rango was dropped out of a terrarium from the back of a car in present day! So why is the town like the old west anyway? Did I miss a time warp when I left to take my daughter to the bathroom for two minutes? The whole is it the future, present, or past thing just doesn't work, especially in a movie marketed towards children. My kids didn't understand any of that. Luckily it went so far over their heads that they didn't bother asking about it.
At least it had the typical happy ending, and my kids liked it OK. I think that they should have decided up front what they wanted this movie to be - for adults or kids. They tried to make it for both, but failed.