False hope isn't hope.

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2011)

Rango has brilliant art and is filled with creative ideas. The story gradually loses steam and is unfulfilling in the end.
I also disagree with the message sent through the story. Rango is a pet lizard that ends up in the wild and lies about his identity. Eventually the villain portrayed by a rattlesnake forces Rango to confess his false identity to the people and Rango walks off in shame. Inspired by the "Spirit of the West", played by a generic Clint Eastwood, Rango musters up some courage and saves the town.
The interesting twist is that Rango does not defeat the snake but earns his respect as "one legend to another" (neither Jesus nor Satan are real, just legends). The snake claims to be from hell and many are familiar with the devil in the form of a serpent from the Biblical creation account, so it is not a stretch to say the snake represents evil or Lucifer. Rango is the sheriff who has the job to defend justice in the town of Dirt, which could be seen as a Christ figure. The problem is that Rango was not any of the things he claimed to be and did not do any of the feats he bragged about to the townspeople. Through some mishaps Rango managed to temporarily save the town. The theme of the movie appears to be putting your hope in someone, even if they aren't what they claim to be is better than having no hope at all. It could be seen as a shot at Jesus, saying his teachings are better to hope in than nothing, but he was not who he claimed to be.
If you think this is a stretch there is a scene where Rango signs the Bible as if he is the author and the movie is littered with Biblical terms (salvation, hell, etc)