An intelligent animation western that partially fulfilled it's potential.

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2011)

Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) is an ordinary chameleon who ends up in the town of Dirt, a lawless outpost in the Wild West who are looking for a new sheriff and Rango fulfils that position. The occupants of the town have little water which is obviously essential to their survival and of what there is, is stolen from the bank so Rango with the help of various townsfolk goes to retrieve it back.
Overall this is an intelligent movie with plenty of western pastiche and parodies that is referenced. But this is part of the problem, the movie becomes too intelligent and a bit self indulgent in wanting to cram in so many western references and as a result I just don't think this is a movie many kids will enjoy or anyone who has seen many westerns like me. And as a result for me though it was funny in parts and I chuckled now and again there just wasn't enough laughs for me really and it felt dragged out at certain points. At a hundred minutes it was a bit too long. If they cut off ten minutes and included more laughs instead of so many references my rating of this would have been higher. And whilst I'm still going on the negatives you enjoy watching the characters but don't end up emotionally connecting with them not like in Up or in any of the Toy Story films. And it did start off a bit boring and slow. But it does pick up when Rango enters Dirt Town.
However at the risk of sounding so negative there was plenty other things in this film that I admired, which made me enjoy it. Though not as big on laughs, the script is witty and crackles with sharpness making it a joy throughout. The voice-over acting was superb across the cast. Johnny Depp was good as the voice of Rango, but the best ones were Isla Fisher as the voice of Beans (who gave an excellent wild west accent) and I really enjoyed Bill Nighy's turn as the voice of rattlesnake Jake. It is superbly well shot and edited by director Gore Verbinski. Surprisingly the action sequences are very entertaining, which did to some extent make up for some of the lack of comedy. But the best thing was the animation, which looked absolutely gorgeous to visualise it, particularly in digital. I also highly admire Gore Verbinski's decision not to add this in 3D, though it can be extremely well done in films and animations like Up, Rango just proves you don't need 3D to enjoy the visual animation. I also like Verbinki's creativeness at trying something different. A western animation as far as I am aware isn't very common, which makes it quite original.
In the end though Rango didn't completely fulfil it's potential as it is a bit too self indulgent I enjoyed it thoroughly and can certainly see why this has been such a huge hit with audiences. The 7.8 IMDb rating on here is I feel about right. This is worth seeing if your an adult or have a fondness for the western genre. Rango is overall an intelligent animation that is worth a watch and despite it flaws it deserves high praise and it is one of the most original animations to come out in recent years. Very enjoyable entertainment.