It seems like studios found again a great chance of covering the defunct storytelling with mesmerizing visuals and impressive editing.

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2011)

Every film product must satisfy it's audience. Since we're talking about an animated film, the goals are harder to obtain simply because you must project a rich and attractive story filled with funny moments and a detailed animated world. We've seen animated movies made for a smaller audience like, for example, The Illusionist from last year, which addresses adults and not underaged idealists. Rango is a movie for all ages because probably everyone will have a good time watching it. But having a good time watching a movie describes how good the movie really is?... Is Rango that good? The western adventures of the simple and clumsy lizard Rango (Johnny Depp) borrows elements from Leone's classic westerns, refurnishes the set-ups, creates a comfortable world for the viewer and starts to convert the old-fashioned western story. While it may be remarkably smart written, the story is dragged around the biggest clichés in animated films. We all understand Rango is a perfect reason to pay homage to one of the greatest eras in film history, however, was it necessary to offer a predictable and pointless story? The lonely guy (or lizard in this case) with no friends and no actual talents whatsoever, integrates in a community (Dirt Town) threatened by an oppressive ruler (The Mayor) and becomes the local hero by luck and chance while defeating a local villain. After a short period of popularity he loses all the credibility and affection by getting engaged in a duel with the big villain (in our case, the town's mayor) which unveils his true face and forces him leave his people with his tail behind his legs. But somehow, in the middle of nowhere he finds hope and courage with the help of some unusual force and decides to go back to his people and free them from the oppressor because that's (obviously) the right thing to do. Wait... I'm hearing some of you interrupting me "Will he get the girl Julian?"... Of course he'll get the girl mate... We all know the story, and we're already bored by it thanks to the tens and tens of movies using the same narrative ingredients. The story structure in Rango is not only common but is also deceivable, clichéd and pointless since it adds no gram of originality.
Despite the beautiful look of the film and impressive execution nothing makes me care about our hero. Where's the emotion?... Where's the emotional core? Rango has emotional moments but not because we care about our main character but because we somehow pledge to the loneliness and hopeless described at some point in the movie. Was that really necessary for Rango?... I will say that it wasn't. The funny moments in the film are barely even there, few laughs in the theater but mostly there were just smiles and voices around me debating something but not the actual movie. Most of these funny moments don't even come from our main protagonist but from our secondary characters. We also have that classic group of characters that create a bridge from one point of the story to the other. The four singing owls represent the narrator's voice but they are useless since they are neither funny nor entertaining. They just come, sing and leave without making a strong point. You will forget about them as soon as their scenes end.
As if the gasps in the storytelling's design were not enough, Rango confronts with... politics. An animated film satirizing the world's current issues like our main economical problems and our hunger for resources. Rango depicts the selfishness and creates a pretty dark and actually marxist character in the town's mayor. I was thinking that, okay, it's a understandable thing for adults but is it good for a kid to watch this and being told that if the people don't obey the rules they must be eliminated?... I don't know, maybe I'm a little bit off-topic but I think such delicate issues like that should not be addressed directly to kids.
Going to the voice casting, there were good choices but I can summarize Johnny Depp's vocal impersonation as being close to an animated Jack Sparrow: same tonality, same laugh, same mumbling... It looks like he really has a hard time getting over that character. I felt the entire movie I witnessed an animated green and skinny Jack Sparrow. But enough is enough.
Let's take a moment and applaud the incredible technical execution of this movie. The picture looked so clean and perfectly drawn, the colors were alive and powerful, the contrasts and the sound mixing and editing was really really impressive. The fight scenes looked like the epic grand-scale battle scenes from movies like Avatar or Star Wars... The cinematography was gorgeous and I must say I was impressed with some of the techniques used in the film. There is a shot of Rango dreaming and that crossover from reality to dreams and back to reality was simply amazing. It's a jaw-dropping visual world. Even the score was good. Good choice of music and not a single waste of wrong tones or anything like that. Everything fitted the movie wonderfully. Rango really blew out the water other animations and is a real step forward into animated drawings and design. It's like a concept car or a new burger. It's fresh.