False marketing - 'Chinatown' for a new generation

Rating: 5/10 (2 April 2011)

As much as this film was marketed towards children in its pre-release advertising, it's difficult to comprehend, upon viewing, how this could be so. Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean" series) has crafted a wonderful looking CGI movie here, but those under 10 could never be the intended target of this effort.
Plot has a cowardly chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who continues to fantasize about being a hero and rescuing a damsel in distress. Here Depp satirizes his own method acting technique nicely. A minor traffic accident, however, changes his life and he soon finds himself lost in the Nevada desert, alone and nearly helpless.
After a great comic experience with a hawk and a horned toad, he soon wanders into the town of Dirt, which is straight out of the 1950s Western movie central casting office. Either as a homage or a poke at such classic films as "High Noon," "Shane" or any number of Clint Easwood/Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, the chameleon with no name soon adopts Rango (short for Durango) as his new moniker.
Populated by lank and gruff townsfolk (consisting of rats, mice, gophers, opossum, hedgehogs, porcupine, dogs and other creatures), the community is a melting pot of flea-ridden hilarity. Dirt also needs a new sheriff and, after a few funny sequences of Rango besting some bad guys and the ever-hovering hawk (thanks to some remarkable luck), Rango is the clear choice.
All is moving smoothly at this point when, suddenly, Verbinski decides this is the time to remake "Chinatown" and everything goes South - in a hurry. We're introduced to a new plot of water rights, the town's drought, as well as the Mayor, voiced by Ned Beatty, a direct rip-off of John Huston's Noah Cross.
It's amazing how few of those giving this movie high marks fail to see this aspect of the movie. I suppose if one is going to copy a film, though, "Chinatown" is not a bad choice, but why then market the picture towards families and - especially - children. The screening I attended was filled with kids and befuddled parents heading toward the exits at film's end wandering what they just witnessed.
Vocal talent is extensive, with the aforementioned Depp and Beatty, as well as Bill Nigy, Harry Dean Stanton, Timothy Oliphant, Ray Winstone and Alfred Molina, among others, but the adult-themed plot lines, jokes and even some swear words thrown in make this clearly a movie for those over 14.
The animation, for the most part, is intricate and very well done, the script is fine and it's not a bad picture in any sense of the word, but the target audience is what I question. And, as a parent, that would have been nice to know before I brought my young children to it.