Amazing computer animation, smart script but lacks that fun feeling

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2011)

Rango is an ordinary chameleon but finds himself centre of attention when he becomes sheriff of a town where the water supply has mysteriously disappeared.
From droplets of water to an armed rattle snake the computer animation is fantastic and fabulously crafted but even with an array of talented voices Rango feels flat. Depps Kermit-like tone is fine but hard to warm to. That said, Timothy Olyphant's voice steels the show in a fleeting The Man with No Name cameo.
Adults may get plenty of nostalgic enjoyment and the visuals may keep the young and old entertained with the script mostly going over the children's heads but it's not the family movie you maybe expecting- Tangled or Cats and Dogs it is not. It's a part Eastwood homage oozing spaghetti Western, but it's dark and even with the slick script it lacks that fun feeling. Think ILM effects meets 9 (2009) and Chinatown (1974), mixed with Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).