I'm surprised...

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2011)

I am surprised that Rango seems to be doing well in the box office, as I did not think it would appeal to the mainstream American audiences... It certainly follows the classical old western plot, nothing new there, as others have noted, but a certain satisfaction of watching something you know you have seen and perhaps like, if done well.
But on top of this plot, there are layers of Fear and Loathing and Star Wars and mariachis that are sometimes not even translated from Spanish, and a pinch of Mary Poppins... So really, the psychedelic quirkiness of the execution of plot made me think that it would not appeal to the mainstream. Voices are done very well, and the art is top-notch. The opening scene has to be one of my favorite scenes in the film, as the lonely pet lizard acts himself into the "cool guy in town" with a broken doll, a wind-up gold fish, a beach umbrella, and a dead (real) bug in the little puddle of water in his tank... From this scene, you know Depp will shine. The quick-witted improvisational acting reminded me of Robin Williams's stand-ups. The psychedelic desert scenes were masterful, both in terms of animation and in terms of evoking the good, old western film tradition (I almost expected the whistling to start, the 800 bullets/The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly theme.)
I still would not recommend this to my friends who have very mainstream taste and expect an animation film to just be cute and happy. I think most scenes are safe for children, except maybe those involving the large snake, who might be scary.