Disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (17 March 2011)

I was so excited to see this movie. I have a 7 and 8 year old and they are in to cowboys right now. My husband is a huge western movie buff, so we thought it would be a great flick to go see together. Boy was I disappointed. We all were.
I went expecting to see a fast paced, funny, western cartoon. I think the only thing out of those three I got was the western cartoon. This movie is not geared towards kids. However, the advertising, the animation, and all the previews I saw were!
I *think* that they may have been going for the next "Up" style movie. Where they are trying to create an entertaining movie for kids and adults with a much deeper message. I got the message, but missed the entertaining part. The other option is that they were trying to create a really bad, boring western. If so, they succeeded!
The animation is good. Some of the characters are a little weird to look at, but when you're trying to humanize lizards and such, I guess they are going to look a little weird. I also thought the sound effects were well done. The storyline has so much potential, but the movie is about 30 minutes too long. Because it was so boring, the kids in the nearly sold out theater were antsy and loud the last half of the movie which did not help the experience much. You really couldn't blame them, though.
Really bummed about it, we had looked forward to Rango since we originally saw it advertised in December. The kids didn't enjoy it, the western movie buff husband didn't enjoy it, and neither did I. I did, however, leave the theater really wanting a drink of water!!!