Truly Fantastic

Rating: 9/10 (27 April 2011)

Rango is an animated film that is not directed at children but instead at smart moviegoers who enjoyed the old spaghetti westerns. The film is directed by Gore Verbinski and stars names like Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin and Bill Nighy.
Right off the bat you realize that this is something more than a cutesy, talking animal film. The characters look like they have been out in the desert all their life and are immaculately textured to the point that you think it's a Pixar film. The voices are great with each voice actor doing a fantastic job bringing these characters to life. The plot itself is rather interesting as instead of the most valuable resource being money it is water (something that has become increasingly rare in the town of Dirt).
The film centers around a domesticated pet chameleon(Johnny Depp) that gets separated from his owners in the middle of the Mojave Desert and in turn creates himself a new identity (seemingly modeled after Clint Eastwood) named Rango. While that may seem rather unoriginal you have never seen the "new place, new identity" gimmick done like this.
The landscape is beautiful, the enemies are great and the soundtrack is perfectly suited to the film (there is a fantastic version of ride of the Valkyries). The film is packed with satirical humor that helps to keep the film fresh and helps the elements of the film to come together perfectly and you can tell that everyone was on the same page when they made this film.
This film is a beautiful tribute to the Spaghetti Westerns and a must see film this year.