Movie Review: Rango

Blurb: Rango is a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis. After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in? When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt - a lawless outpost populated by the desert's most wily and whimsical creatures - the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt . . . until, in a blaze of action-packed situations and encounters with outrageous characters, Rango starts to become the hero he once only pretended to be.

Review: Rango is one of those animated films that really are more for adults than kids. Johnny Depp provides the voice for the once a pet, chameleon, who finds himself out in the desert, very much alone and suffering an identity crisis of sorts. Actually the chameleon is a wanna be actor.

He easily poses as a brave gunslinger when he arrives in Dirt.

It is kind of a spaghetti western told from an animals point of view. The subject matter is serious. The town doesn't have water to support its inhabitants and they are also being plagued by a hawk and rattle snake.

If the movie has a message, it is to be yourself. A common enough theme. I found the story line to be funny and the other characters funny. Johnny Depp's Rango was adorable and as quirky as most of the characters he plays usually are. His kinda-sorta-love interest is Beans, voiced by Isla Fisher, a desert iguana, fighting to save the family ranch.

I'm not sure this film would have been worth the full price of a movie admission, but as a redbox rental, it was definitely entertaining enough. I would probably rent it again, as I watched it at  1 a.m. and probably didn't appreciate it as much as I would have if I were completely awake.