RANGO

US, 2011, 107 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Bill Nigh, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Root, Beth Grant, Vincent Kartheiser, Gore Verbinski.
Directed by Gore Verbinski.

An animation (often quite animated) film for an adult audience rather than for children (with a PG13 rating in the US). Children might enjoy the action but it requires some sophistication, there is a lot of dialogue (more dictionary-oriented than popular) and there are frightening elements as well.

We are led into the ballad and legend of Rango by a Mariachi-group of four owls who sing and narrate throughout the film. Rango is a lizard, Amelia, not the most handsome of desert creatures, who is a would-be actor, an actual fantasist who performs with a toy fish and a broken doll’s torso – and none too convincingly. And he is voiced by Johnny Depp, a rung more coherently up from Jack Sparrow, Mad Hatter and Willy Wonka. And he has a gift for adapting from faux pas situations, quite an affected vocabulary, as has much of the screenplay, an amusing indulgence in words and meanings.

Stranded on a desert highway, Rango encounters a mentor, Roadkill, (Alfred Molina) who gives him advice about crossing to the other side. What does happen is that he lands in a town, boasts that he is a legend, and is made sheriff. They have a crisis: no water, only a bottle preserved in the bank. When Rango gives a morale-boosting speech about keeping the water untouched just in case and not drinking it (while illustrating how devastating it would be if they all drank by downing three glasses himself), we see his skill in political spin.

The crooked mayor, a turtle in a wheelchair is voiced by Ned Beatty. The villainous rattlesnake enemy is hissed by Bill Nighy. The practical iguana heroine, Beans, is Isla Fisher. There are a lot of character actor voices (Harry Dean Stanton, Abigail Breslin, Ray Winstone) and Timothy Olyphant appears as The Spirit of the West, channelling Clint Eastwood in appearance and voice and The Man With No Name. And the final credits song owes more than a small debt to the theme from Rawhide.

Which means that Rango is something of a trip. It is a literal road movie. It is the quest of an ordinary lizard to discover his inner hero. It is something of a satire on the building of Las Vegas. And, most of it is a pastiche play on Western conventions. The villains who rob the bank for the water. The posse in pursuit (and then pursued themselves by villains on birdback to the Ride of the Valkyries). The crooked mayor and his henchman (playing golf while others thirst). The gunslinger snake. The high noon confrontation. The pilgrimage to the desert to seek advice from The Spirit of the West.

Director Gore Verbinski made Mouse Hunt and The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and has an offbeat sense of humour. Writer John Logan is even more versatile with screenplays for Sweeney Todd, Gladiator, Aviator and Hugo for Martin Scorsese – and adapting Shakespeare’s Coriolanus for Ralph Fiennes.

The animation is bold and vivid for the motley characters and the desert locations. For movie buffs, it is something of a wild hoot.

1. An animation film – the impact the children, better for adults? Characters, themes, vocabulary? The work of the director and his previous films?

2. Style of animation, characters, the desert locations, the town of Dirt, action sequences? The voice cast?

3. The Mojave Desert, the look, the inhabitants, Roadkill, the armadillo and his mystical touch? The threatening hawk? The search for water? Coming to the town of Dirt, the animal inhabitants?

4. Rango, Johnny Depp and his voice, the chameleon, falling from the container, encountering Roadkill, the advice, the chase by the hawk? The encounter with Beans? The chameleon appearance, shape shifting?

5. In Dirt, presenting himself as a drifter, the Gila monster, the confrontation, the reappearance of the hawk? The water tower crushing the predator?

6. The response in the town, the mayor naming him as sheriff, the mayor as a tortoise, wheelchair? The fear of Rattlesnake Jake, and his fear of the hawk?

7. The water crisis, the absence of water, the search, finding the robbers in the desert as prospectors? The presence of Mole? The pursuit, the manager of the bank and his death? The chase of the bottle only to find there was no water?

8. The arrest of the so-called prospectors? The trial? The revelation of the mayor buying up the land? Bringing back Jake, to set up a confrontation against Rango? Rango admitting the truth?

9. The appearance of the Spirit of the West? Like the Man with No Name and Clint Eastwood voice? The wise saying: no man walks out on his own life story?

10. Roadkill, his appearance, the mystical yuccas? The discovery of the truth about the water? The mayor setting up the confrontation between Jake and Rango? The diversion for opening the valve for the water? Beans being taken as hostage? She and Rango locked in the glass vault? Jake having no bullet, Rango with the bullet? Breaking the glass? Jake and his rehabilitation that he was an okay character? The expose of the mayor, being washed away, his henchman and their golf playing?

11. The acclaim for Rango, the hero?