Though Rango has some of the best animation I’ve seen in a while, the quirky characters are not enough to keep the familiar story from being subpar to better films of the genre.

The film opens on a chameleon named Lars during his daily routine of putting on productions with his fellow tankmates (AKA non-living items), a hobby that helps escape the static existence he has grown accustomed to.  But when he literally hits a bump in the road he goes flying out of his owner’s car to be left alone in the middle of a desert.  Venturing out away from the one marking of human civilization in this barren land, Lars eventually happens upon a small town called Dirt, where he is able to once again blend into his surroundings in the only way he knows how by stepping into the rough boots of Rango, a tough gunslinger who just might be what this town needs to survive in the worsening water shortage. [Read more...]

Rango’s story might be a familiar hodgepodge of classic film’s and such, but the title character and the amount of weirdness the film throws at us elevates it to accompany the incredible ILM animation.

To call the film is actually almost an understatement. The film constantly borderlines on being inappropriate for children, has some rather graphic imagery, and it is nearly photo realistically produced by the pros at Industrial Light and Magic.  Please, ILM, make more animated films; beautiful stuff.  I didn’t even get to see the film in its full digital glory, stuck watching on film, and it was still incredible to look at. But enough gushing on how pretty and weird it is.

The film follows Rango, a lizard, who has been living his life acting out scenes with his inanimate surroundings of his tank/cage.  When he is bummed out the back of his owners car with nothing but his wind up orange fish in the middle of the desert he is sent along to discover Dirt.  Dirt is a more or less waterless, western, town that is losing its town’s people by the day as their water supply has all but dried out.  When Rango shows up he puts his acting talents to work and conjures up a tough guy persona for the townsfolk and soon finds himself as the leader on the hunt for the town’s water.

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