By Carter Friend
Up until its release, I never really knew what to expect from Rango. It looked quite odd, and a surprising choice for Gore Verbinski, the Pirates of the Carribean director. So I basically went into the movie without any expectations. As it turns out, the movie was….just plain weird.
Rango is not at all your typical animated movie. It wasn’t even filmed typically. The voice actors in the movie actually acted everything out instead of just providing dialogue. Another oddity about the movie was its animation style. It went for a very realistic style, and while it was very well done, I much prefer the kind of animation that Disney and Pixar put out. All of the characters in this movie look kind of gross, especially the rodents. It makes the movie sort of unappealing and doesn’t make you want to root for any of the characters. I wouldn’t be surprised if some children leave the movie scared to death by some of the characters. Speaking of scary, I’m actually surprised this movie was rated PG. There was a ton of violence, some fowl language, and some gross-out scenes. Why on earth do I want to look at a half alive armadillo that’s been run over by a car and is flattened in the middle? The simple answer is that I don’t.
Despite the film’s oddities, I must admit the titular character himself is rather charming. He’s the one character who I really liked and wanted to see succeed. That is thanks to a brilliant performance by Johnny Depp. I had no idea he was such a good voice actor. He never ceases to surprise me with his versatility. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Abigail Breslin had a role in this, albeit a small one. We haven’t seen much from her recently. Another thing I found surprising was Timothy Olyphant playing Clint Eastwood. Did I mention this movie was weird?
I realize that this is a very short review, but I feel like there is not much more to say about this movie. Apparently the critics loved it, so I may just be missing something here, but I found it to be quite odd. Johnny Depp is great, as is the character, but everything else is just strange. And creepy. And a little bit demented. However, at least it wasn’t in 3D. Those rodents would have really scared the hell out of me if they were popping out of the screen.
The Verdict: 2.5 out of 5
P.S. What the heck was up with that fish? And those singing birds? Too weird…