Rango

[soonforgotten]

I really enjoyed this. The animation was spectacular. Easily the best non-Pixar aminated film visually. It may even top Pixar to be honest. I was astounded by the level of detail put in. I agree that this really isn't for young kids, but I was pleasantly surprised by this, selfishly. I thought it was pretty solid when it wasn't laugh out loud funny, which it was at several points or shockingly off-beat. The main plot was a bit bland, which is where it loses a couple points for me. Hans Zimmer provided an excellent score, per usual and not only was there a lot of great voice acting talent, the amount of different characters that they rendered with such detailed perfection really blew me away. I can see this becoming a cult hit, but probably not a mainstream box-office smash. 8/10

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

You have to admire any director that instead of directing the fourth installment in a successful franchise (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) that you helped create and is likely to be a sure-fire box office hit, decides to direct an odd and exact homage to Spaghetti Westerns featuring lizards and rodents. Quite possibly commiting career suicide in the process. How big an audience is there for this kind of tribute and what kind of audience is actually likely to go and see it. Apart from me obviously as I thought this was quite brilliant.

Just from the first 10 minutes you know you are seeing something pretty unique. A lizard suffering an existential crisis, a bit of bastardised Shakespeare, a wind-up plastic goldfish called Mr Tibbs, talking road-kill and a Hunter S Thompson cameo (a nod to Johnny Depp perhaps but a hint of the films location which you don't find out until late on in the film). This packs more into that 10 minutes than most films manage in their entirety. Once the film gets underway proper it's a glorious and quite intricate love-letter to the work of Sergio Leone and the Franco Nero character Django (the name Rango being an obvious nod to that).

Beautifully animated (apart from most of the characters who are, in the best Spaghetti Western tradition, a vast gallery of grotesques) and often very funny, this left me with a smile on my face for most of the film. The attention to detail was sublime and the variety of visual and verbal gags meant it was endlessly inventive. The voice work was perfect, with Johnny Depp giving his best performance in ages, and some nice support from Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy and Ray Winstone. I loved the 'cameo' from one of the most notable Spaghetti Western actors ever, here voiced by Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West (The film awards in the back of the golf cart were a nice touch). The Hans Zimmer score was note perfect too. It was a little too long and sagged a bit in the middle but no film is perfect.

I loved this but clearly a lot of people won't. Indeed it's hard to see how big an audience this is likely to have in the long run outside of movie buffs.

As a big fan of spaghetti westerns, this review sells Rango for me. well a positive review from KK can sell any movie to an fmuker...damn KK has got some power round here.

Hope I can catch this on its general release at the cinema.

[TheDude]

Had a bit of a movie marathon today and enjoyed Rango the most... I love Leone's and other westerns so Rango was definitely a hit for me, loved all the movie nods as mentioned above, specially the Man With No Name cameo, had to check the credits at the end, almost had me fooled it was Clint himself...

The big chase for the bottle that turns out to be full of sand reminded me of Mad Max, and then bits of music definitely had some Morricone in there. My chum and I chuckled happily until the end, but I could see a lot of kids getting restless after an hour or so. It's not perfect, but still a strong 8/10.

On a side note, don't suppose any of you early birds saw the chameleon in the lobby jump on a girl's face, about 5 minutes before the start of the film? She wasn't injured but looked rather traumatised... poor thing then had to watch the film!

[the-mental-one]

That chameleon was really a very unhappy chappy, too many people and too much noise had it so scared it kept trying to run away and hide.

[hottips]

You have to admire any director that instead of directing the fourth installment in a successful franchise (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) that you helped create and is likely to be a sure-fire box office hit, decides to direct an odd and exact homage to Spaghetti Westerns featuring lizards and rodents. Quite possibly commiting career suicide in the process. How big an audience is there for this kind of tribute and what kind of audience is actually likely to go and see it. Apart from me obviously as I thought this was quite brilliant.

Just from the first 10 minutes you know you are seeing something pretty unique. A lizard suffering an existential crisis, a bit of bastardised Shakespeare, a wind-up plastic goldfish called Mr Tibbs, talking road-kill and a Hunter S Thompson cameo (a nod to Johnny Depp perhaps but a hint of the films location which you don't find out until late on in the film). This packs more into that 10 minutes than most films manage in their entirety. Once the film gets underway proper it's a glorious and quite intricate love-letter to the work of Sergio Leone and the Franco Nero character Django (the name Rango being an obvious nod to that).

Beautifully animated (apart from most of the characters who are, in the best Spaghetti Western tradition, a vast gallery of grotesques) and often very funny, this left me with a smile on my face for most of the film. The attention to detail was sublime and the variety of visual and verbal gags meant it was endlessly inventive. The voice work was perfect, with Johnny Depp giving his best performance in ages, and some nice support from Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy and Ray Winstone. I loved the 'cameo' from one of the most notable Spaghetti Western actors ever, here voiced by Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West (The film awards in the back of the golf cart were a nice touch). The Hans Zimmer score was note perfect too. It was a little too long and sagged a bit in the middle but no film is perfect.

I loved this but clearly a lot of people won't. Indeed it's hard to see how big an audience this is likely to have in the long run outside of movie buffs.

Wow, KK has made me think of this in a whole new light. I like Westerns, but don't love them. I picked up on the fact that it was an homage but missed a lot of the less obvious things initially. Now with a bit more thought I do think that it was a clever movie.

At the screening, I was obviously distracted by all the children, the fact that some people found it soothing to keep passing their hands along the balloons (and make that wonderful noise ) and my son's chair was broken and he kept rocking in it.

So on the whole I did think that marketing this as a young children's movie was very misleading. I felt that it was too long and my neices if they had come along would have been bored during most of it. It was not as clever in the telling of the story as 'Up' which I felt appealed to both adults and children on a number of levels. However thinking about it as an homage to the Spagetti Western and the noting the visual references I would like to see it again, possibly in the comfort of my own home.

6.5/10

[wolverina2411]

The first thing came to our mind when the scene where Rango and his hat was carried by a troupe of beetles in the whitey cloudy background was Pirates of Carribean 3. when Jack Sparrow (and his clones) was in the underworld, the Black Pearl was moved by millions of crabs. It has the same vibe....

You have to admire any director that instead of directing the fourth installment in a successful franchise (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) that you helped create and is likely to be a sure-fire box office hit, decides to direct an odd and exact homage to Spaghetti Westerns featuring lizards and rodents. Apart from me obviously as I thought this was quite brilliant.

Now it makes sense,the crazy Depp with the brilliant director were paired up again . I love Depp and hat-off to him for this interesting character.

Our gamble to come pa*d off, kids were loving the whole free stuffs ( I wished there's churos! hehehe) and we took some cacti home too. As everyone else, we also feel the movie is not for kids. In fact the main issue of the story is to heavy for kids to digest. I do enjoy the movie but it does dooze me off at some scene.... but that's Depp he never take an easy straight forward character, even for animation! BTW, does it mention at any part of the movie, what's Rango 's actual name??? Just curious

it's a 7.5/10 from me (just because I love Depp....apparently even in chameleon persona!)

[superhero]

I doubt it's going to be that niche, as it is getting a wide release next week in the States, but it will naturally be playing older than the Gnomeo and Juliet crowd. Can't really add more to the excellent reviews above. A respectable 7/10 from me
Can't wait to see how loved/unloved it will be at the box office this weekend

[emmaob3]

I love childrens animation films, there's something nostalgic about watching films like this that remind me of being younger! Can't wait to see this later in the week!!!!!

[Judesmom]

I have to say I really didn't enjoy this one at all. I thought it was boring and dull and parts that were meant to be funny really fell flat for me.

[andrews]

Well, I can honestly say that I don't know what to make of this one. I'm going to have to think it over for a day or two.