Rango (Triple Play - Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) [2011] [Region Free]

Reading some of the reviews, I thought Rango might not be suitable for my three year old daughter, and considering it was a PG I had a watch of it first to see what I thought.

The film begins in a very similar way to the excellent Aardman/Dreamworks Flushed Away, a pampered but lonely pet is thrown into the wild world and forced to fend for himself.

It then morphs into the classic western plot, stranger in town, corrupt mayor, gunslingers etc, all played out by a cast of beautifully animated ugly wild creatures.

Yes, it is weird, the animals are not standardised Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks cuties - they are rough and ready, battered looking wild creatures.

Yes, some of the references - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Clint Eastwood westerns, assorted Tarantino-esque moments - will be lost on little ones, but then the best animated films appeal to all age groups.

After watching I decided my daughter would get along OK with Rango, and it has quickly become a favourite, being requested most days!

I would say that if your kids can handle the weirder side of animation - my daughters favourites include Coraline, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox, the Nightmare Before Christmas and the Studio Ghibli movies - they will love this film. If they prefer their animation a bit more cute and cuddly, perhaps steer clear or buy it for the grown ups to enjoy!

I expected a lot from the duo Verbinski/Depp and I was not disappointed. Both me and my 10 y.o. daughter we spend a great cinema moment together watching "Rango" and I recommend this movie for a whole family evening, as it is a typical "kidult" (kid+adult) movie. In fact, when I looked, there were more adults than kids in the cinema and they were all having a really great time!

The reasons why this movie is so good are many, and I will try to enumerate the more important, avoiding the spoilers as much as possible:

1) It is a really really good, solid classical western, with all the necessary ingredients: a lawless town (named Dirt), a mysterious lone stranger, a cemetery filled with dead sheriffs, a cute (although tough) senorita in dire straits, a bank robbery, a saloon filled with the scum of the earth, a joyful merry undertaker (which is only normal - his is the only prospering business in Dirt), a deadly evil gunfighter who ALWAYS "takes a soul" in every town he visits, an Indian tracker (who molts, but we shall not hold it against him, shall we?) and also desperadoes, buzzards, posses, dynamite, old timers with shotguns, youngsters with Colts, hillbillies with Gatling machine guns, booze galore, Far West stories, coffee and beans around a campfire, mariachis on the cactuses and let's not forget the seven brothers killed with one bullet...)))

2) Johny Depp gives to Rango more than just his voice - this lizard IS Johny Depp! And also by placing in his mouth some of the lines from "Pirates of the Caribbean", Johny Depp made me relieve some of the best moments of this franchise. There were moments when I half expected seeing Barbossa behind that Gatling machine gun!

3) The Spirit of the West - as a wise old armadillo called Roadkill teaches Rango, "the Spirit of the West rides in a white chariot with a guard of golden warriors" - and indeed he does! And I guarantee you that when you finally meet yourself the Spirit of the West you will spill the soda on your pants and choke on your popcorn, like half of the public did (me included) when we were watching it in the cinema! I almost died laughing at this moment (although my daughter did not get the joke - and I think most of the kids will not get it either). No more spoilers here about The Spirit of the West!

4) Visually and graphically this is a very well done movie, quite unique in style, unlike anything else made by Pixar or Dreamworks. In fact I really hope that Nickelodeon Movies will carry on, because this style of movie making completes very pleasantly the offer on the market of kid (and kidult) movies. VERY good job on the visual aspect of this movie!

To keep the things short I will not say much more and I will just invite you to see it in the cinema if you still can and then to enjoy it on DVD. And I am all in favor of a sequel, in which we could hear for example an old grumpy one eyed rat saying: "Fill yer hands, rascals!" before charging ahead with his Colts blazing!

We went to see this on the spur of the moment as there was nothing else we fancied on at the pictures that night. I'm glad we did as this is one of the most 'feel good' films I have seen in a long time. I wont go on as the other reviewers have mentioned all the best bits already but I have to say that the 'Ride of the Valkyries' played on banjos - a parody of the iconic Apocalypse Now scene - was brilliant.
I've seen it twice now and can't wait to get the Blue-ray when it comes out.