'Rango': A rare, original animation film (Film Review)

In 1995, William Blake, an Easterner, went looking for a job in the Wild Wild West only for him to become the hunted. Blessed with a strange, surreal luck, he survived one misfortune after another.

Circa 2011, and William Blake from "Dead Man" is back as a street smart chameleon Rango in an equally smart animation film. And this time Johnny Depp aka William Blake aka Rango, does not have to die.

Rango (Johnny Depp) is an extraordinary chameleon. Unlike others from his species, he has become so domesticated that he cannot blend in. However, his acting skills and luck help him befriend the townsfolk of Dirt, who believe his stories.

Yet, in trying to solve the problem of their dwindling water supply, not only will Rango be exposed, but also he will be forced to discover who he really is.

"Rango" is a film that will leave lovers of many cinematic genres on a high. It successfully blends breathtaking animation with spaghetti Westerns.

Yet, unlike many other films, it is not the animation that drives the story, but the quirky story that becomes the reason for every action in the film.

With a la Clint Eastwood from his westerns making a cameo as the spirit of the wild west, the film will endear to every lover of the Western genre.

However, despite a good dose of wit and humour, the film may not necessarily be suitable for children. And that is actually a good thing than bad.

It's a wrong notion that animation is just for kids. The creative potential of animation to suit adult needs has rarely been attempted. Though the makers of this film are perhaps not deliberating attempting it, "Rango" is indeed a step in that direction.

The film not only spoofs known clichés of spaghetti Westerns, but also uses the best of its elements to good effect and to create a different mood. It does the same with clichés from popular films like "Star Wars" and "Chinatown".

The metaphor of the film is against the modern notion of development. In the quest to control, human beings forget that there are other things that are dependent on that which we control.

Thus, while humans have built an oasis in the desert in the form of a city, all the characters in it, except a cameo, are small desert creatures, those that need and are thus bound by the bond of water that is perennially in a shortfall in the desert.

Johnny Depp is an actor who seems unable to make mistakes. Even when it is lending sound to a character, heavily inspired from one of his earlier films, he excels.

Combine that with imagination and creativity running amuck, a soundtrack that both spoofs and aptly uses cliché and some very creative conceptualisation, and you have in your hands an excellent, though quirky and different companion to both Dead Man and Chinatown.

Masters of the Western genres like Sergio Leone and John Ford would surely be grateful for this one for even they would be hard pressed to find a vision as original as this, either in their favourite "Western" genre, or even in animation.

And thankfully, besides excellence in animation, in terms of the story and its message, "Rango" refuses to tow the Pixar line. And that individuality in itself makes it a welcome change for many now bored with the creative predictability of Steve Jobs studio.

Depp leads "Rango" to top of box office

LOS ANGELES — Johnny Depp's "Rango," an animated tale about a chameleon who becomes sheriff to clean up the town of Dirt, earned $38 million to top North America's weekend box office, industry data showed Sunday.

"Rango," hailed by critics as clever and eccentric, proved in its debut weekend to be another successful pairing of Depp with director Gore Verbinski, who helmed the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.
Matt Damon's thriller "The Adjustment Bureau" debuted at number two, taking $21 million, according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations. It is based on a 1954 short story by Philip K. Dick ("Minority Report" and "Blade Runner").

Damon's character challenges his fate, which is closely managed by a team of mysterious men who do all they can to keep him on his predetermined path. Emily Blunt co-stars as Damon's love interest.

"Beastly" debuted in the third spot, with $10 million, after beastly reviews of the teen romance starring British heartthrob Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens ("High School Musical") in a modern take on Beauty and the Beast. Critics cited subpar acting and clunky dialogue.

Raunchy comedy "Hall Pass" fell from first to fourth place, taking $9 million for the tale of married guys whose wives let them have affairs. It was directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly.

Falling three spots to fifth was "Gnomeo and Juliet," which made $6.9 million, giving it a four-week total of $84 million. The G-rated animated retelling of Shakespeare's play features the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt.

Liam Neeson's thriller "Unknown" was sixth with $6.6 million in its third week. The Irishman stars as a botanist who tries to piece together his life atfer a car crash.

"The King's Speech," which last weekend won several Oscars including best film, was next with $6.5 million, giving it a total of $124 million in 15 weeks.

The British royal drama was in a virtual tie with Adam Sandler's romantic comedy "Just Go With It," which earned $6.5 million in its fourth week.

Teen heartthrobs battled for the bottom slots.
The chiseled-tummied Pettyfer stars in "I Am Number Four," which was number nine, with $5.7 million in its third week. Pettyfer plays a teenaged alien refugee hiding on Earth from evil invaders who killed his family.
Shaggy-headed Justin Bieber was next, as his "Never Say Never" concert documentary was tenth with $4.3 million. The Canadian pop star turned 17 on March 1.(AFP)

Lizards and light dance in `Rango'

LOS ANGELES: It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, where "the drugs began to take hold" in the Johnny Depp adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

In the manic, animated "Rango," which stars Depp as a chameleon, our coordinates are similar, and the hallucinogens are well under way. It's as though the drug-conjured lizards of "Fear and Loathing" have been contracted by Hollywood and tasked to make a Western.

Go West, young reptile.

But "Rango" proceeds from a presumably more sober place: the mind of director Gore Verbinski, who helmed the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy. It's his first animated film, but if you recall Depp's Jack Sparrow, you'll note that Verbinski is well acquainted with cartoon. "Rango" is also a first animated feature for the effects house Industrial Light & Magic.

Together, they've created perhaps the most cinematic animated film since Pixar's "Ratatouille." As a slapstick comedy, it doesn't have the emotion resonance of a Pixar film, but it's a visually stunning, endlessly inventive, completely madcap Western, made with obvious love for the genre.

"Rango" begins as movies should: with a Mariachi band of musical owls. Our narrators, they introduce the film and our hero, an early hint at the self-consciousness pervading the wink-filled "Rango."

We find our chameleon protagonist in full theatrical flight, turning his pet lizard tank into a film set, with supporting roles played by an inanimate fish toy and a palm tree: "Acting is reacting," he knowingly professes to no one.

With a wide, flat Don Rickles mouth and two giant bowl-shaped eyes, Rango, clad in a red Hawaiian shirt, doesn't look like your normal animated hero. We quickly learn that he's a precocious young actor whose life cooped up as a pet has habituated his imagination to flights of fancy. He is badly in need of an audience.

Rango is bounced out of his cage by a bump in the road and - in a beautifully done scene - tossed from the back seat of his unseen owners onto a Mojave Desert road, where he comes careening to a stop atop a broken piece of glass.

Spurred by an "enlightenment"-seeking armadillo (Alfred Molina), he sets out on a journey of self-discovery that includes momentarily landing on the windshield of the "Fear and Loathing" convertible, with Depp's former character inside.

Rango winds up in the old, rickety desert town of Dirt. Despite a resume that includes, as he claims, two one-acts and a working musical, Rango - less a chameleon of color than of character - dons the role of gunslinger so that he might impress the townspeople.

Inside a saloon, he claims with great bravado that he comes from the West, "beyond the sunset," and vanquished seven with a single bullet. Rango's dialogue, from John Logan's witty screenplay, is thoroughly Deppian in its verbosity. Rango boasts of eating men like the menacing Gila monster Bad Bill (Ray Winstone) for breakfast, adding: "Then we braise him in clarified butter."

Rango is convincing enough that he's made sheriff of Dirt. It's a town teaming with ragged curiosities: a drunk rabbit (Stephen Root), a slinky fox (Claudia Black), a wide-eyed and cynical mouse (Abigail Breslin), the prairie dog Balthazar (Harry Dean Stanton). There's also the potential love interest lizard named Beans (Isla Fisher).

Dirt's problem is water. Its dwindling supply is kept in a large jug in a bank's vault. The town's tortoise mayor (Ned Beatty) tells Rango: "You control the water, you control the desert."

With folksy villainy and a creaky wheelchair, the mayor is a perfect stand-in for John Huston's Noah Cross of "Chinatown." That film supplies the frame for much of "Rango," though only to a point. Incest is tabled and no nosey fellows get their nostrils sliced, but solving the mystery of the missing water is Rango's mission.

He seems no better equipped than Jake Gittes to solve what he deems Dirt's "aquatic conundrum." (His advice to one little creature: "Burn everything but Shakespeare.") But Rango is a method actor, and he eventually becomes the part.

As smart as "Rango" is, what most stands out is its simulation of light. With the great cinematographer Roger Deakins serving as a visual consultant and visual effects headed by Mark McCreery, the refraction of light in "Rango" may be the pinnacle yet in animation.

Shadows fall through the saloon - with glowing amber glasses of whiskey (or "cactus juice") - so authentically designed that one swears the room full of gun-totting varmints is real. Wisps of dust swirl across the road's cracked pavement.

Like Wes Anderson's entry to animation, "Fantastic Mr. Fox," Verbinski has brought live-action tools to an animated medium. The results in "Rango" are so lively that the post-movie conversation will go some time before any moviegoer remembers that 3-D was (thankfully) omitted.

The movie's postmodernism could be considered too cloying, but it comes off charming, especially because it pulls from such great sources. The Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone are joyfully referenced, complete with a cameo from the Man With No Name (voiced by Timothy Olyphant, not Clint Eastwood). Hans Zimmer's score is a playful ode to those of Ennio Morricone. (AP)

Johnny Depp loved being ‘silly’ for new movie

LOS ANGELES: Johnny Depp enjoyed making his upcoming movie Rango as it gave him the chance to “be silly”.

The actor provides the voice for the film’s title character, with stars including Bill Nighy, Isla Fisher and Abigail Breslin also displaying their vocal talents.

The comedy is CGI-animated, with the actor’s own facial expressions providing a reference for their characters, and Johnny loved delivering his performances on a soundstage alongside his co-stars.

"I think it just gives a bunch of grownups an opportunity to be silly," he laughed.

The movie is set for release next year, and tells the tale of a chameleon that aspires to be a swashbuckling hero before finding himself stuck in a Western town plagued by bandits. Johnny felt he had a great deal in common with his reptile character, as he too sometimes wonders who he really is.

"Rango is a lizard attempting to adapt to his surroundings," the star told ET. "He's trying to figure out what he's supposed to be, like most of us in life. It's certainly like nothing I've ever done before, or any of us have ever done before."