Rango is not a children’s movie

Well that was not what I was expecting.  The original teaser trailer for this movie was pretty off the wall, since it was just the plastic fish floating across the road, but I didn’t think that would be a more accurate portrayal of the movie than any of the subsequent trailers.  This movie is flat out weird, in typical Johnny Depp fashion.  The fact that it’s animated does not take away from that weirdness at all, it might even add to it.  This starts out as a fish out of water tale, where our hero who is initially nameless but dubs himself Rango finds himself lost in the desert and eventually finds Dirt, a town low on water that could use a hero.  Out of practically nowhere and through a series of misinterpreted events, Rango is dubbed that hero and works to save the town.

I had to look up the cast on IMDB after seeing the movie and it’s surprisingly loaded, at least with recognizable names.  Bill Nighy was the biggest surprise, I didn’t quite realize it until he did some of the rasping like he did with Davy Jones in The Pirates of the Caribbean, and he does well as a villain here too.  The rest of the cast does an excellent job playing the different residents of the town, and makes for an interesting cast of characters.  They all have their own personalities and aren’t just throwaway characters, which is a nice change of pace for an animated movie.

The weirdest parts of this movie are what I guess could be called dream sequences.  They aren’t always dreams per se, but they are some really trippy imagery and whole sequences that just make you go “Whoa.”  Especially the sequences with the armadillo and the Spirit of the West, those are just mind bending in a way that isn’t just lost on children, but probably some adults that see this movie as well.  It’s odd juxtaposed with the main storyline that is pretty standard for a kid’s movie, but overall works with how odd everything seems to be portrayed in this film.  The fact that you’re reflecting on scenes in this movie though makes it much deeper than a lot of movies you’ll see animated.

All in all, this movie isn’t unexpected for one starring Johnny Depp, it’s just the format that really throws you off at first.  But if you go into this movie like you have with past Johnny Depp movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Alice in Wonderland, it will make far more sense.  This movie is definitely worth seeing, but if you are looking for a fluffy movie to watch some weekend, this may be a little more than you expect.

John Hackert is a columnist and doesn’t quite get the “symbology”.