“Rango” is a western, a road movie, and a character study wrapped in a computer-animated shell. It follows a chameleon named Rango who washes up in the desert town of Dirt after a car crash. There he tries to find a purpose beyond being a pet, and finds himself playing a sheriff in a town that needs one. The film is directed by Gore Verbinski, who also helmed the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, and it carries the same sense of controlled chaos.
Trailer, via Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers.
Rango’s Crash Into the Desert
Rango is voiced by Johnny Depp, and the performance is the engine of the whole machine. He plays the chameleon as a nervous, twitchy creature who cannot stop changing color, a physical joke that becomes a metaphor for his search for identity. The film opens with Rango in a terrarium, a fishbowl existence, and the moment he crashes into the desert is the moment the film tells us he has left that behind.
Dirt is a town in the middle of nowhere, a dusty crossroads with a population that barely fills a room. Its inhabitants include a lizard barkeep, a rattlesnake mechanic, and a weasel mayor who runs the town with an iron paw. They are all voiced by the likes of Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, and Abigail Breslin, and they give the town a lived-in feel that most animated films miss entirely.
The film is a comedy, but it does not treat its characters as jokes. It treats them as people who happen to look like animals, and that shift in perspective is what makes the humor land.
Depp’s Performance as Rango
Depp’s performance is the standout. He takes a chameleon that could have been a cartoon caricature and makes him a man in a lizard suit, full of anxiety and ambition. The voice is a low, nasal drawl that sounds like a man who has spent too much time in a fishbowl and is now trying to talk over a crowd of strangers. It is a performance that holds the film together, and it is the reason “Rango” works at all.
The supporting cast is just as strong. Nighy’s rattlesnake is a gruff, practical man who speaks in short, direct sentences. Fisher’s lizard is a barkeep who knows everyone’s business and keeps her own counsel. Breslin’s weasel is a young girl who sees Rango as a hero, and she is the one who forces him to step into the role of sheriff. Each of them gets a scene that shows why they matter to the town, and the film takes the time to let them breathe.
The Music and the Art
The music is a mix of country and western, with a score by Woody Guthrie’s grandson, Arlo Guthrie. The songs are performed by Depp, and they are a strange fit for the material. One song, “The Ballad of Rango,” is a folk-style tune about a man who cannot change his nature, and it is sung with a sincerity that almost breaks through the cartoon surface. Another, “Wishful Thinkin’,” is a rockabilly number that Depp delivers with a snarl. They are odd choices, but they give the film a sense of history, as if this were a story that had been told around campfires for years.
The animation is hand-drawn in the style of John Lasseter’s Pixar films, with a watercolor look that gives the desert a soft, painterly quality. The town of Dirt is a patchwork of buildings that lean and sag, and the streets are dust and sand. The film looks like a painting that has been set in motion, and it is a beautiful thing to watch.
The Water Shortage and the Chase
The plot is simple. Rango arrives in Dirt, pretends to be a sheriff, and the town accepts him as one. Then he has to catch a serial killer lizard who is eating the town’s residents. The chase scenes are fast and funny, with Rango chasing the killer across the desert while the townspeople cheer him on. But the middle of the film drags. There is a subplot about a water shortage that is never fully resolved, and a romance between Rango and a female lizard that feels like it exists only to give him a reason to save the town.
The film is also a bit mean. It is a western, and westerns are often cruel to their characters, but “Rango” pushes further than most. Characters die, and the film does not flinch. It is a children’s film that does not treat children as stupid, and it is a rare thing to see. But it also means that some of the jokes land harder than they should.
A Comparison of the Voices
| Character | Voice Actor | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Rango | Johnny Depp | Sheriff of Dirt |
| The Barkeep | Isla Fisher | Lizard |
| The Mechanic | Bill Nighy | Rattlesnake |
| The Weasel Mayor | Abigail Breslin | Girl |
The Final Word
“Rango” is a flawed film, but it is a bold one. It takes risks that most animated films avoid, and it trusts its audience to follow. The voice performances are excellent, the animation is beautiful, and the score is memorable. It is a film that rewards attention, even when it loses its way in the middle.
The film ends with Rango finding his purpose in Dirt, and the final shot is a freeze-frame of him sitting on a porch, a man in a lizard suit. It is a quiet ending, but it is the right one. The film has spent its runtime teaching Rango that he is not a pet, and that lesson is complete.
“Rango” is a film that respects its audience and its characters. It is not perfect, but it is ambitious, and ambition is a kind of courage. The film earns its reputation as a cult classic, and it deserves to be remembered alongside the best of the genre.
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