DVD OF THE WEEK: Rango
by Vadim Rizov
Shortly after his cage falls out of a car, pet chameleon Rango (voiced by
Johnny Depp) gets blown around by the passing vehicles' fierce wind tunnels, at one point flying into a car being driven by Hunter S. Thomspon surrogate Raoul Duke (Depp) and his "too weird to live, too rare to die" lawyer friend. The
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas nod is a one-off that sets the tone:
Rango is a hallucinogenic children's film. The lizard sports the same Hawaiian shirt, and the climax necessitates a heroic quest to Las Vegas, though the Depps don't meet again.The script actually manages to retain the motif and run with it, which is typical of the film's thoroughness: allusions are developed and sustained over the course of the film rather than just dropped in as jokey references for the grown-ups.
The Gilliam moment is also apt because
Rango, like
Brazil (or, more recently,
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), is a better fit for DVD viewing than in a theater, where the relentless maximalist gags and overbearing noise levels can turn from overwhelming to oppressive. As an animated film boasting the Nickelodeon brand name,
Rango technically qualifies as a children's movie, and dutifully tells the story of a little lizard with a big heart who learns to believe in himself. That material, including the inevitable deadly speeches with teachable themes, takes up about 10 minutes: the rest is gritty, freaky if you fear snakes, and surprisingly wide-ranging in its cinematic shout-outs.
When an armadillo accurately named Roadkill (
Alfred Molina) suffers a gruesome accident, it's an indication the cartoonish immortality of Wile E. Coyote doesn't apply here. Characters can die, adding an unusually tense air to a normally placid kiddie genre. The lizards themselves are incredibly grimy creatures: the variety of unpleasant characters populating the saloon in the town of Dirt?where Rango ends up?are covered with soot that rests in their jowls and between the lines of their faces. Water's scarce, and showers are out of the question: it's a frontier town with no tangible resources. It goes without saying that this isn't the kind of movie where friendly lions are vegetarians: the carniverous animals here
kill others and eat them.
Despite the rough company, Rango establishes himself as a hero after lucking out and killing a hawk. He's appointed sheriff and acquires a lady friend, Beans (
Isla Fisher); standing side by side, they look like a scaly "American Gothic." In due course, Rango must figure out how to defeat Rattlesnake Jake (
Bill Nighy), whose beady eyes and low black hat are modeled on
Lee Van Cleef in
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. For inspiration, he turns to the Spirit of the West in a desert encounter that seems escaped from a mushroom trip: in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by flickering cacti, he has a chat with the Man With No Name. (Contemporary hard man
Timothy Olyphant unsurprisingly does a fine job of channeling young
Clint Eastwood.)
Duly inspired by a living icon, Rango heads back to town to defeat the gredy mayor, Turtle John (
Ned Beatty, who between this and
Toy Story 3, has a monopoly on villainous 'toon Southerners). A dead ringer for
John Huston in
Chinatown, Turtle John rants about water being power, which is definitely true for the town's mostly reptilian population. When Rango
[innocuous spoiler alert!] finally achieves victory and breaks the Mayor's stranglehold on basic resources for capitalist gain, the mariachi/Greek chorus of owls that's been predicting his imminent death the entire film finally admits he's not going to die today, and the movie ends.
Rango is director
Gore Verbinski's first chance to blow off steam after the largely administrative function of logistically controlling the
second and
third Pirates of the Caribbean. As the creative goofing around of a man responsible for making over $1.5 billion dollars for Disney,
Rango?from a script by John Logan?makes minimal concessions; Verbinski's off the clock and working for himself. Tonally it's all over the place, from impish non-sequiturs (many voiced by Depp, who dials down the tics) to tussles with Rattlesnake Jake that are scarier than anything in
Toy Story 3. Several different movies are stuffed in here, but only the one aimed squarely at children is as dull as desert sand.
Posted by ahillis at July 12, 2011 10:27 AM
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