Tangle with Rango is well outside the square

RANGO is a big budget studio cartoon. Right. Big budget studio cartoons are for kids. Correct. Kids will enjoy Rango. Don’t be so sure.
The new Johnny Depp-voiced animated feature has plenty to keep adults happy.
It is a visually spectacular film that is reminiscent of the crazy cartoon style of Warner Brothers’ Merry Melodies.
The elastic bodies and faces of the Rango characters are a pleasure to behold. The scene in which the title character falls out of the back of a car onto a busy highway is as delightful as any scene of impending death can be.
The story ticks along at a leisurely pace, a bit like the torpid mood of Dirt, the old-style western town in which the movie is set.
Rango is one of those films where the plot is not so important. It’s about the journey, not the destination.
Rango the character is a likeable but flawed lizard who does all the things expected of a hero. He leads the forces of good over the forces of evil, he wins the girl and wins back his dignity after a lifetime of delusion and hubris.
But don’t go to the deep end of the pool to find the pleasures of Rango. It’s the amazing look of the characters, their funny lines and the many pop-culture and old-time western references that make this film so enchanting.
Rango the lizard may have “found himself” by the end of 107 minutes, but it was much more fun watching him battle a steel-beaked bird, play out a dramatic scene in his lizard enclosure or tell tall tales to easily impressed yokels in a bar.
The only problem for parents is whether they can take their kids as an excuse to see this film.
In checking if it was a suitable movie for my eight-year-old, I came across a reviewer who said he felt awkward as a solitary man in a theatre full of mums and children, who looked at him like some sort of weirdo.
He had the last laugh, however, claiming he “appreciated the film far more than their children’s feeble little brains possibly could.”
Despite this warning, I took my young son and he was clearly out of his depth.
I don’t think his mind was irreparably damaged, but he would rather have watched something a little less bizarre, a little more comfortable. He’ll have to wait for Toy Story 4.
– Danny Buttler