Movie reviews this week look at the very enjoyable animation movie, Rango, starring the superb Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands). It also stars Isla Fisher (The Wedding Crashers) as Beans and the lovely AbiGail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) as an adorable and questioning mouse called Priscilla.
We meet Rango, a very theatrical chameleon, who spends all of his time alone, but has devised a number of ways to entertain himself (playing roles and making up stories). It just so happens that his intrepid story telling is to be put to the test, as he soon finds himself in the real world (it turns out all this time he was improvising with a plastic fish for a friend, he was living in a tank, we find this out as there is a road accident, and Rango gets thrown out of his surroundings). He meets an anteater called Roadkill played by Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2, An Education), who is trying to get to the other side where there is the mythical spirit of the West, and all that they seek.
The two are soon separated and Rango finds himself in a desert town, where the locals are desperate for water, and in fact the local bank (called the dirt bank) instead of money has water, but its levels are running dangerously low. Rango’s wild tales of killing several outlaws with just one bullet gets him respect, admiration, and soon he becomes the sheriff of the town, when by some twist of luck (or call it fate), he does manage to kill an eagle that had been preying on the town with just one bullet. The local mayor a turtle played by the much-loved Ned Beatty (Superman), sees that the town needs someone to believe in and at that moment it is Rango. Rango on the other hand takes to his new role with suitable aplomb, getting all the benefits of being sheriff, until you wonder if he has told too many lies to be able to back out, especially as the town is running out of water, and people are looking to Rango to solve it, which he promises he will.
Rango is an extremely enjoyable animation, both adults and kids will like, and some of the lines in the film are certain to be classics, such as Rango saying “I want a urine sample from everybody and somebody get me a latte…don’t get the two confused.”