Movie Review: Rango

Insanely clever animated desert sagebrush saga has to burn style and wit.

Friday, March 4 (Paramount Pictures)

Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, Stephen root, Ned Beatty, Claudia Black, Ian Abercrombie, Gil Birmingham

Gore Verbinski

The dusty cards of the old West are in a winning hand in Rango, to burn an insanely clever animated desert sagebrush saga with style and wit newly mixed. Will reconfigure of the spaghetti in a Fusilli con Camaleonte, Gore Verbinski's surprising image escape after years in the Caribbean eye-poppingly visualized in the hyper-realistic style, sometimes bordering on the Surrealists. The verbal flights of fantasy are often directly over the heads of the Rugrats, sail, such as the numerous references to and classic movies twists, so that this an animated feature, enjoy some adults may be more than their children. But the presence of Johnny Depp in the title role virtually guaranteed, muscular for this paramount/Nickelodeon production back.

Rango has the feel of a lark, a film-lover's spree in a playpen equipped with some of the world's most expensive and expressive toys. Verbinski has also the advantage, some talented playmates, including technical wizards at Industrial Light + Magic (the first animation work to the company), some of his pirates effects cohorts and visual consultant Roger Deakins, who helps the image look as much shot as animated.

Undoubtedly thrust of the first kids' Toon feature a tribute to fear and Loathing in Las Vegas within the first 10 minutes, Rango pivots on the pilgrim's progress by a gentle pet is Chameleon, size, on him if he purports to a past of accomplished gunfights in the name of justice. Here he is Sheriff of the dry desert city of dirt, chaired by a fat, old turtle that controls water supply of the ragged community, a situation, which the film properly allows a child-friendly ecological theme at the record for buffs, Summoning magic also strong memories of Chinatown.

Rango has something else in mind as the General version of the animated feature, a bulging-eyed Chameleon, which is usually blue, is clear in the preliminary philosophical banter between Rango (Depp), and has a Don Quixote-like Armadillo (Alfred Molina) its Mittelteil wheel was flattened by a truck. The compositions, especially in this range are bizarre, fanciful, as Rango's-associative Musings, of which some are so fast that it difficult to take of all in.

Mariachi OWL band, was on his way through the arid landscapes of a mordant meets Rango female lizard beans (Isla Fisher), with which he stumbles on the aptly named City of dirt by a variety of lively busy critters is realized, who together share one thing: You are all thirsty and can't last much longer without water. The wheelchair, seemingly awesome old turtle Mayor, who is voiced by Ned Beatty , and looks like, the good times we all promises him and co-opt attempts, Rango, promoting his fictional legend by killing a giant, Metal beaked Hawk, he was ordered by the Sheriff.

While some disturbing sideline villainy some busy fires chases and battles, is the real villain who has a mayor, who has been in preparation for the day of hoarding water if he will have bought up all the surrounding land for cheap. His henchmen the giant rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) is memorably equipped with a rapid-fire Cannon, where his rattle normally would be. But before Rango is its high noon with the snake, he has an encounter with a iconic characters called the spirit of the West, which an uncanny resemblance to an aged man with no name is.

If filmmakers who never works in animation have in the deep end jump could the result freshly innovative and the almost clueless lie between. In this case, it is fortunately the former reigning. Screenwriter John Logan, until cooked with Verbinski and its longtime Illustrator and conceptual consultant working from a story, James Ward Byrkit, genre stirs the pot archetypes, conventions and clichés with a keen eye for your amusing reusability when writing also whether fine character dialogue.

For its part the Director has dressed broke with Convention by recording the vocal performances, not separately in the isolation of the Studio estates, but with the actors, the cooperation on a stage prop-laden and partly for 23 days, during this time her work filmed from HD cameras, so that animators later their facial expressions and physical gestures could refer for inspiration. There is evidence of this work with some Akteure--particularly Depp and Beatty--more than others, but the verbal exchanges wake up and flow in the manner and way accomplished ensemble work. in the promotional materials call the filmmakers the technique of "Emotion capture," in contrast to motion capture.

But außergewöhnlichsten is the visual style, which even the best animated 3D a look poor cousin. Animated more than in any other work in the sense comes, was much love, light and shadow, shades of color, details of faces, costumes and props and paid the set of recordings. Some of these should deliberately ape the density of the compositions in certain classical Western and even more, in which the Italian champions of Sergio Leone. In addition, it is considered the twists that add the filmmakers, such as create Monument-Valley like background, but intentionally change its color from reddish to a sandy yellow or refer to reduction of the city in spots on what its skeleton could arrest.

They are imaginative leaps of Hans of room count, on which reworks the sound of Ennio Morricone scores for Leone way celebrated, that are exciting, sometimes funny, but never stupid.

A few objectionable dialogue Exchange are slightly surprising for a family-friendly, PG-rated motion picture, and fall another five minutes or so would have tightened the screws on his behalf.

Release date: Friday, March 4 (Paramount Pictures)
Production: Nickelodeon, blind wink, GK film
Voice cast: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, Stephen root, Ned Beatty, Claudia Black, Ian Abercrombie, Gil Birmingham
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: John Logan, based on a story by Logan, Gore Verbinski, James Ward Byrkit
Manufacturer: Gore Verbinski, Graham King, John B. Carls
Executive Producer: Tim Headington
Production designer: Mark "Crash" McCreery
Visual effects supervisors: Tim Alexander, John Knoll
Animation supervisor: HAL Hickel
Visual consultant: Roger Deakins
Editor: Craig wood
Music: Hans Zimmer
PG-rating, 107 minutes