Believe it or not, there are times where Rango manages to border on filmic brilliance. The story, revolving around a eccentric lizard (brought to life wonderfully by Johnny Depp) who finds himself on an epic adventure to save a town in the Wild West from succumbing to a draught, cunningly plays on the Western genre's greatest hits like No Country For Old Men both in its scripting and visual camerawork, and although the opening is just plain bizarre, likely to put off some mainstream viewers if they've just flicked over to it, once the absurdity of the film's premise has passed, we find ourselves with a great homage to a somewhat deceased genre of filmmaking that to an extent has been left untapped in recent years. What's more, the cast of relative newcomers (bar Depp, of course) do a fantastic job of maintaining a serious attitude to the events of the plot, an attribute which many animated flicks seem to take for granted nowadays, providing the movie with a more realistic and authentic feel despite its PG-rated undertones. I reckon any adults watching this will be pleasantly surprised at the number of visual cues, dialogue in-jokes and general Western references they can pick up on first-time round, and that possibility of multiple generations finding multiple types of elements to love about the film lends it a certain accessibility yet keeps it complex enough so as not to verge on the over-simplicity of recent comedy sequels like Kung Fu Panda 2. If you're willing to give Rango a fair chance, there's a lot to love here, and while the occassional sheer silliness of it all may put off mainstream viewers, any film veterans out there should at least give this animated great a try before they dismiss it outright.
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