Rango

Loved it! Loved it!

By now, faithful readers, you know that I will see any movie that has certain players in it. Johnny Depp is in that league with Matt Damon (see most previous post).

Wasn't sure if I'd dig Rango, but a former student of mine, who knows me well, highly recommended it to me. All right-y.

Set in the Nevada desert, Rango, our Barney Fife-ish lead lizard (Depp) finds himself in an old western town where every one of its citizens is a desert animal (or hybrid). Faithful readers, you also know that I find the greatest flaw in a film to be unoriginality in story or character. Well, the exception lies in satire. This film is a loving parody of every western cliche, played out with exceptional technology in detail animation. It is masterful. No two characters are alike, physical and personality traits distinct. My favorite was the desert hare who was missing an ear.

Big theater stuffed with kids who actually were very well-behaved. Ah, but therein lies the rub. For you see, these innocents couldn't possibly get the majority of the gags. This movie succeeds because while it really is for adults, kids will go to see an animated movie and they won't be disappointed either. There is enough in this for them. But oh, the reward for age! Example: reference to a prostate exam as desert animal snaps on a rubber glove. Or the sudden appearance of an animated Clint Eastwood in Italian Western poncho, riding a golf cart with a box of Oscars in the back, as he makes a crack about "eating Pop Tarts with Kim Novak." hahahaha We got it. But even the young parents didn't. There were many moments when hubby and I felt like we were misbehaving because we were trying not to laugh out loud hysterically when almost no one else was.

(Note: Dastardly rattlesnake is sporting a Lee Van Cleef hat straight from those same spaghetti westerns.)

Think I'll go see it again.