Rango and the Western1

To me it looks like the genre of the Western is trying to make a come back. We had True Grit earlier this year and the video game Red Dead Redemption was a huge hit last year. Not to mention Cowboys and Aliens out last week. There were even plans by Disney to bring The Lone Ranger to the big screen with Johnny Depp. However it looks like Disney has pulled the plug on the production as they could not afford the films two hundred million dollar budget. Why the hell would a western need so much money? Beats me, but it must have something to do with the CGI werewolves the heroes would be fighting. Seriously!

On the topic of westerns, today I want to talk about another recent western starring Johnny Depp, Rango. This was a little animated movie that came out earlier this year and has recently hit DVD and Blu-ray. It looks to be an animated family film but in reality is a western in every sense. It is practically a homage to the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns of the 1970’s made famous by Clint Eastwood.

The lizard with no name

The story follows an unnamed pet chameleon who is thrown out of his comfortable surroundings to find himself wandering the Nevada desert. Coming across a small, dirty, hostile town of animals, funnily enough called Dirt, he takes on the name of Rango and builds a false reputation as a bad ass. With a town full of troubles including gunslingers, eagles and a water shortage problem, Rango quickly falls into the role of Sheriff. Now this is a story we have seen a hundred times before, a hero who is living a lie and must find his courage and honour to become the true hero. But Rango deals with this story in the most classic and purest sense and does not shy away from the Western clichés and motifs.

The animation is fantastic and in particular the character animation is some of the best and most unique I’ve seen in sometime. There is so much detail to everything in this film. The characters, environments and even the sand and dust feels gritty as you watch it. Again falling back on the Western feel, everything looks dirty and ugly. There is nothing pretty in this film. The characters made up of lizards, rats, birds and other icky creatures. Then they are contorted, scarred, roughed up and covered in crap. Even the town of Dirt has a nice rust coat along with a beaten, old and neglected look just like those classic frontier towns. The characters themselves are so expressive that so much of the humour is told through simple glances and odd visual quirks.

Spirit of the West

Oh I did forget to mention that this movie is really kind of weird. That surreal desert hallucination type weirdness that could put some people off. But it’s all to do with the introspective journey of the hero trying to find out who he really is and it works pretty well. But I’m not going to lie, it is weird. They even have a character in this movie called the Spirit of the West and he is literally Clint Eastwood (voiced by Deadwood star Timothy Olyphant) dressed as the man with no name, driving a golf cart. It is odd and they couldn’t make their love of Spaghetti westerns more obvious if they tried, and they do.

If you can sit down and watch this as a humorous and fun western you will have a ball with this movie. It’s got great action scenes, laugh out loud moments and interesting characters. Plus that forefront feel of the classic western makes this more than well worth picking up on Blu-Ray. Yes Blu-Ray, not DVD. There is so much detail in every frame of this movie you need it to be crisp and clear just to see it all. Although I will warn you, watching Rango will make you thirsty. Also if you are going to watch this movie as a good animation then this is a more then an adequate substitute for the good Pixar movie we didn’t get this year (yes Cars 2 was not good). So if you have some spare time this weekend pick it up. See you next week.

Rowan

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