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A pet lizard with a vivid imagination (voiced by Johnny Depp) finds himself stranded in the desert in “Rango.” |
Just when we all thought Pixar might be the top rung on the animated feature film ladder forever, along comes Gore Verbinski’s radical neo-retro-three-dimensional-non-3-D-Western-tribute-spoof “Rango,” starring Johnny Depp as a thespian lizard deputy.
As Depp’s chameleonic law man changes colors and tactics, “Rango” likewise constantly shape-shifts by twisting itself into a marvelous, merry mix of moods and movie genres.
Kids will be greatly entertained by “Rango,” but it has been made primarily for adults who love movies and have seen enough of them to catch the zillions of film references that fly off the screen at the speed of light.
“Apocalypse Now”? It’s in there. Except that helicopters have been replaced by bats being ridden by bad-guy critters who play Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” on their own instruments as they head into battle.
“High Noon”? “The Road Warrior”? “The Wizard of Oz”? “Chinatown”? They’re in this movie, too, along with Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns.
There’s even a mysterious character called the Spirit of the West who looks suspiciously like Clint Eastwood, and sounds just like him. (Timothy Olyphant’s voice is an audio dead-ringer for the Man With No Name.)
Listen carefully to the soundtrack. You’ll hear a musical homage to “The Magnificent Seven” and other Westerns. (Read more…)