ILM – Creating The Impossible
Something quite literally amazing for a gloomy Sunday, here is one of George Lucas’s finer achievements;
Rango (2011)
Move over Pixar, there’s a new sheriff in town. I’ve been acutely aware that I’ve been a little negative on the blog this year, all the films I’ve liked have been mostly depressing affairs, and most of the fun films I’ve slated have been the mainstream lightweight stuff – what can I say, I’ve got to be honest. After yesterdays disappointment I thought I’d throw caution to the wind and revisit a genre I rarely trouble – the kids film – a category of movie that I would normally confine to the outputs of two studios, the lofty excellence of both Pixar and Miyazaki. My interest in the new film Rango however has pushed me to investigate beyond this narrow purview, mostly due to the glowing reviews that the film has generated from the likes of the Criterion Cast crew and the Film Junk gang, I usually agree with their views and conclusions on the relative merits of films old and new, and quite frankly I just wanted to escape in something agile and inconsequential – mission accomplished.
Narrated in part by a of quartet of crooning Mexican owls Rango is the story of a thespian lizard, voiced by Johnny Depp, whom finds himself abandoned in the desert after a narrowly avoided car collusion throws his cage free from its moorings to shatter upon the blazing Mohave desert. Wandering into the anthropomorphically populated town of Dirt Rango soon finds himself the centre of attention after he nervously claims to be a wandering gun-slinger, a claim that earns the title of sheriff once he accidentally dispatches a predatory hawk who has been terrorising the community. The town is facing a deadly water shortage according to the mistrustful Mayor (Ned Beatty) and Rango soon develops a relationship with a local orphaned homesteader named Beans (Isla Fisher), when the towns pitiful resources are stolen by a roving band of prospectors its’ up to our mendacious hero to lead the charge to recoup their resources, a mission that soon reveals a devious plot that threatens the whole locality…
Rango is genuinely innovative for an animated film, it tries some new things, it has a plausible internal universe and the animation itself is simply phenomenal. Most importantly for me was the trademark pop culture references and gags, to my mind they are normally lazily thrown in for a very cheap prod to laughter, in Rango the writers and director have taken care to actually make these asides funny and clever, not pandering to the adults whilst the ankle-biters enjoy the funny creatures and psychedelic colours – one early moment looks at another Johnny Depp film that opens with a crazy desert medley. The voice cast are good, for me the best being Harry Dean Stanton (mostly I’ve just relieved to hear he’s still alive, he’s 85 in a couple of months) and Ned Beatty who resumes the chief villan duties after Toy Story 3, that’s quite a retirement package he’s carved out for himself. The likes of Alfred Molina as a Don Quixote elder figure and Timothy Olyphant also acquaint themselves admirably, the latter with a spot on impression of a grizzled legend of the Western genre.
Similar to Wall-E the Rango crew has consulted with Roger Deakins as a lighting designer, the film looks unique in its rejection of the high contrast, computer guided source lighting that these films normally predicate. It’s got a warped and distorted angle to both the character design and the films sense of humor, its certainly not trying to be cute and cuddly – one of the chief villans, a slithering rattlesnake is actually pretty scary – and it actually has some strange Daliesque dream sequences and a transition from the second to third act that is actually quite remarkable with its light nods at a mutated form of existentialism. The plot is Chinatown (‘who controls the water controls the town Mr. Gittes’) with the town mayor being clearly modeled on the horrifying Noah Cross, an influence married with just about Leone film you care to mention, naturally this prompts the film to homage the spaghetti western which they do in a reverent and entertaining manner, at one point directly reproducing some of he opening frames of Once Upon A Time In The West. The three action scenes are handsomely mounted and although it’s a little overlong at almost two hours, Rango is a fresh and original addition to the contemporary animated genre, thankfully bereft of the horrendous ‘message’ undercurrents that these films usually harbour.
Minty's Menagerie 
Recent Comments