Movie Review: Rango is a flavourful animated Western that's really hard not to like

IT'S been a long while since an animated offering has received so many positive reviews as Rango.

Yep, Rango, not Rambo. That's right.

Yes, it's an action movie, a western for that matter and there is no touch of Sylvester Stallone anywhere in the film, not even his voice.

So since Rango is proving to be a runaway success overseas, I'm certainly not going to be a spoilsport.

I'm not going add to the list of less-than-a-handful reviewers who dug very deep to find something negative about Rango.

I enjoyed this computer-generated animation immensely and I thought all of its elements worked to perfection - from the script by John Logan to the score (music) by Hans Zimmer to, without a doubt, Gore Verbinski's direction.

Rango, though animated, is what a true western movie should be all about. I'm talking about the good triumphing over evil amid fierce battles and a less powerful protagonist claiming the scalp of towering, vicious antagonists that seem untouchable.

Guaranteed, you'll watch Rango until the end because you're unable to predict the direction it's going to take. The scenes are fresh.

Rango is a case of David coming up against Goliath in a humorous battle for water. The movie starts off lazily as if it's going to be a bore, then surprises you all the way until the credits roll up.

An unnamed, imaginative domesticated chameleon (voice of Johnny Depp), in a Hawaiian shirt, finds itself ducking trucks and cars and vultures (a hawk, to be specific) in the desert, without water and close to death by dehydration.

First he meets an armadillo, (voice of Alfred Molina) who is searching for the Spirit of the West. The following day he befriends a lizard called Beans (voice of Isla Fisher), a dead rancher's daughter.

Beans takes the chameleon to the Dirt, an archaic Wild West town that's populated by desert animals. After discovering that the town's water resources are almost nonexistent, he enters a saloon and introduces himself as Rango, a mean cowboy.

Things fall into place and he accidentally becomes the town's hero when he kills two birds with one stone - he gains feared outlaw Bad Bill's (voice of Ray Winstone) respect when he (Rango) somehow 'kills' the killer hawk.

Yes, the one that almost had him for lunch in the desert.

The town's mayor, Tortoise John (voice of Ned Beatty) appoints Rango the new sheriff.

But the chameleon's fortunes change when he investigates the reasons why the town's water supply has been "purposefully" shut down and has to face up to gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy).

You have to take your kids, nieces and nephews to see Rango.

You owe them. You also owe yourself an animated treat.

Why not be a child again, just this once, and be entertained?

Unlike other forgettable animated movies, Rango will linger in your psyche for many months to come.

CREDITS:
Reviewer: Xolani Shezi
Title: Rango
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: John Logan
Genre: Animated western comedy
Voices: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant
Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Age restriction: PG, with rude language, smoking and shooting