Johnny Depp lends his voice to Rango, a chameleon who realizes that he has a chance to be whoever he wants to be in a strange new environment. After being dropped by the side of a highway, he meets Beans, a female lizard, who takes him to the town of Dirt, where water is scarce. Rango does what he does best, weaving stories and ends up becoming sheriff when he kills one of the town's enemies, The Hawk - who chases and eats the many animals living in Dirt.
Rango is a loosy goosy laid back kind of lizard, not at all serious and even writes down directions to some moles so they can steal the rest of the town's water supply, kept of course in the bank. He vows, still a little happy go lucky, that he will lead a group of townsfolks to retrieve the water.
When they discover the moles hideout, a plan is hatched to steal the water back, only for everyone to find that the bottle is empty. Clearly higher evils are at work. They come back dejected. Rango tries to investigate further, finding the mayor suspicious. When his questioning goes to far and he doesn't bend to the will of the Mayor, in comes Rattlesnake Jake who forces Rango to admit that everything he's said is a lie, and runs him out of town.
After Rango crosses across the desert back to where he came from, he manages to make it to the other side of the road, where he finds insight and renewed self confidence and courage. He also finds answers and inspiration to the source of the town's problem - where has the water gone.
With that he heads back to the town, after enlisting the moles to help him restore water and topple the bad guys. Just as he's about to shoot Rattlesnake Jake, the mayor has restrained Beans (whom Rango's fallen in love with), and Rango surrenders. Both Beans and Rango are locked in the bank's water jug vault to drown. The fighting among the bad guys begins and in the confusion, Rango and Beans escape, saving Rattlesnake Jake who turns on the Mayor, driving him out of the town. With that, water is flowing again and Dirt is saved.
This film incorporates elements of other films that you'll recognize: How To Train Your Dragon, Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean, Toy Story 3, Westerns with cowboys, saloons, shoot offs etc. With a hero who's a chameleon in the wild wild west, this was an interesting premise, that took a bit too much development to get to the main part of the story. It does pack quite a few laughs though, but with a drawn out chase in the middle of the film and fitting in a few too many jokes in the beginning, lends to an end battle that falls a little short and a little too soon. The writing was clever and the voices were fantastic. Great supporting characters and stock characters, one of the best parts was probably the singing owls.
Could be a fun watch for most, but get through the slower set up and then it gets fun.
3.25/5
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