Carry on One Amigo Sheriff
When an incident with an Armadillo leads to his tank bouncing out of the back of the car, Rango, a domesticated lizard, finds himself in the parched wastelands of Dirt, a small town under threat as their water is running out. Having played at being the hero in his tank he now has a real opportunity to be a hero when the Mayor of Dirt makes Rango the town's latest mayor and immediately finds himself having to save the town when some prospectors steal the remaining water from the bank. But is the missing water down to the prospectors or is their political corruption going on.
Oh to be young and having never watched all the movies I have as maybe then I would be as blown away by the last decade or mores animations. Oh I can't deny that technology has meant that compared to the animations I watched as a child the current crop our visually on another planet but when it comes to the stories, well it seems that the movie industry are trying to be environmentally friendly by saving paper writing anything new.
I know that may sound harsh but as I watched "Rango" I was reminded of all the decent and some less than decent comedy westerns where someone ends up in a town and in over their head when they are made sheriff. Of course young children won't realise that with "Rango" what they are watching is as old as the movie industry itself but for grown ups even making a lizard the hero doesn't make it feel any fresher.
But again I find myself questioning whether those behind "Rango" really cared about the story and instead found something that they could easily write some gags for whilst spending most of their attention on wowing with the animated detail. And yes if I was a 10 year old I would not only be amused by the comedy and the characters in "Rango" but I would be wowed by the detail, in truth as a forty something I have to admit I was impressed by the detail. But so much attention has gone on the visual detail that part of me wishes that for once they would put a bit more effort in to coming up with a better story for these animations.
What this all boils down to is that there is no doubt that for the intended audience "Rango" works and I can understand why many would be impressed by it. But for me all that detail and comical creativity is undone by recycling an old storyline.
