For Moving Pictures, I reviewed the improbable Rango.
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| In a seemingly impossible bit of movie alchemy, director Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”), with the aid of Johnny Depp, masterfully combines “Chinatown,” Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name films and the best of Looney Tunes into the hilarious and entertaining “Rango.” |
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| While borrowing liberally from a variety of sources, the screenplay by John Logan (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) melds all the disparate elements into a cohesive and thoroughly original story. In the visual-effects firm’s first animated feature, the magnificent ILM animation sparkles, granting each beautiful scene lush details and the countless characterizations a unique vision. |
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| Verbinski, who along with Logan and James Ward Byrkit conceived the story, brilliantly establishes the tenor of the tale within his terrarium from the outset: Four owl mariachi-band narrators break the fourth wall and, like some Greek tragedy’s chorus, eventually become immersed within the story itself. Then Rango puts on a manic one-man, one-act show co-starring a nude, headless doll and a windup fish, both inanimate. |