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T O P I C R E V I E W
BaftaBaby
Posted - 03/21/2011 : 22:34:39 OK, the toon that seems to be baffling those of wee brain pea brain - oh, yes it is Rango of which I chant -- that toon is one I could whistle till the chameleons come home. First of all - and without even his swoon-away looks to protect him - Johnny Depp voices one of the richest, most subtle and simultaneously O.T.T. performances since the late great Pete Sellers. In fact, I'll go so far as to call him the Sellers de nos jours.
It was a fortuitous that I saw it as part of a double bill with Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (discussed elsewhere), because each film deals in its own way with the ludicrousness of trying to chase the future and instead, accepting the present. The fact that Verbinski decorates Rango's search-vehicle with toys from Homage-R-Us means there's a full palette of laughs to punctuate the adventure scenes. Some crits think that's some sort of cine-crime. I say, it might be if the film weren't also about something.
I suppose its biggest flaw is that - having presumably been pitched for kiddlies, most of it will fly way over their mopheads. Personally, I don't think that's on my list of what makes a good film. Oh, yeah, it's good, too, to see an animation style that deftly challenges the pixar-wannabes and half-hearted cell work of some recent years.
As for that cute quartet of quietly wise-cracking owls - or as I like to think of them - The El Mariachi Band of Doom - well, what can I say - I loved it!
