‘Rango’ is a WEIRD FREAKING MOVIE. I know it’s unprofessional to describe it like that, but that’s exactly what it is! It’s an animated film, but it’s not really for children. Though the film is more mature and adult-oriented, the script never allows the film to push boundaries, and it surely isn’t as clever or smart as it thinks. In some ways, ‘Rango’ succeeds, but in other ways it disappoints.

Directed by Gore Verbinski, the director of the beloved ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ trilogy, ‘Rango’ is something out of range for him – it’s entirely animated. The film stars a chameleon named Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) who is a bit of a dramatic. In fact, the opening scene of the film demonstrates this characteristic perfectly, and it’s mesmerizing. The opening scene shows Rango in his typical setting, and the entire monologue by him is awe-inspiring; the scene just all-together is executed wonderfully.

After a series of mishaps, Rango ends up in the middle of nowhere, and at a town named “Dirt.” This town is a very typical western type of town, and features a wide array of characters, all of different species and whatnot. There are mice, snakes, birds, tortoises, iguanas, moles, and many other kinds of animals, though the film doesn’t seem to take proportion into account, except for the hawk.

Dirt is a troubled town, one running low on water, and one over-ridden with criminals and baddies. The town needs a sheriff, and that’s exactly what Rango gives it. The film’s main conflict arises when the town’s bank is robbed and the town’s entire water supply goes missing. This leads Rango to form a rag-tag team to solve the case and bring back water, as well as hope and security, to the town of Dirt.

The route ‘Rango’ takes in the film is interesting, but never necessarily great. There’s one scene in which Rango’s team travels underground in search of the water supply, and there’s a gigantic eyeball blinking in the backdrop of the scene. What the eye has to do with the film, as well as who’s eye it belongs to, is never mentioned nor explained. It’s purely random. There are aerial battles with animals riding on bats, as if the bats were war-planes. There is an imaginary/hallucination sequence that randomly appears near the end of the film regarding “The Spirit of the West”, and it resembles a scene from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ in which Jack Sparrow is trapped in Davy Jones’ Locker. An armadillo run over by a car at the beginning of the film reappears at the end with no bodily harm at all. How this came to be, I have no clue. A major character has a problem where she is paralyzed and freezes at random moments, but the film never builds this issue up to something important or something to care about. A lot of randomness happens in ‘Rango’, and it’s kind of off-setting.

If you’ve seen a lot of films, and a lot of westerns, you may like ‘Rango’ more. Heck, you’ll probably understand all of the references it makes! ‘Rango’ tries to be clever, but the film’s script never truly allows it to be. The film does feature some witty dialogue, but plot-wise it doesn’t offer anything new. The plot is simple, and the conflicts are solved easily. There’s a scene in which two main characters are about to drown in a tank of water, but the way they escape is so preposterous and random that it’s not even enjoyable.

I expected a lot more from ‘Rango’, which is why I left the theater slightly disappointed. It’s certainly an entertaining film, but it’s target demographic is confusing. It’s not a film for kids, despite it’s PG-rating and animated-genre. Adults may like it, but it doesn’t have the cleverness of better animated films from Pixar and even Dreamworks. The animation in ‘Rango’ is definitely gorgeous, though, I’ll give it that; it’s absolutely stunning.

Two and a half out of four Kents.