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Rango
14 years ago
So it finally popped up On Demand and I got to see it months after the rest of the world.
Overall it was pretty good. The story was very basic, hero's journey stuff. I used to watch a lot of Westerns as a kid, but the genre doesn't really interest me - still, I was able to catch a lot of references to the classics (although I'm sure I missed a ton of others). Oddly enough, no reviewer seems to have noticed the parallels with Dead Man, another period piece in which Johnny Depp play a hapless innocent who accidentally becomes the stuff of legends. Dead Man happens to be on my short list of best movies ever, so that gives this movie some brownie points in my book. The standard plot was lightened up with some good in-jokes and surreal touches, like how the townsanimals were very blase about the giant eyeball in the tunnels under their town. Seriously, what was that, Cthulhu? The scene that really made me LOL was the banjo version of Ride of the Valkyries. Inspired.
The voice cast was uniformly excellent. Apparently there was no mo-cap involved, but the actors did perform their lines while actually moving around in a room rather than being isolated in front of a mic, and the animators clearly were inspired by the performances. The design was a little weird, it was nice to see characters that weren't aggressively cutesy, quite the opposite, everyone looked stinky and full of fleas. At first Rango's lopsided face was driving me crazy to look at, but I got used to it eventually (although it was odd the designers would give him perfectly accurate teeth and then generic lizard feet instead of distinctive chameleon toes, but whatever, I'm being a nerd). The only really hideous character was Beans, with her weird hair, giant bulging bloodshot eyes and creepy little human mouth. I guess the designers were trying to make her look "pretty" but she ended up looking like a hideous mutant freakmonster. It reminded me of Burton's Planet of the Apes where they gave the lead ape lady a freakish half-human face and make-up, apparently so it would be less creepy she had the hots for the human hero, but it backfired terribly.
The CGI was very impressive, the movie was full of realistic and extraordinarily rendered textures. It actually got a bit distracting, like for example the old mole-man played by Harry Dean Stanton. It not only looked eerily like Stanton but with an, um, flaccid whatsit for a nose, but I got so fascinated by all the wrinkles and sunburn and the long floaty whiskers I kind of lost track of what was going on several times. Not a bad thing, but I would love to get a copy so I could pause it and just drink in all the details.
So all in all it was enjoyable. I'd watch it again.
Overall it was pretty good. The story was very basic, hero's journey stuff. I used to watch a lot of Westerns as a kid, but the genre doesn't really interest me - still, I was able to catch a lot of references to the classics (although I'm sure I missed a ton of others). Oddly enough, no reviewer seems to have noticed the parallels with Dead Man, another period piece in which Johnny Depp play a hapless innocent who accidentally becomes the stuff of legends. Dead Man happens to be on my short list of best movies ever, so that gives this movie some brownie points in my book. The standard plot was lightened up with some good in-jokes and surreal touches, like how the townsanimals were very blase about the giant eyeball in the tunnels under their town. Seriously, what was that, Cthulhu? The scene that really made me LOL was the banjo version of Ride of the Valkyries. Inspired.
The voice cast was uniformly excellent. Apparently there was no mo-cap involved, but the actors did perform their lines while actually moving around in a room rather than being isolated in front of a mic, and the animators clearly were inspired by the performances. The design was a little weird, it was nice to see characters that weren't aggressively cutesy, quite the opposite, everyone looked stinky and full of fleas. At first Rango's lopsided face was driving me crazy to look at, but I got used to it eventually (although it was odd the designers would give him perfectly accurate teeth and then generic lizard feet instead of distinctive chameleon toes, but whatever, I'm being a nerd). The only really hideous character was Beans, with her weird hair, giant bulging bloodshot eyes and creepy little human mouth. I guess the designers were trying to make her look "pretty" but she ended up looking like a hideous mutant freakmonster. It reminded me of Burton's Planet of the Apes where they gave the lead ape lady a freakish half-human face and make-up, apparently so it would be less creepy she had the hots for the human hero, but it backfired terribly.
The CGI was very impressive, the movie was full of realistic and extraordinarily rendered textures. It actually got a bit distracting, like for example the old mole-man played by Harry Dean Stanton. It not only looked eerily like Stanton but with an, um, flaccid whatsit for a nose, but I got so fascinated by all the wrinkles and sunburn and the long floaty whiskers I kind of lost track of what was going on several times. Not a bad thing, but I would love to get a copy so I could pause it and just drink in all the details.
So all in all it was enjoyable. I'd watch it again.
My favorite was the snake guy with the gun tail. My god. So cool. With his tiny mustache.
But yeah, I agree with this. Defs worth watching. X3
I'm definitely biased but Mr. Black, the spider tailor/undertaker was my favourite design (even with only a brief appearance and no speaking lines :c)
Hahaha, there was also the scene where Rango tried to mimic the way people walked down the street, so naturally the bug man (beetle?) caught my eye (he also shows up on the interactive website in the saloon, if you click him three times in a sequence, he does something different ffff)
I'm agreeing on Beans aaaaaa. Lizard with hair I could almost tolerate but GOD the whole godawful combination of those eyes and that mouth hhhhrgh. I want to see some concept art to see where they fucked up. (I can imagine designs that work on paper but stop working once they become 3D) But seriously, what is it with trying to make anthropomorphic female characters (love interests in particular) more humanoid than others of her kind. |:T
Hmm, I never got a good grip on Rango himself as a character. Maybe his purpose is to just adapt but he has no character of his own, than that of an actor? I AM CONFUSE
BUT DAMN what a pretty movie.
As for beans..what..was she do you know? I mean, I should probably know by the freezing..thingie but all I could think was "She's going to eat me .__.;'
bearded lizard man <3
I was a fan of the character design for the reason you stated. Cute is one thing but... it's EASY to make a character appealing by making it cute. Make it ugly THEN sell the products and you've accomplished something.
I wish I had a huge TV or projector screen capable of HD for movies like this. ;.;