Rango

[CVG]

I figured I might as well start a thread for this.

Saw it today and I have to say it really surprised me and I love it. It's creepy, weird, and bizarre and its takes more chances then a Hollywood animated film have done in a long time which was nice. The story still has a retreaded " fish out of water" backbone motif at its core, but they made the whole thing come off really fresh, they don't down play the tropes (the Greek storytelling mariachi birds is one example) and the pace and cinematography was really well done. I still think a lot of these characters were outright grotesque and the over-detail in boils and pores were at points off-putting. Some of them have huge animal heads on a stick body haha, but the animals that actually conform to an animal body (not a mini human one) are the best characters. I.e. the snake, rango, the spiders, the turtle, and a number of toads and gilla monsters were good too. I hate to say this but the whole thing was making me remember the Oddworld game: Stranger's Wrath. A similar western full of odd chicken people and lizard people and a lone hero character looking for a place...yeah but no one even played that game so I'm sure I'm the only one who will see all its eerie similarities [spoiler]all the way down to it environmental anti-business messages and industrialization is bad messages [/spoiler] haha. But anyways great film and I might just go see it again to catch all the tiny details I probably missed!

A few things I noticed while in the theater: All the adults were laughing (I myself had a few great laughs at the expense of many characters and jokes), kids under 12 were all bored and wiggling and wondering when it was going to end, and really small kids started crying when "shit got real" in the story. Haha but that's what made me love it even more. I admit since Nickelodeon pictures was funding this I feared it was going to become just another "talking animal movie" like Over the Hedge or Madagascar...BUT NO. It's a gritty and trippy film where I was surprised a number of times, and a lot of the inner meanings and dialogues no doubt went over the kids heads while letting the adults have a laugh (example: A character mentions an injured prostate and another character in the back puts on a glove ...) I KNOW the kids around me didn't get it haha.

[BluPhoenix]

enjoyed it

plot/message seems eerily similar to chinatown

[rtil]

i was also surprised by this movie - i really enjoyed it and i'm gonna see it again. i can safely say it's one of my favorite animated movies of all time and one of the best i've seen in a long time as well.

i think it is actually more of a movie for adults as i don't think kids will really get the messages behind the film or many of the jokes either - the kids in the audience seemed to be laughing as a response to adult laughter and not really knowing why they were laughing. but they enjoyed it anyway.

i really appreciated the way the story and characters were approached. so often movies treat their audiences like morons and i find it insulting. and despite this being advertised as a kids' film they didn't use babyish slapstick as a crutch for humor. it was a movie honest to its roots and made no apologies for what it was, something that i think is really rare in animated movies today.

the fact that it isn't a watered down, sterile movie for babies will probably shock and horrify most american parents, but these are the kinds of movies that kids should grow up with, and be able to watch years later and appreciate even more.

[Pants, the terrible]

honestly, i couldn't stop thinking that it was a spin off of fear and loathing in las vegas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Kx_t6ko1k

(3:50)

yeah... its like uncanny...

the outfit, the desert, the reptiles...

[rtil]

rango tips its hat to a lot of movies

[Pants, the terrible]

i'm planning on seeing it, if just for the sheer F&L tie in and the superb animation in the trailers.

[Flash]

ok, I'll just torrent it now, since it's an animated movie with no slapstick and therefore I have no hope of anybody wanting to come see it with me

[DrRumack]

i was also surprised by this movie - i really enjoyed it and i'm gonna see it again. i can safely say it's one of my favorite animated movies of all time and one of the best i've seen in a long time as well.

whoa now

i really need to see it now seeing this sort of attitude coming from you

[W.A.C.]

I was attended some person's birthday tonight and part of the birthday involved seeing this film. I was really surprised as well. I laughed at a lot of the jokes, was really interested in the plot and characters, and just thought it was a good movie. I hope it's a big success.

[trent bortknob]

it was good, saw it today. definitely enjoyed it.

[spoiler]the film was also really existential, and that really made me like it. i guess i just identify with it because of my current life, but it definitely added a new level of enjoyment. and the scene that looked like a suicide attempt was so well done. so much of the movie was really great[/spoiler]

[retrosmash]

i went in to this expecting it to just be "decent" but god damn, i was really surprised by how much i liked it.  if you haven't seen this film yet, do so asap!!!

[jjjjjjjjjj]

the movie was made for me
i loved it and im seeing it again on thursday

[Mew_User]

plot/message seems eerily similar to chinatown

I was thinking this too, [spoiler]the mayor reminded me a lot of the father character from Chinatown in his mannerisms.[/spoiler]

I loved this movie. All the innuendos were great. [spoiler]"I think you just swallowed Plan B."[/spoiler]

[Abnormal]

really enjoyed this. it was so gorgeous and it was witty and hilarious

[ZekeySpaceyLizard]

I hope Verbinski and ILM make more animated flicks together.

[redmongoose]

The guy that inspired this movie grew up in the same neighborhood as me, no joke.

I enjoyed it, saw a late screening, got stared at when I clapped at the end then went home.

[BloodyCheery]

I loved it. Excellent graphics, good voice work, awesome music, and a nice story. Definitely a nice tip of the ol' hat to spaghetti western films. The only complaint that my boyfriend and I have is that the set up of the story seemed a bit choppy. The pace really slowed down in the middle and sped up near the end. [spoiler]I was especially disappointed with how little screen time Rattlesnake Jake got.[/spoiler] All in all though it's a great and refreshing animated film for 2011. I agree with Zekey's comment and hope that they produce more movies together in the near future.

[rtil]

[spoiler]i think if rattlesnake jake had gotten anymore screentime it would've been too much of a good thing. he served his purpose[/spoiler]

[lenko]

it was great, really really great. at first i thought it was going to be like 'cars' and have rango in the little western town for most of the film, but thankfully the characters head out and branch into other territories around halfway through. even though it was a fairly typical 'fake it to make it' story as well, it pulled it off better than other films that tend to use that formula

the soundtrack was one of my fave things about it, which is saying something because usually non-disney/pixar soundtracks never really tend to stand out when it comes to western animated films

some of the designs were a bit awkward like the girl lizard thing with hair and lips (!?) but others such as rango himself, the spiked tuatara guy and the rattlesnake fit really well with the overall feeling of the film

[mexifry]

Really excellent movie. Some grossly, overly detailed designs were not an issue with such great character and animation. It was just a really good movie and it stood on its own rather than using animation as a crutch.