Review : Rango

Rango promises a story that is witty and mature,or whatever adjectives adults love to use to describe a cartoon they try to rationalise as something that is more than a mere animated feature,sure enough this is a tale of a lizard (a newt?) who is plagued,for no discernible reason,with existential issues. He has lived his entire life confined to a glass aquarium and in the isolation,develops a vivid imagination and penchant for theater(icality). Thrown out of his cage,he strands onto a dessert and later on a story suddenly conjures-a town full of other tiny animals starved for water,and I can't be bothered to explain the rest of the story.

The first 15 minutes of this film are in fact,very promising,but later it demotes itself to what cartoons have traditionally been-it lacks a solid wit or humor,there are a few crass jokes awkwardly thrown into the mix and characters are broadly sketched and void of real background or voice,if its one thing I can't stand about cartoons is the utterly ridiculous-here its rodents on bats and wielding guns,its all too ridiculous and idiotic for words,and unlike the case of the wonderful UP! (which had dogs on airplanes-my least favorite bit) which was redeemed by its stunning exposition.

It tries to establish for itself an adult voice,an appeal for an older audience-but is constantly losing this identity and grappling for a lame mainstream feel,it is caught between being an enjoyable,heartfelt and complex story with being a boring,predictable and unfunny summertime cartoon,eventually it rests on the latter,there isn't much that is memorable from this-the music,animation work and voicework are just up to par,nothing extraordinary.