Rango
We have been noticing how “Puss in Boots” had a bunch of Mexican clichés (and so does “Frida”!) and we so were not surprised how “Rango” was similar in that. In fact, clichés about Mexicans are actually the only ones left which are still kind of okay to do – why is that?
“Rango” is the kind of film you watch because there is nothing else really good on Netflix. A highly acclaimed animated film is probably the easiest way to use Netflix to discover something nice again. I probably would never have stumbled upon “Rango” if it wasn’t for Netflix, because I don’t actually follow animated movies anymore. I don’t even watch anime films, because most of them are bombastic but vapid blockbusters. (Luckily, “Kokuriko-zaka kara” was an exception but I wasn’t counting on that.)
When I told Loris about the film, he positively commented on the fact that the characters were not cute. Indeed, it surprisingly helps when characters are not designed as eye-candy but as, well, characters. It almost feels like they put more effort into turning the characters into something serious when they are not very pleasant to the eye. In this case, I am almost surprised that “Rango” is filed under children and family movies. I mean, sure, animation always gives off this childish vibe, but we all know how pointless that is. Of course you could watch the film just for its action-laden story, but “Rango” is also an hommage to the western genre (with that said, I think 314 really needs to watch this movie), and one cannot fully appreciate the film without noting all its references. Hell even I understood the spaghetti western references, even though I have not seen a single one of them. There just were too many parodies with them.
On a side note, my biggest praise goes to Isla Fisher, who did the farm girl accent absolutely perfectly. She is actually Australian and previously only played in terrible movies. But as a voice actress, she was so damn awesome. How did she do that?
“Rango” does not feel like a big-budgeted film, even though its production values were quite awesome. I am happy that it did well both with critics and with the box office, but it is not on the level of “Paprika” (nor of “Up” or “Wall-E”). For an animated film, “Rango” misses what I would call ‘original creativity’, but just like “Puss in Boots” it’s definitely good entertainment.