STORYLINE AND PLOT
When a fantasizing chameleon in an aquarium in a SUV got accidentally “bumped” from his travel plans, he discovered that the adjacent desert was hot, dangerous, and desperate for a man with a plan. Guided by the vision of Roadkill, a philosophizing armadillo, who alluded to a “Spirit of the West,” he began his quest of discovery by following his shadow toward the town of Dirt, meeting Ms. Beans, the last homesteader, along the way. The downtrodden town-folks of Dirt thirsted for a wellspring of hope. Before you could “shoot seven Jenkins boys with one bullet,” the stage name “Rango” was adduced, a savaging hawk dispatched, and the stranger was introduced to the mayor, who decided to make Rango the town’s new sheriff. Before he could spit shine his new badge, Ms. Beans had learned that the Bank of Dirt had almost no water on deposit. What’s going on and what can be done about it? “Everybody’s without water but the Mayor,” she grumbled suspiciously. Immediately, there was a stampeding “run” on the bank.
Unperturbed, Rango patrolled Dirt in dude duds, and he stumbled upon three moles, led by Balthazar, “prospecting without a permit” in the middle of Dirt’s main street. Surfacing from below, they enquired where would be a good place to deposit their diggings. Sheriff Rango proudly pointed out the Bank of Dirt. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Merrimack, the banker, reported the bank had been robbed and the great water jug was missing. Sheriff Rango formed a “possum,” and they rode out of Dirt, seeking to overtake the robbers.
Soon enough, the hideout of Balthazar and his gang was discovered, and a plan hatched by Rango to “get the drop on the bank robbers.” “The play’s the thing to capture the conscience of the” robbers. Rango’s plan worked well enough; but he hadn’t planned on Balthazar’s extended family surfacing at an awkward moment. Ms. Beans, who had ridden with the “possum,” and the others took advantage of a distraction to seize the wagon with the great water jug and make a run for it. No quitters, the moles pursued them on the back of bats. A thrilling chase scene resulted in a crash of the wagon and the dislodging of the jug, which revealed it to be empty.
Since Rango, Ms. Beans and the others in the “possum” had discovered the empty aquifer early on, and they had seen the underground pipe, they suspected someone was stealing Dirt’s water. According to a legend, said Ms. Beans to Rango late one moonlit night, the Walking Cactus would seek out water.
Rango visited the Mayor, who was playing golf with “rollypolly” bugs acting as balls. The Mayor spoke of the people’s need to believe in something. He told Rango that things were changing. He showed him new construction going on. He noted that “we’re getting civilized.” He suggested that those that didn’t climb aboard the “progress train” would be left behind – thirsty and wanting. When Rango left, the Mayor ordered his flunky, Bad Bill, to get Rattlesnake Jake. Dirt would need a new sheriff.
The film came to a turning point when Rattlesnake Jake humiliated Sheriff Rango before the town folks, and Rango dejectedly departed into the desert. Almost without hope or concern, he walked across the highway, barely escaping the racing trucks and cars. He found his plastic fish. He again encountered the wandering Roadkill who again speaks cryptically, metaphorically, and rather banally. Rango fainted, and, in the dark, he was rolled on a sheet of “rollypolly” bugs to an “audience.”
There, in a blaze of white hot desert, he stumbled across a white alabaster carriage protected by yellow guardians (Oscars). Then, a little away on a dune, he saw the “Spirit of the West” in the person of a Clint Eastwood character, No-Name, from THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, who wielded a metal-detector. “You came a long way to find something that’s not here. No man can walk out of his own story,” Eastwood growled.
Rango hears the voice of Roadkill. “Many years ago this whole valley was filled with water. Now, the only question is – where did it go?”
In the blazing sun the cactus were “seen” to walk in one direction. Rango followed, and on a ridge, beheld a plush, verdant, well-watered urban landscape. There was also a water pipe visible with a shutoff valve. “I’m going back,” said Rango.
Before returning to Dirt, Rango paid a call on the mole family, whose pappy, Balthazar, was awaiting his own hanging. He found them unfriendly at first, but after Rango advised them that “your pappy’s about to hang for something he didn’t do,” they joined him, cooperating with his plan.
Meantime, the Mayor was pressuring Ms. Beans to sell out to him. Just as Rattlesnake Jake was putting the squeeze on her, Rango called him out to the main street of Dirt for a showdown. Rattlesnake Jake was initially spooked by a shadow that seemed to be that of his old nemesis, the hawk. When he realized that it was only bats flying in a formation suggesting the hawk, he returned his attention to the cheeky chameleon, Rango.
They faced off at high-noon. Rango was able to zap a dragonfly to strengthen himself, as they closed. Jake was lured to a boarded area in the street, where the moles had first surfaced prior to the bank robbery.
Wounded Bird made an attempt on Jake, but was shot down by the fierce Rattlesnake. The brave raven’s last words to Priscilla were, “That was a bad idea.”
Suddenly, the water pipe was opened and a water geyser swept Jake high above Dirt. By the time Jake hits the ground, the Mayor, using Ms. Beans as a hostage, has got the “drop” on Rango. The Mayor has Rango and Ms. Beans sealed in a giant water jug. Then, aiming his gun at Rattlesnake Jake, the Mayor intoned that it’s a “new West, Jake; we don’t need gunmen anymore.”
Inside the jug, Ms. Beans and Rango kiss. The bullet that Rango had hidden in his mouth was swallowed by Ms. Bean. Rango began to squeeze her to help expel the bullet. This worked and the bullet shot out, hitting the inside of the glass jug, cracking it. The glass gave way, as the cracks spread, and the water, Rango and Ms. Beans all gushed out.
All the water upended the Mayor. Jake took note, greeted Rango as his equal, and then took venomous revenge on the Mayor.
Now, all the town folks proclaimed Rango to be the hero of Dirt, having once again “done it all with one bullet.”
In the end it looked as if Rango would stay put in his story.
COMMENTARY
I thought this was one of the best modern animated films that I’ve seen. All of the animal characters looked to be very well-executed. The worst rendering of a physical character was the Clint Eastwood knock-off, “No-Name,” and it was certainly not badly done.
“If you want water, you must first find Dirt,” counsels Roadkill to the chameleon early in the film.
RANGO was a “quest movie” that would have brought a smile to the late Joseph Campbell. The viewers got to witness an imaginative, immature personality grow through the film as he faced adversity, ordeals, and the “jungle within.” Interestingly, a nameless chameleon was selected to embody the character that viewers would come to know by the stage name of “Rango.” “Who am I?” asked Rango at one point. In the end the town folks provided him with their answer to this question.
There was quite a bit of humor employed in the dialogues. These were not the cheap “one-liners” of television sitcoms and contrived reality shows. Wit was evident in their conception. There were also small comical touches, such as Ms. Beans’ “spells” and the “talking cloud” signal of Wounded Bird. Also, the town clock spelled time as “thyme.”
The body of the film was full of allusions to well-known films of the past, especially Westerns. To give a few obvious examples, there were the allusions to HIGH NOON, SHANE, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, CAT BALLOU, APPOCALYPSE NOW, and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.
There were allusions to historical curiosities, such as “Aces & 8s” – the “dead man’s hand,” made famous as Wild Bill Hickok’s cards on the day he was shot dead.
At one point I thought I heard Rango give a spiel to the town folks that bore kinship to Robert Preston’s warnings about a pool hall in River City in THE MUSIC MAN.
I was fascinated by the rendering of Rattlesnake Jake which was the best, most natural rendering of a snake that I’ve seen.
Incidentally, the animals that some of the key characters represented were: Beans (desert iguana), Mayor (desert tortoise), Merrimack (prairie dog), Priscilla
(cactus mouse), Balthazar (broad-footed mole), Bad Bill (gila monster), Wounded Bird (raven), and the Mariachi band (desert owls). Incidentally, the Mariachi band functioned as a Greek chorus and appeared at several different points in the film, including its opening and close.
There was a brief scene in the film that appeared to mock religious faith generally and Christianity in particular, suggesting that it amounted to “humbug.” At one point a town folk accused Rango of being a “witch” and shouted, “Burn him!”
“Many years ago this whole valley was filled with water. Now, the only question is: Where did it go?” asks the armadillo Roadkill at another point in the story.
There also seemed to be a hardly veiled criticism of the misuse of the natural environment by vain humans at the expense of their “fellow critters.”
Also, the relationships between the animals seemed typically to reflect their relationships in the wild. Thus, the hawk ruled, followed by the rattlesnake, followed by the gila monster.
If this was so, the reader might ask, why did the tortoise control Dirt? As the Mayor commented, “Control the water and you control everything.” The billionaire Texan, T. Boone Pickens, couldn’t have said it better, and he may well have been a clever inspiration for the tortoise.
In some instances the precise rationale of the director is unknown, but the scene was very suggestive of well-known films in the Horror genre. I thought the chase scene in which Rango was chased through the streets of Dirt by the hawk reflected similar scenes with Godzilla, et al. The mole family erupting from the ground called to my mind similar eruptions of zombies.
I certainly recommend this film. Also, it should be safe for children.
PRODUCTION KEYS
Gore Verbinski – director, John Logan – writer, HJans Zimmer – music, Craig Wood – film editing, John Bell – art direction, supervisor
CAST KEYS (Voices)
Johnny Depp (Rango),Isla Fisher (Beans), Ned Beatty (Mayor), Alfred Molina (Roadkill), Bill Nighy (Rattlesnake Jake), Stephen Root (Merrimack/Doc), Abigail Breslin (Priscilla), Timothy Olyphant (Spirit of the West), Harry Dean Stanton (Balthazar), Ray Winstone (Bad Bill), Gil Birmingham (Wounded Bird), Gore Verbinski (Lupe, Mariachi violin), George DelHoya (Senor Flan, Mariachi accordion)
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