Trailer Tuesday: Rango

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Once upon time there was a very strong distinction between (Western) animated movies and live-action cinema. Big name, serious directors would give the former genre a wide berth seeing as it was "kids' stuff" - colourful, crowd pleasing, simplistic.

In recent years though such attitudes have changed. Forget the introduction of the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars. In the past 2 years, both Pixar's Up and Toy Story 3 have scored "serious" Best Picture nominations alongside the acclaimed likes of The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech. Meanwhile, during the past half decade, high profile live-action directors like George Miller, Robert Zemeckis, Wes Anderson and Zack Snyder have all steered the development of ambitious animated movies: Happy Feet, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, Fantastic Mr Fox and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

Clearly A-list filmmakers have realised the exploratory power and potential of animation as a storytelling medium. No longer is their distinct creative vision tethered by things like gravity and concern for stars' physical safety. With animation, anything goes! And you certainly don't have to target animated projects at under-10s.

And judging by the trailer - and the talent involved - that's certainly the mindset behind quirky comedy Western, Rango.


Produced by Nickelodeon Movies, Rango is the first animated movie from live-action special effects gurus Industrial Light & Magic. The film is directed by Pirates of the Caribbean's Gore Verbinski, and stars Johnny Depp as the title character. Rango is a pet chameleon stranded in the Nevada desert. A few hallucinations and near-death experiences later, he stumbles into the parched town of Dirt, and decides to masquerade as a tough cowboy hero. Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina are just some of the voices behind Dirt's inhabitants.

Honestly, Rango looks like the most unusual, and potentially alienating, animated movie to come out of Hollywood since Fantastic Mr Fox. It bulges with idiosyncrasies - from its offbeat sense of humour to its creepy character designs - and seems unconcerned with placating the youngest audience members. I don't know quite how else to word it, but Rango looks and feels like a live-action film... just with desert critters for its stars.

A month ago I would have predicted that Rango was too weird to find an audience. However, the film opened in North America 2 Fridays back, shooting to #1 at the box office and earning itself an impressive aggregated review score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rango opens in South Africa this week, and I'm definitely going to make an effort to watch this animated curiosity.

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