Rango: Reanimating the old west

Gore Verbinski is no doubt one of the most versatile directors in Hollywood today. Widely known for his Pirates of the Caribbean series, Verbinski has also directed a horror movie The Ring and the satirical The Weather Man starring Nicolas Cage. Already a legend in cinematic experimentation, Verbinski takes over the task of recreating an old western romance in his new animated movie Rango.

Old western romances are marked by a consistent nostalgia for the past and ideals that undermine today’s social values. These movies value the antique and the exotic and express a powerful longing for what came before. Using romance as strategy is perhaps one of the most effective ways to highlight the erroneous ways of the contemporary world. Not parodying it like most contemporary directors, Verbinski brilliantly uses the genre as an alternative to contemporary reality in a way that modern cinema-goers would find accessible. The notoriously slippery clash between modernity and antiquity becomes a light satire in this movie — neither too grim, nor too mild.

Glorifying an eccentric anti-hero has become Verbinsky’s calling card: In Pirates of the Caribbean it was a shabby ungentlemanly pirate, and in Rango it’s a slimy lizard.

The movie focuses on the many adventures of a pet chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who has quixotic fantasies of becoming an actor in the role of a hero in a romance who saves a damsel in distress with his sheer bravery and valour. A little bored by his acts of grandeur inside his glass cage, he ironically says: “People, I’ve had an epiphany! The hero cannot exist in a vacuum. What our story needs is an ironic unexpected event that will propel the hero into conflict.” And suddenly there is a road accident which separates the chameleon from his owner, leaving him alone on a road which divides the new urban settlements from the American Old West. Thus, our hero is out of the vacuum and embarks on his destiny to save a maiden and her town.

Isla Fisher voices the character of Beans, a rebellious strong-headed maiden who needs a hero to save her and her decaying town, aptly named Dirt. Upon reaching the town of Dirt, the chameleon takes on the disguise of a gunslinger named Rango.

Showing unflinching courage, unconditional love and a curiously amiable spirit, Rango immediately wins the hearts of the audience.

Bill Nighy does an excellent job with the character of Rattlesnake Jake, a snake who is a gunslinger. During what feels like a dilatory and meandering move towards the climax, interspersed by many references to classic Hollywood western classics including The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the newly named hero meets the antagonist. Rango’s encounter with the Rattlesnake is the undoubtedly one of the movie’s finest moments.

The movie’s thematic preoccupations cannot be pinned down to mere heroic transformations. At the heart of these chivalric pursuits is a search for identity. A previously nameless chameleon undergoes a normative process when he names himself Rango, unconsciously weaving the pattern of his own destiny.

Besides emphasising the values of courage and sacrifice and indirectly navigating the clash between primitive and obsolete ways and modern social technological changes, Rango offers a unique cinematic experience and a giddy delight.

Animated movies to look forward to in 2011

1.   Rio, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway. To be released on April 8, 2011

2.   Kung Fu Panda 2, voiced by Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie. To be released on May 27, 2011

3.   Cars 2, voiced by Owen Wilson. To released on June 24, 2011

4.   Winnie the Pooh, voiced by Jim Cummings, Tom Kenny and Craig Ferguson. To be released on July 15, 2011

5.   Puss in Boots, voiced Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Zach Galifianakis. To be released on November 4, 2011

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 27^th, 2011.