Rango

The lizard with hair doesn’t stop being weird.

I thought, based on the ads, that I could draw a parallel between Django Unchained and Rango – after all, they’re both Westerns, and they rhyme, easy enough.

But Rango is a lot weirder than it appears. Sure, there’s a conventional story at the centre, as a chameleon (Johnny Depp) finds his way to an Old West town whose currency is water, reinvents himself as the town’s saviour with fictional tales of foes vanquished, and the rest unfolds almost exactly how you’d expect. But the film also features fever dream imagery, some distinct and odd character design, and more of a drugged-out vibe than usual for a kid’s animated film.

Rango was pleasantly odd, even as the plot followed a predictable path. Giving the love interest (Isla Fisher, playing a Western lizard with gusto) hair – ringlets, even – never stopped being weird. Indeed, many of the characters were much more Dr. Moreau-ish ‘animals mixed with humans’ rather than ‘animals with human characteristics’. Really, that was my main takeaway from the film, that it was following a very normal narrative path in a rather peculiar fashion. Stylish, certainly, and I’m pleased with innovation, I just don’t know it’s enough to fully elevate the film out of the ordinary.