Will your intrepid movie critic be forced to eat his words?
In my original review of Paramount Pictures' Rango, I claimed that, "a less-than-original plot and the occasional limp joke ensure that Rango is not the best animated movie released this year."
While I stand by my critique, subsequent events - primarily Disney/Pixar delivering a relative dud with Cars 2 - have raised the possibility that Gore Verbinski's movie might still be in the running for best animated film released in 2011. Paramount Home Video's lavish Blu-Ray collection provides a strong argument: not only offering two different versions of the flick but a ton of extras that underline Rango's achievements.
Paramount Home Video Presents Gore Verbinski's Rango on Blu-Ray, Starring Johnny Depp
Concerns over plot and questionable jokes aside (that prostate exam gag still goes over like Adolf Eichmann at a B'nai B'rith dinner), Rango is one hell of a film that only a director of Verbinski's stature could ever get a studio to green-light. While many creative executives (gag) would have told Verbinski to make something like his kajillion-selling Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, he went ahead and created a wickedly inventive world filled with deliciously offbeat characters.
Having the voice cast perform their roles together on a soundstage was a stroke of genius, since it allowed the actors to interact with one another in a way that would never happen in most other animated films. While everyone in the cast is stellar, special kudos have to go to Abigail Breslin (Priscilla), Alfred Molina (Roadkill), the ever-reliable Bill Nighy (Rattlesnake Jake) and, of course, Johnny Depp as the title character. While Depp has been successful both as a character actor and a leading man, here he demonstrates his ability to project his character solely through his voice, something very few Hollywood stars are capable of doing. It's another spectacular performance in a career that's not short of them.
Be aware that this film is rated PG: there are some frightening scenes (many of them involving Rattlesnake Jake) and more than a few deaths.
Rango Blu-Ray/DVD Extras
With this package, you get the Blu-Ray disc, plus a DVD/Digital Copy that allows you to upload Rango to the computer or portable player of your choice.
As I mentioned before, you get two versions of the flick: the theatrical release, plus an extended director's cut. There's nothing earth-shattering added in the director's cut but there are a lot more fun moments in a movie that's jam-packed with them. If you watch the theatrical release, you can view a picture-within-picture feature that shows the original storyboards beside the final release. If you go with the director's cut, you get an informative audio commentary featuring Verbinski and production designer Mark "Crash" McLeery.
There's a spectacular "making of" featurette which takes the viewer from the initial development process through the live-action reference shooting at ILM (Verbinski dropping coins into the Yoda fountain is classic), the animation and scoring, which featured Hans Zimmer and members of Los Lobos.
In addition, there are 10 deleted scenes in various stages of completion including a never-before-seen alternate ending. Finally there's a featurette which talks about the various animals that live in the desert and how the animators adapted them to the characters in Rango.
Rango a Wonderfully Silly Film
While this film isn't flawless, it is wonderfully entertaining and is further proof that great things can happen when you allow a great director to follow his vision, however unhinged it might be. For sheer manic inventiveness, Rango is well worth scoring on home video which is why it gets a 4.5/5.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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