Movie Review: Rango

Kai and I both eagerly anticipated this movie. Kai loves cartoons, just like a kid. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to join the girls and I when we watched it last Saturday because he was busy with his bonding time with baby Ziggy. Nevertheless, it was still fun watching it with just my girls. I don’t remember the last time we watched a movie with just the three of us. So, anyway, here’s my take on the movie.

Rango is the story of a chameleon who finds himself in the Wild Wild West, in a town called Dirt. Dirt is a town in need of a sheriff, who could help protect its citizens and put an end to their water crisis. The chameleon, who was actually just a nobody before he found his way to Dirt, took this as an opportunity to reinvent himself by making up a story that he was a well-known hero and that he is the perfect candidate to be the town’s new sheriff. 

Other than the fact that it’s a cartoon I can watch with my kids, I like this movie because it starred Johnny Depp, or at least his voice, as Rango. In my opinion, you can never go wrong with a Johnny Depp movie.  Another plus factor is that the movie was directed by Gore Verbinski, who also directed Pirates of the Caribbean. It also starred the voices of Isla Fischer, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy among others. A pretty impressive cast, if you ask me. 

The plot of the story is pretty much just like any other typical western movie. So, there’s nothing new there aside from the fact that it is a cartoon and the characters are animals and not people. I found the movie funny in some parts and kind of boring in the others. It didn’t really capture my full attention all throughout the showing. It was still entertaining enough, maybe moreso for the kids than the adults, but then that’s only my opinion.

I think that the best part of the movie, though, are the lessons that it imparts. There are two important lessons one can get out of it and I think it’s something that is very good for kids to learn. The first is that lying is a bad thing because it can destroy trust in relationships. Even small lies are destructive because the more you keep making them, the bigger they get and the more you can’t get out of the mess you have made. The second lesson is something I took from one of the lines in the movie. It was something like “A man can never walk out of his own story”. It teaches us that all of us have our own life stories that are different from everyone else’s. At some point, your life may not be what you want it to be but in the end, only you can make your own destiny through the choices that you make. You cannot run away from your own life. You have to make the best out of it. 

All in all, I think it’s a good movie to watch with your kids. So go ahead and schedule a movie date with them.