| Rango | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gore Verbinski |
| Screenplay by | John Logan |
| Story by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Roger Deakins |
| Edited by | Craig Wood |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $135 million[1][2] |
| Box office | $246 million[1] |
Rango is a 2011 American animatedWesterncomedy film directed byGore Verbinski and written byJohn Logan. The film starsJohnny Depp as Rango, withIsla Fisher,Abigail Breslin,Alfred Molina,Bill Nighy,Harry Dean Stanton,Ray Winstone andTimothy Olyphant in supporting roles. In the film, apet chameleon ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff.
The film contains a number of references to various other films, includingThe Shakiest Gun in the West,A Fistful of Dollars,Chinatown,The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,Once Upon a Time in the West,Cat Ballou,Raising Arizona andFear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Verbinski has also citedEl Topo as an influence on the film. Visual effects for the film were outsourced toIndustrial Light & Magic.
Rango premiered on February 14, 2011 atWestwood, Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on March 4. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $246 million worldwide against a $135 million budget. At the84th Academy Awards,Rango wonBest Animated Feature. Following its critical and commercial success,Rango would lead to the formation ofParamount Animation.
A theatrically-minded petveiled chameleon becomes stranded in theMojave Desert after histerrarium accidentally falls out of his owners' car. Now left to fend for himself, he learns from the cause of the accident,nine-banded armadillohermit Roadkill, who is seeking a mystical being known as the "Spirit of the West", about anAmerican frontier-like town known by its animalistic populace as Dirt, where water comes in through a mysterious rite on Wednesdays. Out of options, the chameleon heads out into the desert. After a near-fatal encounter with a viciousred-tailed hawk, he meetsdesert iguana rancher Beans, who takes him to Dirt.
Asked about his identity, the chameleon presents himself to the townsfolk as a tough drifter named "Rango" and quickly runs afoul ofGila monster outlaw Bad Bill, who challenges him to aduel. The hawk interrupts it and chases Rango, who accidentally knocks over an emptywater tower that crushes the hawk to death. Believing he did so intentionally, the townsfolk praise Rango, who is appointed as the newsheriff by Dirt's elderlydesert tortoise mayor. Meanwhile, the townsfolk worry that with the hawk vanquished, infamouswestern diamondback rattlesnakegunslinger Rattlesnake Jake, who fears predators such as it, will return.
With the town desperate for water during a drought, Beans demands that Rango investigates and in doing so, he inadvertently assists amole bandit named Balthazar in stealing the water supply after mistaking him for aprospector. Rango organizes aposse that later finds the banker, Johannes Merrimack III, dead in the middle of the desert from, oddly enough, drowning. The posse tracks the robbers to their hideout, where they fight Balthazar'sbat-riding clan over the stolen water'swater dispenser bottle storage before discovering it to be empty. Despite professing that they found it like that, Balthazar and hisprairie dog sons, Jedidiah and Ezekiel, are taken into custody.
After being questioned by Rango about his purchasing of the land around Dirt, the mayor, soon revealed to be responsible for Merrimack's death, summons Rattlesnake Jake, who runs Rango out of town after exposing his lies. Dejected, Rango returns to where he was separated from his owners, where he passes out after hecrosses to the other side of the highway. He eventually meets the Spirit of the West, an elderlyMan with No Name, who advises him to go back to Dirt and set things right, telling him that "No man can walk out on his own story".
With the aid of Roadkill and mystical movingyuccas, Rango discovers an emergency shut-off valve in a water pipeline atLas Vegas, which the mayor had been manipulating to cause the water shortage for his scandal. Rango returns to Dirt and challenges Jake to a duel, in reality, a diversion staged by his allies, which include Balthazar's clan, to allow the restoration of the town's water in order to make his resolve clear. However, the mayor forces Rango to surrender by threatening Beans' life before attempting to drown the duo inside the bank's vault.
The mayor then tries to shoot Jake dead with Rango's gun, believing that both he and Rango represent too much of the old traditions, only to discover that Rango has taken its only bullet, which he uses to shatter the vault's glass door, freeing himself and Beans. Impressed, Jake praises and respects Rango for proving his heroism before dragging the mayor off into the desert to murder him as retribution for his betrayal. The citizens of Dirt celebrate the return of their water supply and Rango, now a true hero.
The likeness ofBenicio del Toro is briefly used to represent hisOscar Zeta Acosta character fromFear and Loathing in Las Vegas in acameo appearance, alongside Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke.[citation needed]
The filming was described as "emotion capture" as the actors shot their scenes in live action for the animators to use as reference.[10][11] During production, the cast dressed in their character's costumes and performed on real sets in order to "give them the feel of the Wild West". AsJohnny Depp could only schedule twenty days to film his scenes, much of the supporting cast had to film with him when it was convenient.[12] Verbinski said his attempt withRango was to do a "small" film after the first three large-scalePirates of the Caribbean movies, but that he underestimated how painstaking, time-consuming and expensive animated filmmaking is.[13][12] Paramount stepped in at the last possible minute as Verbinski's slim financing was about to run out.[14]
Unlike many studio animation projects produced sinceAvatar,Rango was rendered in 2D, not 3D, as the budget would not allow for it and Verbinski did not want to do "half-assed 3D".[14]Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) turned downAvatar, for which they had done some effects tests, to work on the film as they wanted to work on a less risky project, also taking advantage of their past relationship with Verbinski.[15]
The film contains a number of references to movie Westerns and other films, includingThe Shakiest Gun in the West,A Fistful of Dollars,Chinatown,The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,Once Upon a Time in the West,Cat Ballou,Raising Arizona, andFear and Loathing in Las Vegas;[16] as well as references to earlier ILM work including the dogfight in the Death Star trench inStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.[17] Verbinski has also citedEl Topo as an influence on the film.[18]
In a discussion about the nature of contemporary animated features, Verbinski said in December 2011:
There are shackles with the budgets and the profit margins. You want to compete with what they're doing atPixar andDreamWorks. There's a price tag with that just in terms of achieving that quality level. What happened to theRalph Bakshis of the world? We're all sitting here talking about family entertainment. Does animation have to be family entertainment? I think at that cost, yes. There's the bull's-eye you have to hit, but when you miss it by a little bit and you do something interesting, the bull's-eye is going to move. Audiences want something new; they just can't articulate what.[19]
Rango'steaser trailer was released on June 9, 2010,[20] alongside the film's official site RangoMovie.com.[21] It depicted an open desert highway and Mr. Timms, Rango's orange, wind-up plastic fish floating slowly across the road.[22] On June 28, 2010, the first poster was released showing the main character Rango.[3] A two-minutefilm trailer was released June 29, 2010.[23][24] Another trailer was released December 14, 2010.[25] A 30-second spot was made specifically to run duringSuper Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011.[26]
The film was released onBlu-ray andDVD on July 15, 2011.[27][28] The release had been produced as a two-disc Blu-ray, DVD, and "Digital Copy" combo pack with both the theatrical and an extended version of the film, cast and crew commentary, deleted scenes, and featurettes.[29][30][31]
The extended version adds a final scene that didn’t appear in the theatrical release of the film in which the flooded town is now a beach resort renamed Mud and Rango rides out to deal with news that Bad Bill is causing trouble elsewhere and gave his final speech before he falls off hisroadrunner steed.
A 4KUltra HD Blu-ray SteelBook was released on June 4, 2024.[citation needed]
Rango grossed $123 million in the United States and Canada and $122 million in other countries for a total $246 million.[1] It is the 24th-highest-grossing film of 2011 worldwide.[32]
In the United States and Canada,Rango debuted in 3,917 theaters, grossing $9,608,091 on its first day and $38,079,323 during its opening weekend, ranking number one at the box office.[1] Although the film dropped into second place behindBattle: Los Angeles the following week, it would go on to outgross the opening ofDisney'sMars Needs Moms.[33] On March 26, 2011, it became the first film of 2011 to cross the $100 million mark.[34]
In markets outside the United States and Canada, during its first weekend, it earned $16,770,243 in 33 countries.[35] It topped the international box office two times in March 2011.[36][37] Although the film did not double its budget, it was declared a success by Paramount which subsequently announced the formation ofits own animation department.[38]
Rango received critical acclaim upon its release. On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 88% of 224 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Rango is a smart, giddily creative burst of beautifully animated entertainment, and Johnny Depp gives a colorful vocal performance as a household pet in an unfamiliar world."[39]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[40] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[41][42][43]
Richard Corliss ofTime applauded the "savvy humor" and called the voice actors "flat-out flawless".[44] He later named it one of the 10 best movies of 2011, saying, "In a strong year for animation ...Rango was the coolest, funniest and dagnab-orneriest of the bunch."[45] Bob Mondello ofNational Public Radio observed that "Rango's not just a kiddie-flick (though it has enough sillyslapstick to qualify as a pretty good one). It's a real movie lover's movie, conceived as aBlazing Saddles-like comic commentary ongenre that's as back-lot savvy as it is light in the saddle."[4]Frank Lovece ofFilm Journal International, noting the nervous but improvising hero's resemblance to theDon Knotts character inThe Shakiest Gun in the West, echoed this, saying that "with healthy doses ofCarlos Castaneda,Sergio Leone,Chuck Jones andChinatown ... this [is] the kid-movie equivalent of aQuentin Tarantino picture. There's no gory violence or swearing, of course, but there sure is a film buff's parade of great movie moments."[46]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars calling the film "some kind of a miracle: An animated comedy for smart moviegoers, wonderfully made, great to look at, wickedly satirical ... The movie respects the tradition of painstakingly drawn animated classics, and does interesting things with space and perspective with its wild action sequences."[47]
After praising "the brilliance of its visuals", Joe Morgenstern ofThe Wall Street Journal wrote, "The narrative isn't really dramatic, ... [but] more like a succession of picturesque notions that might have flowed fromDreamWorks orPixar while their story departments were out to lunch."[48]
In one of the more negative reviews, Michael Phillips of theChicago Tribune acknowledged its "considerable care and craft" but called it "completely soulless" and that watching it "with a big suburban preview audience was instructive. Not much laughter. Moans and sobs of pre-teen fright whenever Rattlesnake Jake slithered into view, threatening murder."[49]
TheSacramento, California-basedanti-smoking organization Breathe California regards the film a "public health hazard"; it said there were at least 60 instances of smoking in the film.[50] Because of this, some anti-smoking organizations, including Breathe California, petitioned for the film to receive anR rating instead of the original PG rating received by theMotion Picture Association of America. However, no change was made to the smoking scenes and the film maintained its PG rating.[51]
| Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Animated Film | Gore Verbinski | Won |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Best Animated Film | Won | |
| Best Animated Female | Isla Fisher | Won | |
| American Cinema Editors | Best Edited Animated Feature Film | Craig Wood | Won |
| Annie Awards | Best Animated Feature | Won | |
| Animated Effects in an Animated Production | Chase Cooper | Nominated | |
| Willi Geiger | Nominated | ||
| Character Design in a Feature Production | Mark "Crash" McCreery | Won | |
| Directing in a Feature Production | Gore Verbinski | Nominated | |
| Storyboarding in a Feature Production | Delia Gosman | Nominated | |
| Josh Hayes | Nominated | ||
| Writing in a Feature Production | John Logan, Gore Verbinski andJames Ward Byrkit | Won | |
| Editing in a Feature Production | Craig Wood | Won | |
| BAFTA | Best Animated Film | Gore Verbinski | Won |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Animated Film | Won | |
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Feature | Won | |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Animated Feature | Gore Verbinski | Won |
| Golden Globes Awards | Best Animated Feature Film | Nominated | |
| Hollywood Film Festival | Best Animated | Won | |
| IGN Best of 2011 | Best Animated Movie | Won | |
| International Film Music Critics Association | Best Original Score for an Animated Feature | Hans Zimmer | Nominated |
| Kids Choice Awards | Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie | Johnny Depp | Nominated |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Film | Won | |
| Motion Picture Sound Editors | Best Sound Editing in an Animation Feature Film | Nominated | |
| National Board of Review Awards | Best Animated Feature | Won | |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | Best Animated Feature | Won | |
| People's Choice Awards[52] | Favorite Movie Animated Voice | Johnny Depp | Won |
| Producers Guild of America Awards | Best Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures | John B. Carls, Gore Verbinski | Nominated |
| San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Animated Feature | Won | |
| Satellite Awards | Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media | Nominated | |
| Saturn Awards | Best Animated Film | Nominated | |
| Teen Choice Awards[53] | Choice Movie Animated Voice | Johnny Depp | Won |
| Toronto Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |
| Visual Effects Society[54] | Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Tim Alexander, Hal Hickel, Jacqui Lopez, Katie Lynch | Won |
| Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Frank Gravatt, Kevin Martel, Brian Paik, Steve Walton | Won | |
| Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | John Bell, Polly Ing, Martin Murphy, Russell Paul | Won | |
| Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Colin Benoit, Philippe Rebours, Nelson Sepulveda, Nick Walker | Won |
Electronic Arts released avideo gameof the same name served as asequel to the film. It is rated E10+ and was released for thePlayStation 3,Xbox 360,Nintendo DS, andWii.[55]
Funtactix launchedRango: The World, a browser-based virtual world set in the Rango universe, on March 4, 2011, the day of the film's release.[56][57]
The score was composed by Verbinski's frequent collaborator,Hans Zimmer and features contributions from songwriter and actor Rick Garcia, Latin rock bandLos Lobos, and hardcore punk/industrial bandLard.[58][59]
Non-original music includes "Finale", composed byDanny Elfman for the 2007 filmThe Kingdom, as well as excerpts ofRichard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries",Johann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube", andHank Williams cover of "Cool Water".
My character in Rango is Priscilla. She is a cactus mouse and the technically [sic] term is an Aye-aye ...
moviegoers gave the toon a C+ CinemaScore. Paramount insiders say the CinemaScore could reflect the fact that Rango is a notch more sophisticated than most toons, sparking debate among moviegoers.
Rango garnered a dispiriting "C+" grade from CinemaScore audiences. Adults, in particular, didn't enjoy the ride, with those 25 and up rating the movie a "C."
appears to be benefiting from positive word-of-mouth despite its puzzling "C+" CinemaScore rating.
| International | |
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| National | |
