Rango

Rango is Nickelodeon Movies' third computer-animated film, released on March 4, 2011. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Graham King. Rango was a critical and commercial success, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It features the voices of actors Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, and Ned Beatty.

It was Nickelodeon's second computer-animated film to be rated PG by the MPAA, after Barnyard. The film received widespread positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $245 million worldwide against its $135 million budget.

Plot

A theatrically-minded pet chameleon becomes stranded in the Mojave Desert of Nevada after his terrarium accidentally falls out of his owners' car. Seeking shelter, he learns about an Old West-like town called Dirt, where water comes in through a mysterious rite on Wednesdays from the cause of the accident- a nine-banded armadillo hermit Roadkill that is seeking a mystical being known as the "Spirit of the West". Seeing no other options, the chameleon heads out into the desert. After a near-fatal encounter with a vicious red-tailed hawk, he meets desert 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 of Gila monster outlaw Bad Bill, who challenges him to a duel after Rango accidentally sets him on fire. The hawk interrupts the duel and chases Rango, who accidentally knocks over an empty water tower and crushes the hawk to death. Believing he did so intentionally, the townsfolk praise Rango, who is appointed as the new sheriff by Dirt's elderly desert tortoise mayor. Meanwhile, the townsfolk worry that with the hawk dead, infamous western diamondback rattlesnake gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake, who fears predators such as it, will return.

With the town desperate for water during a drought, Beans demands that Rango investigates where the water has gone and in doing so, he inadvertently helps a gang of bandits led by a mole named Balthazar, to steal the water supply after mistaking them for prospectors. Rango organizes a posse that later finds the banker, Johannes Merrimack III, dead in the middle of the desert from drowning. The posse tracks the robbers to their hideout, where they fight Balthazar's bat-riding clan over the stolen water bottle before discovering it to be empty. Despite professing that they found it like that, Balthazar and his prairie dog sons, Jedidiah and Ezekiel, are taken into custody.

After being questioned by Rango about his buying of the land around Dirt, the mayor, soon revealed to be responsible for Merrimack's death, summons Rattlesnake Jake, who runs him out of town after forcing him to admit his lies. Dejected, Rango returns to where he was separated from his owners, where he passes out after he crosses to the other side of the highway. He eventually meets the Spirit of the West, an elderly Man 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 moving yuccas, Rango discovers an emergency shut-off valve in a water pipeline to Las Vegas, which the mayor had been manipulating to cause the water shortage so he could buy the land for himself. Rango returns to Dirt and challenges Jake to a duel, a diversion staged by his allies 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 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 Rango for proving his heroism before dragging the mayor off into the desert to murder him as revenge for his betrayal. The citizens of Dirt celebrate the return of their water supply and Rango, now a true hero.

Cast

• Johnny Depp as Rango, a chameleon who is the titular protagonist of the film.
• Isla Fisher as Beans, a desert iguana, the love interest of Rango, and also the deurtagonist.
• Abigail Breslin as Priscilla, a cactus mouse^[1] or aye-aye^[2]
• Ned Beatty as Tortoise John, Mayor of Dirt, a desert tortoise^[3]the main antagonist of the film.
• Alfred Molina as Roadkill, a nine-banded armadillo^[3]
• Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake, a rattlesnake, the secondary antagonist.
• Harry Dean Stanton as Balthazar, a mole, and the quaternary antagonist^[4]
• Ray Winstone as Bad Bill, a Gila monster^[5] the tertiary antagonist of the film.
• Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West
• Stephen Root as: Doc, a rabbit;^[5] Mr. Johannes Merrimack III ("Fluffy Joe" - the banker); Mister Snuggles
• Maile Flanagan as Lucky
• Ian Abercrombie as Ambrose, a burrowing owl
• Gil Birmingham as Wounded Bird, a Chihuahuan raven
• James Ward Byrkit as: Waffles, a horned toad; Gordy; Papa Joad; Cousin Murt; Curlie knife attacker; Rodent Kid
• Claudia Black as Angélique, a fox^[5]
• Blake Clark as Buford, a Sonoran desert toad and a Gas Can Saloon bartender
• John Cothran, Jr. as Elgin
• Patrika Darbo as: Delilah; Maybelle
• George DelHoyo as Señor Flan, the accordion player
• Charles Fleischer as Elbows
• Beth Grant as Bonnie
• Ryan Hurst as Jedidiah
• Vincent Kartheiser as Ezekiel; Lasso rodent
• Hemky Madera as Chorizo
• Alex Manugian as Spoons
• Mark McCreery as Parsons
• Joe Nunez as Rock-Eye
• Chris Parson as: Hazel Moats, Kinski, Stump, Clinker, Lenny, Boseefus, Dirt Kid
• Lew Temple as: Furgus; Hitch
• Alanna Ubach as: Boo Cletus, a raccoon; Fresca; Miss Daisy
• Gore Verbinski as: Sergeant Turley, a wild turkey; Crevice; Slim, a turkey vulture; Lupe, the violin player
• Kym Whitley as Melonee
• Keith Campbell as Sod Buster

Production

The film was produced by Nickelodeon Movies, Gore Verbinski's production company Blind Wink, and Graham King's GK Films. The CGI animation was created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), marking its first full-length animated feature. ILM usually does visual effects for live-action films.^[6] It is also the first animated film for Verbinski. During voice recording, the actors received costumes and sets to "give them the feel of the Wild West"; star Johnny Depp had 20 days in which to voice Rango; and the filmmakers scheduled the supporting actors to interact with him.^[7] Verbinski said his attempt with Rango was to do a "small" film after the large-scale Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, but that he underestimated how painstaking and time-consuming animated filmmaking is.^[6][7]

In a discussion about the nature of contemporary animated features, Verbinski said in December 2011,

Release

Marketing

Rango's teaser trailer was released on June 9, 2010,^[9] along with the film's official site, RangoMovie.com.^[10] It shows an open desert highway and an orange, wind-up plastic fish floating slowly across the road.^[11] On June 28, 2010, the first poster was released, showing the character Rango.^[12] A two-minute trailer was released June 29, 2010.^[13][14] Another trailer was released December 14, 2010.^[15] A 30-second spot was made specifically to run during Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011.^[16]

Home video

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 15, 2011.^[17][18] 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.^[19][20][21]The extended version adds a final scene with the flooded town now a beach resort renamed Mud, and Rango riding out to deal with news that Bad Bill is causing trouble elsewhere.

The film received a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 4, 2024.

2012 re-release

The film returned to theaters for a three-week engagement beginning January 27, 2012.^[22]

Reception

Critical response

Rango received positive reviews. It has an 88% rating on the film critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 200 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's consensus says, "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." ^[23] Another review-aggregation website, Metacritic, reported that the film had been given an average review of 75 out of 100 (or 3 out of 4).^[24]

Box office

Rango, which was distributed by Paramount Pictures, earned $123,477,607 in North America and $121,897,767 in other countries for a total $245,375,374.^[25] It was the 23rd highest-grossing film of 2011 worldwide.^[26]

In North America, 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.^[27] On March 26, 2011 it became the first film of 2011 to cross the $100 million mark in North America.^[28]

In markets outside North America, during its first weekend, it earned $16,770,243 in 33 countries.^[29] It topped the overseas box office two times in March 2011.^[30][31]

With its distribution contract with DreamWorks Animation set to be concluded in 2012, Paramount Pictures, pleased by the performance of this film, announced plans to establish its own animation department.^[32]

Smoking controversy

The Sacramento, California-based anti-smoking organization Breathe California regards the film a public health hazard; it said there were at least 60 instances of smoking in the film.^[33]

Accolades

Video games

Console games

Electronic Arts released a video game based on the film. It was rated E10+ and was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii.^[37]

Online games

Funtactix launched Rango: The World, a browser-based virtual world set in the Rango universe, on March 4, 2011, the day of the film's release.^[38][39]

Trivia

• This was the first Nickelodeon movie to win the Academy Award for Animated Feature Film, and the first Nickelodeon movie to be nominated since Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. It was also the first animated film not produced by Pixar film to win the award since 2007.
• Throught the entire film, it contains a number of references to various Western and other films, including The 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, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas;^[40] and references to earlier ILM work, including the dogfight in the Death Star trench in Star Wars: A New Hope.^[41]
• In addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, this film was also nominated for the same category at the Golden Globe Awards, which lost to fellow Nickelodeon film The Adventures of Tintin.
• The song that plays when Rango becomes an Outcast was actually used in another film called The Kingdom, composed by Danny Elfman.
• Despite being a Nickelodeon film, it initially did not air on the main flagship channel following the controversy, after two years of its original release. However, it did air on a number of non-Viacom-owned TV channels, such as FXM, Cartoon Network, and Discovery Family. Nickelodeon eventually aired the film on January 1, 2018.
• This is the first animated Nickelodeon film not to use cartoon sound effects, due to having a more realistic theme.

Videos

Clips

Gallery

References