athena's Review of Rango

When I saw the trailers for this film, I thought about seeing it but there was something so... off-kilter about it... that I just never seemed to get around to it. That said, after it managed to snag both the Annie and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, I decided that this one deserved to be checked out at least once.

And, by the time the credits rolled I was actually surprised by how much I'd enjoyed it overall. Is the story the most original thing in the world? Probably not. Rango, while likeable as a character, is very much a blank slate and that makes him a bit difficult to connect with at times. Are you connecting with *him* or are you connecting with the role he's playing for the townsfolk? It all gets a bit meta at times. The characters in the film keep asking him "who are you?" and the fact that he doesn't really have an answer is both a little odd, but also kinda interesting too. Granted, I'm one of those people who likes open-ended questions like that and that semi new age slant isn't going to sit well with everyone.

But I also liked the sort of hyper-real look to the film blended with some truly cool character designs. For so many years we've only really had that kind of clean plastic-y look of the Pixar/Dreamworks films that it was kind of refreshing to see something a little different.

Will YOU like this film? Honestly, I don't know. I think it's one of those films that will either tickle your fancy or not.

For myself, I'm glad I gave it a shot.