"Rango" is trippy and cultured, an animated adventure that seems aimed at adults as much as (or more than) school-age children. "Cars" or "Shrek," this is not.
Some of the dialogue, about metaphors, epiphanies and enlightenment, will sail over younger moviegoers' heads like kites snapping in the spring breeze. But they may be mesmerized by the chameleon with the voice of Johnny Depp.
The colorful creature, who later adopts the name of Rango, is living in a small glass terrarium with a dead bug, plastic palm tree, wind-up fish and a doll that's missing a head, an arm and lower body.
Just as he muses that what his story needs is an "ironic, unexpected event that will propel the hero into conflict," he is tossed out of his comfy confines and into the scorching desert. He encounters an advice-dispensing armadillo, a horrifying hawk and a rancher lizard named Beans (voice of Isla Fisher) from a town called Dirt.
It's dry as, well, dirt, with its precious water supply quickly evaporating. The sheltered chameleon, closer to a knee-knocking Don Knotts than Clint Eastwood or Gary Cooper, renames and reinvents himself as a gunslinging hero in the frontier outpost.
And then he has to turn that image into reality when the town's water disappears completely and mysteriously and predators appear. Rango has to tangle with a tortoise who is the venal mayor, a Gila monster, a killer hawk, outlaws on the run and Rattlesnake Jake -- even as the Dirtonians pin their hopes entirely on his skinny little lizard version of shoulders.
Gore Verbinski, who made the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies with Mr. Depp, directs "Rango." Screenwriter John Logan, whose credits include "Any Given Sunday," "Gladiator" and "The Aviator," wrote the screenplay.
In addition to Mr. Depp and Ms. Fisher, it showcases the voices of Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina and Stephen Root, among others.
Although done with computer animation, it borrows from "High Noon" and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, complete with posses and "Now ... we ride!" exhortations. Rango's habit of calling someone "Little sister" brings to mind Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit."
The movie has flashes of "Star Wars," "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Chinatown," with a character who sounds like John Huston and repeatedly declares, "You control the water, you control everything." In a world with dwindling resources, water literally is currency.
Rango is a delightful creation, wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the start, later a red union suit and, as he grows into the role, standard cowboy garb. His lizard skin is usually greenish-blue, and he has a thin question mark of a neck balancing a head with golf ball-size eyes.
The collection of other critters, many with remarkably expressive peepers, includes mice, a bullfrog, a rat, rabbits, prairie dogs, bats and roadrunners.
If you or your children are terrified of snakes, know that "Rango" has a whopper of a sinister one that almost fills the movie screen and either prompted a youngster to start crying at a preview or coincidentally appeared at the time of the tears.
Which leads to the questions about who "Rango," rated PG for rude humor, language, action and smoking, is aimed at or suitable for. Given its pacing, sophistication and references to other movies, it likely will be out of reach of children under 6 years old, at least.
Adults who can recognize the sort of cowboy poncho and gravelly voice made famous by Clint Eastwood are another story. They may happily tip their hat or glass of cactus juice to Rango.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her Mad About the Movies blog at post-gazette.com/movies.
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