Rango is a 2011 American animated Western comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and written by John Logan. The film stars Johnny Depp as the titular protagonist, with Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant in supporting roles. It follows the titular character, an anthropomorphic pet chameleon (Depp), as he ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost in the Mojave Desert that is in desperate need of a new sheriff.
The film contains a number of references to classic Western films, including The Shakiest Gun in the West, A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Cat Ballou, as well as non-Western films such as Chinatown, Raising Arizona, El Topo and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Visual effects and animation for the film were outsourced to Industrial Light & Magic.
Rango premiered on February 14, 2011, at Westwood, Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on March 4, by Paramount Pictures (under Nickelodeon Movies). The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $246 million worldwide against a $135 million budget. At the 84th Academy Awards, Rango won Best Animated Feature. Following its critical and commercial success, Rango would lead to the formation of Paramount Animation.
Plot
A theatrically-minded pet chameleon is left to fend for himself in the Mojave Desert after his vivarium accidentally falls out of his owners' car. The cause of the accident, armadillo hermit Roadkill, was crossing the road in search of a mystical being known as the "Spirit of the West". He tells the chameleon about a nearby American frontier-like town of animals, known as Dirt. Out of options, the chameleon sets out to find the town; 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". He quickly runs afoul of outlaw Bad Bill, who challenges him to a duel. The hawk interrupts it and chases Rango, who accidentally knocks over an empty water tower that crushes the predator to death. Believing he did so intentionally, the townsfolk praise Rango and he is appointed as the new sheriff by the town's elderly tortoise mayor. Some townsfolk worry that, with the hawk dead, infamous gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake will return. As the town is suffering from a severe drought, Beans demands that Rango investigate the lack of water; in doing so, he inadvertently assists mole bandit Balthazar, whom he mistakes for a prospector, to steal the town's remaining water supply. Rango organizes a posse that finds banker Johannes Merrimack III dead from, oddly enough, drowning. The posse tracks Balthazar to his hideout, where they fight his bat-riding clan over the stolen water container, before discovering it to be already empty. Balthazar and his prairie dog sons, Jedidiah and Ezekiel, are taken into custody despite professing that it was like that to begin with.
Realizing something suspicious is going on, Rango begins to question the mayor about how much land he has been buying around town lately to have a modern city constructed upon. Now revealed to be responsible for Merrimack's death, the mayor summons Rattlesnake Jake to expose Rango's lies and run him out of town. Dejected, Rango returns to where he was separated from his owners, crossing the highway amidst the heavy traffic and passing out on the opposite side. The next morning, he encounters the Spirit of the West, appearing as an elderly Man with No Name. He advises Rango to return to Dirt and set things right, asserting that "no man can walk out on his own story".
With the aid of Roadkill and some mystical moving yuccas, Rango discovers that the mayor has been manipulating an emergency shut-off valve in the Las Vegas water pipeline to cause the water shortage in Dirt. Rango returns to Dirt and challenges Jake to a duel, distracting him long enough for the yuccas and Balthazar's clan to instigate the water's restoration. Rango appears to have the upper hand, but the mayor forces him to surrender and is detained in the bank's vault with Beans to be drowned.
The mayor then attempts to murder Jake with Rango's gun, believing that gunslingers have no place in a modern world. However, Rango had secretly removed its only bullet; he uses it to shatter the vault's glass door, freeing himself and Beans. Impressed, Jake praises Rango's heroism before dragging the mayor away to avenge his betrayal. Dirt's populace then celebrates the return of their water supply and Rango elects to stay on as sheriff.
Voice cast
Johnny Depp as Rango, an eccentric but well-meaning pet chameleon who becomes the unlikely sheriff of Dirt. Isla Fisher as Beans, a hot-headed but virtuous desert iguana rancher and Rango's love interest Abigail Breslin as Priscilla, a young cactus mouse with a dark sense of humorDonald Schultz, Gore Verbinski, "Real Creatures of Dirt", Rango DVD. Schultz: "She represents one of the strangest looking creatures on our planet. She's not from the desert or the United States at all..." Verbinski: "[Character designer] Crash [McCreery] went and did the research and found the aye-aye ... which doesn't really belong in this particular desert." Ned Beatty as Tortoise John, an elderly desert tortoise who is the mayor of Dirt and plots to enrich himself Alfred Molina as Roadkill, an armadillo hermit who is seeking the Spirit of the WestO'Hehir, Andrew. "'Rango' and the rise of kidult-oriented animation", Salon.com, March 2, 2011. WebCitation archive. Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake, a rattlesnake gunslinger Harry Dean Stanton as Balthazar, a mole bandit and the father of Jedidiah and Ezekiel Stephen Root as: Doc, a one-eared hare who is Dirt's local doctor Johannes Merrimack III, a squirrel who is the banker at Dirt's local bank Mr. Snuggles, a North American porcupine Ray Winstone voices Bad Bill, a Gila monster outlaw and the mayor's primary enforcer Timothy Olyphant as The Spirit of the West; the likeness of Clint Eastwood is used to represent the character.
Gil Birmingham voices Wounded Bird, a Native American crow who becomes Rango's deputy. Ian Abercrombie voices Ambrose, an owl who joins Rango's posse. Claudia Black voices Angelique, a fox who is the mayor's secretary. Blake Clark voices Buford, a toad who is the town bartender. Ryan Hurst and Vincent Kartheiser voice Jedidiah and Ezekiel, respectively, Balthazar's dimwitted bandit sons. George DelHoyo voices Señor Flan, the leader of a mariachi band of owls who narrate the film; his singing voice is provided by Rick Garcia. Joe Nunez voices Rock-Eye, a cynical desert toad Rango encounters. Alex Manugian voices Spoons, a mouse prospector, James Ward Byrkit voices Waffles, a lizard Dirtonian, John Cothran voices Elgin, a cat Dirtonian and Lew Temple voices Fergus, an eagle-like bird who runs the town general store. Director Gore Verbinski voices Sergeant Turley, a turkey veteran.
Beth Grant, Charles Fleischer, Hemky Madera, Alanna Ubach, Maile Flanagan, Patrika Darbo, Mark "Crash" McCreery, Chris Parson and Kym Whitley appear in minor roles. In addition, Depp, Root, Kartheiser, Byrkit, Darbo, Ubach, Parson and Verbinski all provide additional voices.
The likeness of Benicio del Toro is briefly used to represent his Oscar Zeta Acosta character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in a cameo appearance, alongside Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke, reprising his role from the film.
Production The filming was described as "emotion capture" as the actors shot their scenes in live action for the animators to use as reference. 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". As Johnny Depp could only schedule twenty days to film his scenes, much of the supporting cast had to film with him when it was convenient.Vejvoda, Jim. "What Exactly is Rango?", IGN.com, June 30, 2010. WebCitation archive Verbinski said his attempt with Rango was to do a "small" film after the first three large-scale Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but that he underestimated how painstaking, time-consuming and expensive animated filmmaking is.Moody, Annemarie. "ILM Jumps to Features with Rango", Animation World Network, September 12, 2008. WebCitation archive Paramount stepped in at the last possible minute as Verbinski's slim financing was about to run out.
Unlike many studio animation projects produced since Avatar, Rango was rendered in 2D, not stereoscopic 3D, as the budget would not allow for it and Verbinski did not want to do "half-assed 3D". Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) turned down Avatar, 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.
The film contains a number of references to movie Westerns 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; as well as references to earlier ILM work including the dogfight in the Death Star trench in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.The DVD director's commentary track mentions Star Wars during this sequence. Verbinski has also cited El Topo as an influence on the film.
In a discussion about the nature of contemporary animated features, Verbinski said in December 2011:
Release Marketing Rangos teaser trailer was released on June 9, 2010, alongside the film's official site RangoMovie.com. It depicted an open desert highway and Mr. Timms, Rango's orange, wind-up plastic fish floating slowly across the road.Rango – Movie Trailers – iTunes On June 28, 2010, the first poster was released showing the main character Rango. Additional on March 6, 2011. A two-minute film trailer was released June 29, 2010. Another trailer was released December 14, 2010.Raup, Jordan. "Theatrical Trailer For Gore Verbinski's 'Rango' Starring Johnny Depp" , TheFilmStage.com, December 14, 2010. WebCitation archive. A 30-second spot was made specifically to run during Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011.
Home media The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 15, 2011. 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.
The extended version adds a final scene that did not 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 his roadrunner steed.
A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray SteelBook was released on June 4, 2024.
Reception Box office Rango grossed $123 million in the United States and Canada and $122 million internationally, yielding a worldwide total of $246 million. It was the 24th highest-grossing film of 2011.
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. Although the film dropped into second place behind Battle: Los Angeles the following week, it would go on to outgross the opening of Disney's Mars Needs Moms. On March 26, 2011, it became the first film of 2011 to cross the $100 million mark.
In markets outside the United States and Canada, during its first weekend, it earned $16,770,243 in 33 countries.. . It topped the international box office two times in March 2011. Although the film did not double its budget, it was declared a success by Paramount which subsequently announced the formation of its own animation department.
Critical response