I wasn't interested in this film when I first heard about it. As such I had decided that I was probably never going to watch it and I was fine with that. A friend decided to put this film on with the express purpose of showing me the film.
This film tells of a pet chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who is somewhat bored with his life in his aquarium with his fake fish, fake palm tree, and headless/legless doll torso. He is an actor and he craves more from life. When his aquarium falls out of the back of the truck that he is traveling in, his "Western" adventure begins, taking him in a quest for water to the town of Dirt. In Dirt live an assortment of desert creatures in the form of an old West town. Shortly after arriving, the chameleon takes on the name Rango and becomes sheriff of Dirt. When the town water goes missing, Rango leads the posse to retrieve the water and figure out the mysterious goings-on at Dirt.
This film had some funny parts. Its humor is in the style of Shrek and Igor in that it's funny for both children and adults and the adult humor is subtle enough that children won't notice the double entendre/innuendo. Rango is also one of those films that you pick up something new each time you watch it, mostly because Rango himself speaks in a low and quick manner that is entertaining.
There were quite a few enjoyable and talented actors voicing characters in this picture. I am one of those people who takes delight in successfully identifying actors in their voice work (although I confess I am not good at "lightning rounds" of quickly identifying actors based off of snippets of conversation and such). I happily identified Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake. Isla Fisher was entertaining as Beans but I had no idea it was her until we watched the end credits. Ray Winstone was also easily recognizable and entertaining as Bad Bill. I confess that I didn't identify Timothy Olyphant as The Spirit of the West although he did an excellent impression of Clint Eastwood (I hope that was his intention at least).
All in all, very good family movie. The extra features show extra scenes (although if you watch the "extended" cut you will see all of the extra scenes worked in there) and some insight into the actual creatures that the characters in the film are based on. If you decide to watch the extra features with children I would advise a warning to little ones especially to not do as the idiot in the extra features regarding the actual creatures does.
I know that the man is supposed to be an expert on these desert animals so I know he isn't truly an idiot. But still I thought that it was immensely careless and thoughtless on his part as well as the part of the filmmakers of the extra features featurette about the desert animals to not put a disclaimer stating "Don't try this at home."
This imbecile who is supposed to be an expert repeatedly gets within literal striking distance of some potentially dangerous creatures. At one point he picks up a scorpion with his bare hand. At another he antagonizes a rattlesnake, a sidewinder, a bobcat, an African monitor lizard, and a Gila monster. When he is bothering the Gila monster he mentions that he got bit by one once and that it was unpleasant but still neglects to tell people to not do what he is doing. The only desert creatures that don't seem to be bothered by him are the fennec fox and the red-tailed hawk that he handles.
Perhaps he is assuming (dumbass that he is) that people will automatically refrain from being as stupid as he is being. Amazingly he doesn't get bit by any of the creatures that he is bothering in this featurette.
As such, since the expert and the filmmakers of the featurette are ridiculously careless about including any kind of warning for children or anyone about avoiding the behavior of the idiot, I would strongly suggest that parents/teachers/whomever might show the extra feature involving the actual animals have a conversation with children about how they shouldn't do what the man on screen is doing. Or you could simply avoid the special features regarding the actual desert animals.
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