Rango and The Oscars

Enjoy tonight's Oscar telecast, celebrating the best in motion picture entertainment for 2011! While you're waiting for the show to begin, enjoy the following review of one of tonight's five films nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, then check out the You've Enjoyed the Movie...Now Enjoy the Book! booklist on BookGuide, featuring the books that Oscar-winning films have been based upon.

Rango

[DVD j Rango]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film -- the trailers and DVD cover made the art seem vaguely grotesque in some ways, but in the end I fell in love with this film. Though marketed as a film for kids, I really believe the majority of this film's references and humor were aimed at a more nostalgic adult audience. Rango is the tale of a pet chameleon with aspirations of being an actor, who ends up abandoned in the desert. In search of civilization and precious water, our main character stumbles across a nearly-dead western town in need of a heroic sheriff, and decides to "act" the part. What he doesn't expect is the need to truly become a hero to the townsfolk as they face a serious struggle. This film is full of wonderful tributes to traditional western tropes, and has some terrific voice performances from actors such as Johnny Depp, Ned Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton and many more. The animation, both on the characters and their environments, was stunning, both in quiet emotional scenes and slam-bang action sequences. Highly recommended! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available: various kids books and videogames based on Rango.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Rango web site ]

Have you seen this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.