Rango (2011)

All Critics (211) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (185) | Rotten (26) | DVD (9)

Just when you thought you'd seen everything, here comes Chinatown, the animated version.

March 25, 2011 Full Review | Comments (35)

Rafer Guzman

Newsday

Top Critic

Though young children may enjoy it, the film is built for viewers of any age with a taste for joyful anarchy.

March 14, 2011 Full Review | Comments (2)

Bruce Diones

New Yorker

Top Critic

The first animated film from ILM is also the first memorable motion picture of 2011.

March 6, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

Adults and slightly older children should have a great time.

March 4, 2011 Full Review | Comments (5)

Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

A CGI western comedy populated by desert critters, Rango gives the film year a belated jump start with a passel of movie-wise fun and a knockout animation style.

March 4, 2011 Full Review | Comments (2)

Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

With his first animated feature, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski shows ambitions considerably beyond producing the usual standard of most children's fare. To put it plainly, Rango is one weird movie.

March 4, 2011 Full Review

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

Amusing in small doses, marketed to kids and not really FOR kids. An undeserving Oscar winner.

January 15, 2013 Full Review

Roger Moore

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Meditations on identity make Rango unique, and somewhat special, in the current animated film landscape.

October 4, 2012 Full Review

Ben Kendrick

ScreenRant

If the writers had dared to step a little outside the borders of the western formula or if they'd even just shaken up the old formula a bit, this really could have been something special, but sadly, it just ends up being pretty standard.

September 21, 2012 Full Review

Jeff Beck

Examiner.com

Depp isn't as annoying in this as he has been elsewhere.

September 15, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Packed with in-jokes, great characters and an offbeat anti-hero, Rango is the perfect shake-up the animated genre needed.

January 29, 2012 Full Review

R. L. Shaffer

IGN DVD

At long last, a spaghetti Western for the kiddie set -- and one that doesn't sell older viewers short.

January 3, 2012 Full Review

Jason Buchanan

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Oddball existential western animation.

December 29, 2011 Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

An animated walk on the dry side

December 24, 2011 Full Review

S. James Wegg

JWR

Unfocused and absolutely scattered...

December 17, 2011 Full Review | Comments (8)

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

... The best non-Pixar animated movie in recent memory ...

November 5, 2011 Full Review

Greg Maki

Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

Set in a surreally off-kilter version of the Wild West populated entirely by animals, computer-animated Western Rango is both a witty spoof and loving homage to the genre.

July 25, 2011 Full Review

Jason Best

Movie Talk

Kudos to the director for making it as oddball as it could get away with.

July 20, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jeffrey Chen

Window to the Movies

Fans of Johnny Depp will enjoy his voice work as the nutty Rango; he is obviously having a good time. Ned Beatty's voice is easily recognizable as the main villain, giving him a one-two punch after working as the nasty Lotso in Toy Story 3...

July 18, 2011 Full Review | Comments (5)

Leonard Maltin

indieWIRE

... this southwestern goof is really for really big kids with a love of movies, a sense of whimsy and a soft spot for the hideously gorgeous creatures of the desert.

July 12, 2011 Full Review

Sean Axmaker

MSN.com

It's one of those movies that will reveal more and more to youngsters as they rewatch it in years to come... and that's the best kind of film.

July 7, 2011 Full Review

Matt Neal

The Standard

For good or for bad, this is not your run-of-the-mill animated feature.

July 7, 2011 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Rango is Disney by way of Hunter S. Thompson, Chinatown recast with a lizard, Blazing Saddles with existential angst, Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns romanticallyspoofed. Rango is both weird and wonderful.

July 6, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Brandon Fibbs

BrandonFibbs.com

Inevitably, as seems to be the law with any modern animation, there's an intertextual dimension to the proceedings.

June 29, 2011 Full Review

Ed Whitfield

The Ooh Tray

This chameleon stands out.

June 3, 2011 Full Review

Grae Drake

Movies.com

Part celebration of the spaghetti western with a stunning resolutely 2:D visual style, is geared primarily for adults and is quirky in all the right ways.

May 12, 2011 Full Review

Bruce Bennett

Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

• 1. Doc: This hawk...is dead!
  2. Waffles: Circle of life.
  – Submitted by Miles F (8 months ago)
• 1. Mayor: Control the water, you control everything.
  – Submitted by Sol R (8 months ago)
• 1. Bad Bill: I'm going to slice your face off and use it to wipe my unmentionables!
  – Submitted by Rishabh B (9 months ago)
• 1. Rango: I think the metaphor broke my spleen.
  – Submitted by Rishabh B (9 months ago)
• 1. Rango: Is this Heaven?
  2. The Spirit of the West: If it were, we'd be eatin' Pop-Tarts with Kim Novak.
  – Submitted by Rishabh B (9 months ago)
• 1. Balthazar: Hells bar! This ain't the bank!
  2. Ezekiel: Balthazar, the Sheriff is standin' right here! Helpin' us out.
  3. Jedidiah: Gonna give us a permit for prospecting.
  4. Rango: That's right, sir. Just doin' my duty. The lonely constable on his rounds, keepin' and eagle eye out for meyham and malfeasance.
  – Submitted by Vera F (12 months ago)