With Johnny Depp as the voice of Rango, get ready to be charmed ... Ned Beatty as the stone-fisted tortoise for a Mayor (a mix-tape of John Huston in “Chinatown” and a wheelchair-bound Lionel ...

Tortoise John (Ned Beatty). “Rango is a lizard attempting to adapt to his surroundings,” Depp previews. “He’s trying to figure out what he’s supposed to be, like most of us in life.” ...

The wheelchair-bound, seemingly genial old tortoise mayor, who is voiced by Ned Beatty and looks like him too, promises everyone that good times lie ahead and attempts to co-opt Rango, who ...

The town's tortoise mayor (Ned Beatty) tells Rango: "You control the water, you control the desert." With folksy villainy and a creaky wheelchair, the mayor is a perfect stand-in for John Huston's ...

Rango’s roots are in live action ... “I wasn’t getting paid and John took a big cut,” says Verbinski. “We were seven guys, then by the end 12 guys, cooking hot dogs for lunch.” ...

The same sophistication extends to the screenplay by John Logan. The dialogue, including Rango's stream-of-consciousness rambling, goes by quickly, but with an unexpected life-likeness.

Paul Giamatti is terrible as King John, battling the barons who made him ... but with whoops of joyous derision. Rango is an animated spoof western packed full of in-jokes that will sail over ...

John Logan is smiling today ... or for his screenplay for Gore Verbinski’s “Rango,” the current front runner for the animation Oscar. That’s how much Logan is in demand.