But first, Verbinski cleared up some plot details. Rango (Depp) is a pet chameleon who lives in a terrarium. “He’s a thespian in search of an audience,” says Verbinski.

The look of Rango is also rooted in familiar cinematic inspiration, conveyed by some amazing CG animation by Industrial Light & Magic. This is the first animated feature from the special effects ...

That, of course, is when the visual effects and animation teams' real work of creating the visually stunning details in "Rango" kicked in. But by giving Verbinski a way to feel out just how things ...

Rango doesn't just make references to specific Western films or characters, but pays homage to time-honored tropes in the genre as a whole. One of the best examples is the "Dead Man's Hand" held ...

Review: A delicious 'Rango' Skip to content. All Sections. Subscribe Now. 57°F. Saturday, June 14th 2025 Today's e-Edition. Home Page. News. News; Latest Headlines; Crime and Public Safety; ...

So visually, "Rango" completely pulled me into its world of lizards, rodents, bats, and insects. Unfortunately, writer-director Verbinski and co-writer John Logan fail to deliver a script that can ...

The Johnny Depp-voiced movie "Rango" has won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Directed by Gore Verbinski, Depp's director in the first three installments of "Pirates of the Caribbean," the ...

Former Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey is an award-winning entertainment journalist and bestselling author. She left the newsroom in 2015.

Paramount counters that the smoking in "Rango" isn't intended to be glamorous, and that the movie's title character is tobacco-free. Virginia Lam, spokesperson for Paramount Pictures, ...

“Rango” is the story of a chameleon suffering an existential crisis. It’s also pretty clearly about director Gore Verbinski’s own identity crisis.

With two eminently confusable animated movies hitting VOD, parents and animation buffs run the risk of bringing home lizards instead of birds—or vice versa. With tropicalia legend Sergio Mendes ...