Story
Rango (voice of Johnny Depp) is a pet chameleon. He gets lost when his cage falls out of the family car while his owners are driving through the desert. He wanders through the desert and makes friends with several characters, including a lizard called Beans (Isla Fisher). After a while, he ends up in the town of Dirt. Dirt’s locals are a mostly friendly and kind community of toads, turtles, rodents and other desert creatures. But the town mayor is corrupt. He’s working with local outlaws to cheat all the residents out of their land by controlling the water supply.
Rango has told the townsfolk of Dirt that he’s a legendary gunslinger and lawman. They turn to him for help in cleaning up the town and making their water supply safe. This means that Rango has a big fight ahead of him.
Themes
Identity and belonging; crime; corruption
Violence
This movie has quite a lot of violence. For example:
Sexual references
This movie has some sexual references. For example, there’s some mild flirting between Rango and a headless Barbie doll. Also, Rango falls in love with Beans – they hold hands and kiss one time.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
This movie has some use of substances. For example:
- Characters smoke cigars.
- A lot of the movie takes place in a bar where characters drink ‘cactus juice’. It looks like whisky, and the characters treat it like alcohol. The characters treat water like alcohol too. For example, the mayor is often seen drinking water from a martini glass with an olive on a toothpick. He also drinks it from a whisky glass and describes it as ‘vintage’.
- A character lets slip that Beans’s dad was killed when he stumbled down a mine shaft while very drunk.
Nudity and sexual activity
This movie has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, a female character wears a very low-cut top.
Product placement
The following products are displayed or used in this movie: Barbie dolls and pop tarts.
Coarse language
This movie has some coarse language. Also, characters sometimes speak to each other in a very aggressive and threatening way.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Rango is an animated western movie, voiced by a star-studded cast. It’s been partly marketed as a children’s movie, but it contains a lot of violence and coarse language. It also explores some grown-up themes such as identity and belonging. And it has references to classic western movies that children – and some adults – will miss.
The main message from this movie is to be true to yourself. If you try to be someone or something you’re not, you’ll always be found out.
Values that you could reinforce with your children include friendship, honesty, cooperation and bravery.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the importance of being fair and honest when you’re a leader. For example, the mayor of Dirt is crooked. He wants to control the water supply so he can build a bigger town at the expense of the townsfolk.