Why 'Rango' Is the Perfect Johnny Depp Movie
Depp at his most Depp in 2011’s Rango
In the past decade, Johnny Depp has spent time on screen dressed as a Comanche spirit warrior (The Lone Ranger), a goateed traveler (The Tourist), and a goateed scientist (Transcendence). And none of those films are worth watching. In fact, they’re enough to declare that the 51-year-old actor is in a career rut that looks to be getting deeper with the release of his new art caper Mortdecai, which is sitting at uninspiring 23 on Metacritic right now.
Related: Johnny Depp is At a Career Crossroads
But there’s a fairly recent Depp movie that perfectly captures the actor’s essence while bucking the downward trend of his latest work. We’re talking, of course, about Rango, the 2011 animated Western about a pet chameleon (voiced by Depp) who lands in a Wild West town named Dirt. Directed by Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean comrade Gore Verbinski, Rango is arguably the most Depp movie Depp has ever Depped.
Watch the trailer for Rango:
Rango has everything everyone ever loved about the actor (his lizard is a little weird, a little cool, and very vulnerable), without much of what turned him into an occasional on-screen bore (the overacting, the self-indulgence). Much of that credit goes to Verbinski for conceiving of an excellent venue for Depp’s charms: animation. Restricting the actor to only his voice prevented him from chewing the scenery with yet another loopy version of Captain Jack Sparrow.
More than anything, it’s the surrealism of Rango that gives it that quintessential Depp feel. After all, the film is populated by talking animals in clothes. (Okay, so that’s a given in animation.) But the rich, disturbing faces on the critters, along with the thematic nods towards mysticism and the surfeit of existential angst put Rango in the company of Depp’s best work like Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. Rango’s appeal to the younger set is also Depp-ian. Sorry Blow fans, but Depp’s most well known turn is in the PG-13 rated Pirates movies that are based on a Disney theme park ride. For a movie to reach peak Depp, it needs to keep the kids in mind.
Give credit to Rango for subverting that — ever so slightly — with a bit of edge, something Depp’s films once had in droves. There’s the Hunter S. Thompson influence, which is evident in both Rango’s sartorial choices and the brief cameo made by Raoul Duke, the protagonist of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas who Depp played in the 1998 movie. More than that though, the edge is in movie’s intense action, sadistic villains, and questionable, but realistic behavior. Alone, a vicious snake, the occasional “damn,” and a few cigarette-smoking cowboys wouldn’t be worth noting. But put them in an animated movie, and you’ll end with some serious pearl clutching. Back when he was cool, that’s the kind of response you’d expect a Johnny Depp movie to get.
Watch a clip from Rango:
Image credit: Paramount
