Thursday
Jul142011
Jul 14 Rango - Blu-ray Review
4.6 Stars (out of 5)
Synopsis
Johnny Depp lends his voice to the portrayal of the title character, an adventurous family pet who leaves home to learn more about himself, in this family-friendly animated adventure directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean). Buy Now $19.99Starring:
Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Stephen Root, Harry Dean Stanton, Timothy Olyphant, Ray WinstoneDirector:
Gore VerbinskiBlu-ray Release Date:
July 15, 2011Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, Spanish, PortugueseRating
Overall rating weighted as follows:Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt
Audio 4.9 Stars (out of 5)
Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison- Subwoofer - 5.0 Stars
- Dialog - 4.5 Stars
- Surround Effects - 5.0 Stars
- Dynamic Range - 5.0 Stars
Speeding cars, a slithering snake, high flying bats, flapping wings of an eagle, and gun shoot outs fill the room by utilizing all speakers in this stellar audio performance. Rango handles all varieties of sounds with class. Explosions are deep and bombastic, and restrained ambient noises like crickets and wind are also handled with delicate hands. Even though this was a very impressive DTS-HD Master Audio mix, at times it was difficult to hear the rapid fire dialog under the bed of various sounds. Rango definitely has an impressive Blu-ray performance and I might watch it again just to hear the snake slither around my living room with his menacing Gatling gun tail.
Video 5.0 Stars (out of 5)
Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison- Color Accuracy - 5.0 Stars
- Shadow detail - 5.0 Stars
- Clarity - 5.0 Stars
- Skin tones - 5.0 Stars
- Compression - 5.0 Stars
Since this is a computer generated animated film, you would expect the video to be crystal clear and the colors to be perfectly balanced, which they are. Usually I don't like to watch very many CGI animated films on Blu-ray, because they lack realistic detail and the clarity so clear it's off-putting. However, in Rango the attention paid to the smallest details are stunning. Industrial Light and Magic did a magnificent job of creating realistic textures of skin, wood, hair, dust, dirt, you name it. I found myself asking if they used photography to make the colorful sunsets or dry sand dunes look real. After watching the extra features I found out they were all computer generated. If this is what ILM can do while they make special effects for Transformers at the same time, Pixar needs to step it's game up.
Bonus Features 4.0 Stars (out of 5)
- Theatrical and Extended Version
- Commentary By director, story co-writer and producer Gore Verbinski, head of story James Ward Byrkit, production designer Mark “Crash” McCreery, animation director Hal Hickel and visual effects supervisor
- Breaking The Rules: Making Animation History
- Gore Verbinski and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) prepared for their first animated movie by following every step the filmmakers made to create this new kind of animated film.
- The Stage Is Set (Part 1)
- Now We Ride (Part 2)
- Real Creatures of Dirt—In this fun and educational piece, animal experts talk about the real creatures that inspired the characters of Rango and the filmmakers explain why they chose specific animals to reflect certain personality traits.
- Storyboard Reel Picture-In-Picture—Enhance your movie-viewing experience by watching the entire feature with picture-in-picture images of the storyboards (Theatrical Version only).
- A Field Trip to Dirt—Using the technology and footage from ILM’s special camera, viewers are put in control of their own tour of Dirt. They can select the streets they want to explore and the characters they’d like to interact with, discovering trivia and other bonus footage along the way.
- Deleted Scenes—Including a never-before-seen alternate ending
- Theatrical Trailer.
Movie - 3.5 Stars (out of 5)
Review
Rango does a great job of paying homage to classic westerns like High Noon and True Grit has some surprising interesting social commentary. If you want your kids to start watching western with you, this is the first step into the true American film genre. Shootouts at noon, riding off in the sunset, assembling a posse, all the familiar tropes of the standard western are present. They even have a famous spaghetti western character make a cameo in a pivotal scene. What is most surprising was it's underlying commentary on the world's economy. Without spoiling too much, all the thirsty town folk go to the "water bank" to withdraw all their water to find out it's all gone. To drive the point even farther, lots of people in the town are loosing their homes and farms.
However, there were a few scenes in the film that did not sit well with me. There are far too many crass adult jokes. Some went over my kids heads, some off color jokes went into their heads. This is not the standard kid's movie, it isn't as cute as a Pixar film, its as funny as a Dreamworks movie, this is dare I say ... a little gritty for a kids movie. Most of the characters are beautifully ugly with goofy crooked noses, broken teeth, and thick dark rodent hairs. I thought this would be of putting to my Barbie loving daughter, but surprisingly, she dug it. I guess the writers of Rango were right when they said that kids could handle a sophisticated movie that looks different than the other kiddie films they're used to.
However, there were a few scenes in the film that did not sit well with me. There are far too many crass adult jokes. Some went over my kids heads, some off color jokes went into their heads. This is not the standard kid's movie, it isn't as cute as a Pixar film, its as funny as a Dreamworks movie, this is dare I say ... a little gritty for a kids movie. Most of the characters are beautifully ugly with goofy crooked noses, broken teeth, and thick dark rodent hairs. I thought this would be of putting to my Barbie loving daughter, but surprisingly, she dug it. I guess the writers of Rango were right when they said that kids could handle a sophisticated movie that looks different than the other kiddie films they're used to.
Reader Comments (1)
I agree but I think this is an underbubbler that should be given a closer look.
I saw this movie first at the cinema and then on blu-ray at home and I loved it. The attention to detail of images are incredible considering that it is a cartoon. Drawing a pan shot and some other real film techniques...come on that's art. True it is a cartoon...probably for the kids but more than that I think it is a "Homage" to the Western Genre of movies with so may tie-ins to past plot lines and scenes - the Ghost of Clint Eastwood was the giveaway. There is the Don-Quixote Armadillo and the fatalist little girl Opossum.
I was watching Swordfish the other night and the first scene in the Coffee show where the protagonists discussing the film school philosophy of movies just highlighted that sometimes the Movie Makers esoteric themselves on to a level BEYOND the viewer audience...probably why movies are sooo expensive (well at least here in Australia).