By John C.

I opened my review of the recent Rango by saying that it was “one of the most bizarre animated movies in recent memory.”  I meant it in the best possible way.  The film opened this weekend to excellent reviews (a very ‘fresh’ rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes), and came in first at the box office with a total of $38 million.  The fact that it stars Johnny Depp in a fully engaged voice performance probably has a lot to do with this success.

 

I’m glad the film has found an audience, and it is guaranteed to have a cult following for years to come.  But there is one group that hasn’t seemed to approve of the quirky animated film.  Parents of young kids have already trashed the movie because the language is ‘too mature’ and many sequences were ‘too scary.’

 

They were the ones who chaperoned their children to the screening.  Maybe some of the advertising was a touch misleading, but nearly every review has stated that it’s not appropriate for young kids, and a closer look at the film’s rating (a strong PG for violence and mild language) suggest that it won’t be suitable for those of all ages.  When I saw Rango, the majority of the kids in the audience were under the age of ten.  I heard crying.

 

The bigger question is why anyone initially thought that it should be for young kids.  The answer?  It’s animated.  I’m not saying that everyone will enjoy Rango – nor should they – but we’ve got to stop assuming that everything animated has to play on the same level.

 

The recent surprise hit of Gnomeo & Juliet was appropriate for those of all ages, but the film was advertised by candy-coloured visuals and featured a cute take on a classic tragedy.  I expect next weekend’s Mars Needs Moms will also be aimed towards a younger market, and I can’t see there being anything in it that won’t be suitable for all ages.

 

Many people still believe that animated films are a genre.  But a genre defines the general story and themes dealt with in a film.  For example, horror movies are meant to unsettle us, where’s comedies set out to make us laugh.  Animation is not a genre, rather another medium used to tell stories.  In fact, it’s one of the most diverse mediums a filmmaker can use, as it literally knows no boundaries.

 

I’m not sure I can pigeonhole Rango into any genre.  The story is a classic western at heart, and the film pays homage to movies like Chinatown and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  There are many ways you could describe it, but ‘conventional’ certainly isn’t one of them.  The one thing that’s clear is director Gore Verbinski, star Johnny Depp and writer John Logan made nothing but the movie they wanted to make.

 

Some animated films are created strictly for adults.  The somewhat recent Australian film Mary and Max beautifully told an uplifting story about friendship, but had dark undertones about severe depression and mental health.  Still, the film inexplicably received a G rating here in Canada just because it was animated, despite depictions of drug abuse and some disturbing scenes.

 

In the golden age of animation, cartoons were made for wide audiences and were largely seen as an acceptable escape from reality.  Warner Bros. was producing the beloved Looney Tunes, and Walt Disney was pioneering the technology for feature films.  It was clear that nothing but love was put into these films.  But these attitudes unfortunately changed in our society when animation became cheaper to produce, and TV sets started being used as electronic babysitters.  Mass markets realized that they could capitalize on the popularity of animation simply as a means to sell products to kids.

 

The magic of the brilliant films currently being made at Pixar and the best ones from DreamWorks is that they are able bridge the gap between a wide range of audiences.  Pixar’s recent box office success of Toy Story 3 was largely due to the fact that the film managed to appeal to a new generation of fans, but its themes of moving on and letting go hit home hardest with teenagers and adults.

 

To say that animation is only for kids would be like saying that films shot digitally are only for the college crowd, or ones in black and white can only be enjoyed by seniors.  Rango is a smart and endlessly clever existential journey of self-discovery, and it will be embraced by older audiences for the way that it pays homage to great movies.  It won’t be for everybody, but we shouldn’t assume that it has to be just because it’s animated.