Astonishingly fresh, deft, weird and left-of-center, RANGO is a self-stylized 21st Century Western set in the world of desert-dwelling animals who think they're living in the world of Sergio Leone. Elegant motion-captured performances, bold and bizarre visual elements, stylish and tongue-firmly-stuck-in-bone-dry-cheek, RANGO is a film that isn't so much for modern animation fans as it's for fans who are sick of modern animation and its lowest-common-denominator-catering blandness.

Whimsical and witty with strong direction by Gore Verbinski (who seems to have found his element post his Pirates-career), studded with great performances, odd cameos and outlandishly surreal and astonishingly intelligent post-modern gags, if you see one peyote-laced, nightmare-fuel, Johnny-Depp-playing-Hunter-S-Thompson-playing-a-reptilian-Jack-Sparrow-cowboy-hero movie in your lifetime...make sure it's this one.