Rango

Just when you thought you'd seen everything, here comes Chinatown, the animated version.

The first animated film from ILM is also the first memorable motion picture of 2011.

Yes, [there are] enough nods to other sources to make Rango a bobblehead. But the movie, and much of John Logan's writing, is still pretty durn clever.

The best of Rango is a lot like the best of the first Pirates movie -- crazily funny and rambunctious.

Rango's not just a kiddie-flick (though it has enough silly slapstick to qualify as a pretty good one). It's a real movie lover's movie, conceived as a Blazing Saddles-like comic commentary on genre that's as back-lot savvy as it is light in the saddle.

There's more visual wit in Gore Verbinski's Rango than the last two Pixar films combined.

Fans of Johnny Depp will enjoy his voice work as the nutty Rango; he is obviously having a good time. Ned Beatty's voice is easily recognizable as the main villain, giving him a one-two punch after working as the nasty Lotso in Toy Story 3...

It would be unfair, and inaccurate, to call Rango a one-joke movie. There may be two or three; I didn't count. The first laugh comes with the appearance of a...

Though young children may enjoy it, the film is built for viewers of any age with a taste for joyful anarchy.

A CGI western comedy populated by desert critters, Rango gives the film year a belated jump start with a passel of movie-wise fun and a knockout animation style.

What elevates it above a cheeky romp is the skilled CGI work, not only the wealth of tactile detail lavished on the parched townsfolk but also the painterly, sand-swept vistas they call home.

Without double-crossing the kiddie contingent, "Rango" is iconic like a spaghetti Western, smart like a '70s conspiracy thriller and lively like a Coen brothers comedy.

A sun-baked symphony of rust and dust, Rango has a spiky, unsentimental appeal, sending out slightly risque jokes to parents while staying safely out of the danger zone for kids.

Verbinski has made an animated feature unlike any other on the current mainstream landscape: For a big-budget animated picture, Rango sure is an odd little varmint.

It is Depp, however, who really nails this thing by simply blending in with all the other voice talent and characters and not reverting to the oversized Captain Jack Sparrow swagger.

There are hundreds of clever details and imaginative flourishes to make it worthy of being put into the same category as the films to which it so charmingly pays tribute.

An ultra-quirky animated Western with a vocal tour de force by Johnny Depp that's quite unlike anything I've ever seen.

The film itself is a magically strange hybrid, a spoofy computer-animated Western acted out by anthropomorphic desert creatures.