Rango

When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging Western town of Dirt, the theater-loving lizard suddenly finds himself the newly appointed sheriff. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt and uncover the truth behind a looming water crisis—before his act catches up with him.

Rango won over most critics as an unusually literary, film-buff-friendly animated western — a genre commentary packed with Leone, Chinatown, and Chuck Jones references rather than the usual kiddie-movie comfort food. The animation and visuals drew near-universal admiration, but the narrative was a genuine fault line: some saw the loose, picaresque structure as freewheeling and inspired, while others found it dramatically inert or, more bluntly, soulless. Audience reaction was notably cooler than the critical embrace, with adults in particular less charmed than reviewers expected.