Soundtrack Review: Rango (2011)

Reviewer: JØrn Tillnes
Rango Soundtrack Review

Rango Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Rango by Hans Zimmer.

"He is however in hard training for his big piece this year, The Pirates of the Caribbean"

It's time for some heroics again, and in the form of a Chameleon-shaped well... Chameleon. It's set in the old west where heroics has a way of finding it's weirdest partners. Rango is the name and Gore Verbinski is at the helm. Zimmer and Verbinski has always had a good working relationship and I don't see why Rango should be any different. Hans Zimmer will be scoring a couple of animated features this year and Rango is first.

Track List

2. Rango Suite****
4. It's a Metaphor***
5. Welcome to Dirt***
6. Name's Rango****
9. Underground****
10. We Ride, Really!****
11. Rango and Beans***
12. Bats*****
14. Rango Returns****
16. It's a Miracle****
18. The Sunset Shot****

Great Year For Zimmer

This year might be Hans Zimmer's great year with the new Pirates of the Caribbean and already you can hear he is thinking about it a lot. In almost all of the cues I hear a little bit of Jack Sparrow and also a little Sherlock Holmes.

What about Rango? Well Rango doesn't feel like he has something unique to him unfortunately. The music helps to establish his quirky and humorous appearance, but where's the "thing" that makes him stand out?

The 'Rango Suite' has almost everything you need. The other half comes in the form of 'Bats' which starts off with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie and goes into what could have been greatness if there was just more of it. Blue Danube by Strauss is also represented by the way!

Most Zimmer cues are annoyingly short and what's worse is that a lot of them has spoken intro's and sometimes in the end. It annoys me a lot more than I thought because I just skip the talking parts, but at the same time they are part of the cue.

Conclusion

Hans Zimmer is not back to his best self, that much is clear. He is however in hard training for his big piece this year, The Pirates of the Caribbean. As a standalone score, it doesn't do much for me and it's even worse when a lot of the music is interrupted by vocals. Get this if you are a hardcore Hans Zimmer fan, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you skipped this and waited for the real Hans Zimmer.

CUE RATING: 76.3

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Listen to the Rango Soundtrack Below:
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Comments

Squamp
28 Feb 2011, 02:57
Completely agree with everything you guys have said. It's a fun distraction, but the similarities are slightly disconcerting. The main suite is fun, but talking over music is unforgivable on a soundtrack.

Ho-hum, fingers crossed the next Pirates score stands out as something fresh and new.
Jørn
27 Feb 2011, 02:09
@Leonard Yep, my thoughts exactly.

@GeoScore Well he did make me curious at least. Hope there will be a composer promo out there so we can listen to the whole thing (hopefully without the vocals).

@Ben Yep, if anything, this is a small teaser for what's coming in Pirates 4 and I can hardly wait!
Ben
22 Feb 2011, 11:05
Gotta love Hans Zimmer. Like the others are saying, this is score is a satisfying combination of the sounds of "Sherlock Holmes" and "Pirates."

I am so excited for the next "Pirates" score!!!
GeoScore
22 Feb 2011, 07:04
Zimmer seems like he's back to experimenting, but I'm really digging the style of this one. It's a lot like Sherlock but feels more consistent. I'm not looking forward to the vocal interruption, but hopefully it won't break the score for me. :/
Leonard
22 Feb 2011, 05:18
I listened to the suite. I agree with concerning the similarity of Pirates and Sherlock Holmes.

As for Sherlock, I can hear Discombobulate in the suite. Furthermore there's a double rip-off. Parlay from Pirates 3 is very similar to Ennio Morricone's Once Upon A Time. I hear Parlay in the Rango suite as well.

There's still another thing. Le Petit Nicolas by Klaus Badelt.

I think I'm going to skip the score. Like you said, waiting for the real Zimmer.