A chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who lived as a family pet finds himself in an identity crisis. Rango is stranded in the middle of the desert and tries to adapt to his new environment. When he accidentally discovers a small town called Dirt, he goes through a turning point in his life where he is destined to become the town’s sheriff.

Rango is able to slip into his role as a heroic gunslinger thanks to his profession as an actor. A chameleon is an odd choice for an animated hero. Rango’s certainly a long way from the limited cast of cats, dogs, and other fuzzy critters that dominate the cartoon landscape. But he looks downright mundane next to the rest of the cast.

the townspeople who join Rango’s posse include a gap-toothed horned toad named Waffles, and the mariachi band that narrates Rango’s adventure is burrowing owls. Since the animals are too small to raise cattle, they yoke their carts to wild pigs called peccaries. A particular scene in the movie is when Waffles (one of the townspeople) describes the mystery of the town’s drought as, “A puzzle — like a great big mammogram!” And on a similar medical note, Doc, the posse’s rabbit physician, snaps on a latex glove to ask if anyone’s ready for a checkup, implying he has something proctological in mind.