I have nothing bad to say about this movie. Let me say that up front. This is my favorite movie of the year so far, and currently, it is front runner for favorite movie of the year. It is fun, it is funny, it is heartfelt, and it asks really tough and interesting questions of a cartoon chameleon.

A lot has been made of this film over the last year, but the first thing I will say is thank you. Thank you to Gore Verbinkski for giving us Johnny Depp fans another film where we can actually watch Johnny Depp and not have him be a pirate or a vampire or a Gene Wilder knock-off or a Mad Hatter or a murderer. He’s Johnny Depp, and honestly, Rango is Johnny Depp just as much as Johnny Depp is Rango. They are one and the same, and being an old-school fan of Johnny in films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, it was insanely awesome to see him in another role like this.

Something odd, off-beat, weird, and just plain awesome.

The overarching theme of this movie would have to be "Who Am I?" Rango is having a crisis of conscience, something that a lot of us can understand and have dealt with, and it is played out on screen as an animated western.

There are not enough words in the English language to tell you how much I love this movie. There really aren’t. I laughed so hard during this movie and just was swept up into the story from just about the first frame, and you honestly feel for this little lizard. You feel his pain and his blight and you want to grab hold of him and take him with you. You want to hug him.

Johnny Depp deserves an Academy Award for this film already. He’s the best actor of the year, at least, so far, in my book. And he’s ably assisted in the acting department in this film by Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy (who BARELY sounds like Bill Nighy in this movie), Ned Beatty, Blake Clark (who has been awesome for years but finally people are paying attention to him after his role as Slinky Dog in Toy Story 3), Stephen Root, Ray Winstone, Harry Dean Stanton, Alfred Molina and Timothy Olyphant.

By the way, read through that list of people and try not to just get goosebumps from some of the awesome people on that list. Winstone? Stanton? Beatty? Nighy? Depp? Molina?

And Timothy Olyphant plays the Spirit of the West, which is one of two immensely insane cameos in this film that will drive you film-lovers nuts. I kid you not. I about died laughing at the first cameo, a well-known and somewhat loved character that Depp played once upon a time makes an appearance in this film, and it’s one of my favorite roles of his and one of my favorite films. And then Olyphant plays the true Spirit of the West and hides so immensely in the role that you couldn’t help but wonder if he should play the Man in another film or at least if he could take one of his old roles and do justice to it.

This is the first year in a long time where I am actively rooting for a movie other than a Pixar movie to be both nominated for best film of the year and best animated film of the year and I hope and pray that this film wins both, or at least one. Rango is the movie of the year so far, the one to beat in terms of both sheer enjoyment and pleasure and laughs and heart. It’s the one movie so far that I will gladly see more than once and will talk up to everyone who will listen. If you haven’t seen it already, make it a point to get out there and see Rango. Go with friends or family and take someone you love so that they can be in on it too. This is one of those movies that if you miss it in theaters you will be mad at yourself later. So do yourself a favor. Don’t miss this movie.