Good timing for this thread to bump, because I just watched it yesterday.
Everything just felt so messily tacked together. Most of the characters were poorly written, Roland and (initially) Marianne in particular. Marianne felt stereotypical and had rushed character development, although at least she got better as the film progressed. Meanwhile Roland was just the most cookie-cutter and useless Gaston-wannabe I've ever witnessed in a children's film, with a weak motive and absolutely no subtlety. Some scenes even came off as downright cringeworthy (that
Stronger/C'mon Marianne mashup didn't due me any favors, neither did the trippy, kaleidoscope effect during
Wild Thing that felt like the director just gave up). And don't get me started on the a plot. While it was easily enough to follow, it still felt like George Lucas was randomly picking story ideas out of a hat...
...anyways, enough negativity. Despite my problems with the plotting and execution, I still didn't think it was as bad as many critics made it out to be. The film greatly improved in the last third, when Marianne and the Bog King meet. From there on, the heart and moral of the story is emphasized over the actual story, and even though the "love cures all" message is overused, it was very sweetly done, and Bog and Marianne's relationship is quite touching due to their similarly "strange" personalities. I just wish that the entire film focused on those two, rather than overcomplicating the love potion portion of the plot. I also genuinely liked some of the covers, such as
Straight On and
Love is Strange. Plus, since Rango is one of my favourite non-Disney/Pixar CGI films, its great to see some similar animation from the same studio, even if the character designs (at least the humanoid ones) aren't as inspired.
Overall it give it a
. I struggle to recommend it to any general demographic, including children. But, if you're really into romantic jukebox musicals that are easy on the eyes, go for it.
