Hollywood Film Festival to Honor Rango

Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) in a scene from 'Rango'
Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) in a scene from 'Rango' - © Paramount Pictures/Nickelodean Movies

The Hollywood Film Festival has named Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies’ Rango as the winner of their 2011 Hollywood Animation Award, it was announced today by the festival organizers. The award will be presented at the Hollywood Film Awards Gala to be held on October 24, 2011 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.
 
Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival, made the announcement, stating. “It is a great pleasure to recognize Rango as the recipient of our animation award. This piece of cinematic treasure borders on surrealism and Rango will be a classic for generations to come.”
 
Past winners of the festival’s Hollywood Animation Award include Pixar’s WALL-E, Up, Ratatouille, and Toy Story 3.
 
Rango, special effect house Industrial Light & Magic’s first animated feature film, was directed by Gore Verbinski (the 1st three Pirates of the Caribbean films) and featured the voices of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant. 
 
About Rango:
The story follows the comical, transformative journey of “Rango” (Depp), a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis.  After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in?  When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, a lawless outpost populated by the desert’s most wily and whimsical creatures, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt . . . until, in a blaze of action-packed situations and encounters with outrageous characters, Rango starts to become the hero he once only pretended to be. 
 
Source: The Hollywood Film Festival – September 6, 2011