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Paramount Pictures has released the first teaser for Gore Verbinski’s upcoming animated flick Rango, starring Johnny Depp as a Hawaiian shirt wearing lizard who wanders through the Mojave desert in search of himself. Much of his world feels like a good peyote trip and everything around him is a talking animal of some kind. And we’re being told that it has nothing to do with Hunter S. Thompson. I’m not convinced.

As for the trailer itself, it looks like fun. It’s also the first full-length animated feature from ILM, which has to be fodder for some curiosity. This will be the first time in years that another potentially major player comes into the animated feature world. Will it shake up the Pixar/Dreamworks stronghold? Not sure. But with the talent involved — not just Verbinski and Depp, but Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Isla Fisher, Alfred Molina and Ray Winstone — I suppose there’s always a chance.

Check out the first trailer below or watch it in high definition over on Apple. Rango is in theaters March 18, 2011.

To further prove my Hunter S. Thompson theory, I’d like to share the following edited poster that was sent to me by FSR reader Gerry C.