MBTI: Rango- ENFP
One of my favorite movies of 2011, Rango is actually pretty fitting as an ENFP morality tale altogether.
While Rango the formerly nameless chameleon is attempting to convince the entire town of Dirt, he runs the gamut of ENFP strengths and weaknesses in one of the greatest cartoons ever made.
Rango’s Extraverted Intuition is there just in the first couple minutes of the film, where we’re introduced to a little lizard that lives in a glass container acting out scripted scenes using his toys. His imagination is the only thing he has to keep him company similar to ENFPs, which are known to be extremely energetic and optimistic, always willing to help someone feel better when they’re down.
While any other type could be put in the same situation as Rango, they might not have lied about themselves to impress everyone, but they also might not of actually tried to help the townspeople. ENFPs have several key traits but a more renowned one is their ability to adapt to their social environment and bring everyone in on a project or idea.
Rango not only ends up on a few different missions as sheriff but surprisingly, fixes all the mistakes he makes throughout the film. There’s really only a single scene where he’s questioned and gives in under pressure.
Before that, no one was the wiser.
If Rango were another type, it would be debatable as to whether or not he would create his own play out of boredom…only to begin talking to the dismembered barbies and dead bugs he uses as actors as if they could talk back after they’ve “cut” the scene.
His entire life is something of a fantasy he’s created in his own mind similar to how ENFPs are known to live in a sort of “fantasy world” while not to this extent, necessarily- but to build things up in their own mind of their expectations; of people, events, ideas…only to be shattered when they learn the truth in many cases.
Rango plays this out in literal fashion as his world is shattered when a highway mishaps flings him and his glass tank out of his owner’s station wagon and onto the hot pavement below. He eventually finds his way to the town of Dirt and ends up taking the name “Rango,” creating an entire persona for the townspeople to think he’s a courageous gunfighter that’s been everywhere and seen everything.
ENFPs aren’t naturally liars anymore than any other type in a sense but it is within the ENFP’s personality to overextend themselves in a situation that simply required the truth.
“Hey man. How good do you think you’d do in MMA?”
“Would I do great at MMA fighting? Oh, man- I’d be the best! I used to wrestle back in high school and my gym teacher told me I should I should go state! He said to me ‘Man, you’re like a machine gun the way you move your arms in just the right way to trap your opponent! So that’s what they called me- Machine Gun Ricky.’
*Wrestled a few times, Got his nose broken, called Machine Gun as a joke, mocking how inefficient he was*
On top of this, when they know they’re backed into a corner, they will keep talking as if their words alone with work them out of the situation long after the recipient has given up. It’s their strong desire to be liked and their usually appropriate implementation of the right words that keep them thinking they can catch a collapsing sandcastle and keep it intact, verbally. This leaves everyone pissed off and distrusting of the ENFP in many cases.
Rango is no exception. Seeing as how the entire premise is based on several major lies he tells throughout the film. He could tell the truth, but as usual with E–P types, the grass is greener on the other side and he’s got to see what it’s like to be somebody else.
Not always with the best results.
But also like ENFPs, Rango ultimately comes back for the townspeople to save them from Rattlesnake Jake and the corrupt mayor. All along, Rango was trying to help in the first place, he just got caught up in his role and was eventually found out for it, having to pay the price. ENFPs are always ready, as Idealists are, to help out friends in the best, most creative way they can. Which is what he doe to get the town’s water supply back and rid the town off all of their enemies- The gang, Rattlesnake Jake, the mayor, and firstly- the hawk.
It was by sheer fortune that he defeated the hawk but in his showdown with Jake displayed his willingness to finally follow through on an idea, something he’d not been so adept at, previously. Because of this exhibit to see things through to the end, Jake sees this as proof of manliness and leaves him and the townspeople be.
This lesson should serve as important to ENFPs that have a tendency to abandon projects or people that become stagnant or even just too much for them: sticking it through will be the better option depending on how viable your current interest was in the first place, something else that should be considered before taking on the task, not just rushing in.
Zombies Ruin Everything 
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