Rango and Water Rights

I watched the animated movie Rango a few days ago and was surprised to see an environmental protection/resource management theme present throughout the film. The film is about a pet chameleon who finds himself lost in the dessert. He runs across a town of small animals that has a serious water problem. The bank of the town (which is named Dirt) runs on a water currency, and the town basically worships the small amount of water they do have in reserve. The richest person in the town is the mayor, a turtle who seems to have limitless water and an obsession with purchasing property. The water situation presented in the movie closely follows the story of Los Angeles water acquisition in the early 1900's. The mayor of the town seems to be a mixture of the mayor of Los Angeles at the time and William Mulholland, LA's water superintendent. The townspeople symbolize the water-starved people of Owen's Valley, CA, and they go on to sabotage the aqueduct just as the Owen's Valley people did to LA's aqueduct. I'm curious to find other similarities between Rango and the true story of LA's water acquisition. In the film, the water is being taken to Las Vegas, not Los Angeles. Maybe parts of the story come from Las Vegas's water history? The movie shows how deeply important water rights are to society and I found it to be portrayed in a very interesting way in Rango. If you haven't seen the movie, it's definitely worth watching!