Tonto is not as inferior in this version

I haven't seen this movie since it was in the cinema, but I agree that Tonto played a stronger role ( an equal really) in this movie than in the TV series.

I don't think the role of Tonto in the TV series should be discounted. As I recall, Tonto was portrayed as intelligent ( the pigeon English was a bad choice), was given assignments where he succeeded, and may have saved the Ranger a few times.

At least Tonto was not dumbed down like Watson in the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Rathbone and Bruce.

I haven't heard the radio series, but I wonder if Tonto was portrayed better in that than the TV series. My understanding is that radio series in those days were written to appeal to adults and children opposed to the TV series which definitely was for kids.

One of the very first episodes of Siskel & Ebert at the Movies that I saw as a kid was a review of The Legend of the Lone Ranger, and I vaguely recall Siskel or Ebert saying Tonto was the real brains behind the whole operation.

I was half expecting the Chinaman to do something martial artsy when the stagecoach was robbed.

For the time of the Lone Ranger's TV debut, 1949, Tonto was portrayed much more ahead of the stereotypes of the era.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

This is one of the many reasons why I prefer Horse's Tonto to most others. Except for Depp who portrayed him as the superior one most of the time. What can I say, being of partial Native American ancestry, I like it when the "injun" is portrayed as equal or better than most "paleskins". ;D

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It's nice that they did away with the pidgin English, but Michael Horse lacked Jay Silverheels's charismatic presence and his Tonto wasn't given anything to do in the film. After the Lone Ranger saved him from the gallows, he just kinda became part of the scenery.

In the TV series, the Ranger and Tonto were fairly equal in terms of what they were capable of. One would get tied up and the other would come to their rescue. One would fight the gang leader while the other battled his two henchmen. They alternated and

I'm not going to say that Tonto's portrayal was perfect by any stretch. He put up with a lot of racism from characters in the show and was prone to believing in superstitions. But for the most part, as a sidekick, he was a lot closer to the hero's level than Robin was to Batman or Dr. Watson was to Sherlock Holmes.

Of course, now that I think about it, Michael Horse's Tonto doing nothing at all still means that he did about as much as the Lone Ranger in this movie.