Saturday, February 12, 2011 at 3:09AM Movie Review - 'Gnomeo and Juliet'
| Gnomeo and Juliet
Starring James McAvoy and Emily Blunt
|
Attention all home owning, yard adoring, gardeners everywhere: You may not know it, but your innocent looking garden gnomes may in fact be warring with your neighbors gnomes, having forbidden love affairs, and in their fury, plotting mass destruction to you and your neighbors’ homes via lawn mower. As cute and possibly exciting as this may sound, you may also find that said gnomes are not quite as clever or entertaining as one may expect. What you can expect, however, is a predictable, simplistic little romp, which, while fun, may leave you yearning for your children’s toys to come alive once more and give you, say, another Toy Story, perhaps.
Gnomeo and Juliet is the classic tale of two star-crossed lover gnomes (James McAvoy and Emily Blunt) who live on either side of a fence separating the red garden (Capulet) from the blue garden (Montague). As both young gnomes are the heirs of each garden’s leader gnomes, (Michael Caine and Maggie Smith) their love affair, beginning with an adorable play fight over an orchid, is fraught with trouble. Only after an ill-fated lawn mower race between Gnomeo and a decidedly evil little gnome appropriately named Tybalt (Jason Statham), leads to a devastating civil gnome brawl, do the leader gnomes realize the error of their ways.
While Gnomeo and Juliet does have many cute moments, such as the discovery of a quirky lawn flamingo who has been locked in a neighboring shed for twenty years, voiced by Jim Cummings, it falls short of the mark left by so many other stellar Disney films. The film seems rushed on the whole, the characters aren’t all that compelling, and aside from the occasional zinger, the jokes weren’t very entertaining. As an adult, as I do consider myself to be at least half of the time, I thought perhaps I wasn’t getting the humor because it is intended for children. This quickly changed, however, as the horde of six and seven year olds behind me fell uncharacteristically silent one half hour into the film, followed by one little girl who began having a completely unrelated conversation with a fellow tyke to pass the time.
Shakespeare lovers should also be ware. The film begins with a tiny gnome introducing the classic story, and then unrolling an enormous scroll and announcing that he is now going to read the “long, boring, prologue”. Listen, Kelly Asbury, English teachers across the nation have a hard enough time dealing with pre-conceived notions about Shakespeare’s text. We don’t need you telling young audience’s everywhere how boring his writing is. Secondly, the adaptation is, well, expectedly loose, (SPOILER ALLERT: if you didn’t already guess, this story isn’t quite as tragic as the original.) but unexpectedly, doesn’t really bring anything new to the age old story, except, well, garden gnomes.
That said, the movie is cute. There is a great little sunbathing gnome in a thong bathing suit that may make you chuckle, and a slew of fun, familiar voices, such as Hulk Hogan, Patrick Stewart and Ozzy Osbourne. The animators also deserve their points in this film as well. The film is beautiful to look at, and the characters quite well designed.
I would not, however, make a point of seeing this one in the theater. Not only does the 3D component do little to enhance the animation, it really isn’t worth the cost of a ticket. Gnomeo and Juliet is better suited as an itunes rental on a sick day when you’re having trouble falling asleep.
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