Gnomeo and Juliet – Review
Director: Kelly Asbury
Starring: Ashley Jensen, Dame Maggie Smith, Emily Blunt, James McAvoy, Jason Statham, Jim Cummings, Matt Lucas, Ozzy Osbourne, Sir Michael Caine, Sir Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant
The producers of this film didn’t quite make the title an enigma; Gnomeo and Juliet is an animated adaptation of the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Gnomeo and Juliet, spent ten years being mastered by its Executive Producer, Elton John, and if you didn’t already know that, watching the film would give it away pretty quickly considering almost every song in it is one of Elton’s.
To make it more ‘child friendly’ the characters are made up of garden gnomes and ornaments which come to life when the humans aren’t watching. Two opposing families of gnomes, the Reds and the Blues live aside each other, constantly striving to out-garden their opposition, but when the young, head-strong Gnomeo (James McAvoy) of the Blues and defiant Juliet (Emily Blunt) of the Reds, happen to bump into each other whilst in disguise, they fall in love, only later discovering the truth of their squabbling families.
The film has obviously been made to appeal to the younger audience, so don’t expect an exact replica of the original tale. Of course, the basic premise is the same, but in this adaptation, they’ve managed to throw in some hardcore lawn-mower racing, a Latin Flamingo, some ninja bunny-rabbits and a Scottish frog Nanette, who somehow manages to fall in love with an awkward gnome voiced by none other than Stephen Merchant.
Although the film has been advertised in a way to make it seem as if it is appropriate for all ages, personally, I really don’t feel it is. The film took about an hour to actually get really going, and keeping in mind the film is only 84minutes long, that’s really unacceptable. I’ve genuinely not seen a film that starts so slowly in a long, long time. At times, within the first hour, it’d start to show promise of picking up but would then retreat into a long, boring, dialogue-packed scene that was just too boring for such a film. However, the final half hour is actually slightly good. The all star cast was put to use a little more vibrantly, and the jokes and one-liners started to really become great.
Despite the extra-boring start to the film, I won’t write it off completely. It is amusing and rather funny in very specific places, but the humour and excitement takes too long to arrive. I don’t find it a coincidence that the majority of Elton’s songs were packed in together in the first half, (every five minutes it seemed), and that this turned out to be the most boring part of the film. Even Ozzy Osbourne as an ornamental deer didn’t quite make me love the film, but I’m certain that children shall find it brilliant. And, considering the amount of Shakespeare references they managed to pack into the film (one of the few good things about Gnomeo and Juliet), it’s a great, un-intimidating way to introduce children to his works.