Gnomeo & Juliet is, as you can guess, an animated re-telling of William Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-crossed lovers, set in a world of living garden gnomes, those odd little characters you see on some people’s lawns, or in Travelocity commercials. But the title hints even more – it’s heavy on puns and one-liner pop culture references. That’s not necessarily bad, but you should know what you’re in for.
Miss Montague and Mr. Capulet are two cranky neighbours who come and go from their houses at the same time every day, hurling insults at each other. It’s odd they dislike each other so much, since they clearly have a lot in common, like an obsession with flowers, kitschy garden decorations, and single-colour themes.
Once they’ve left for the day, their gnomes carry on a feud of their own, based on little more than the colours of their hats. Much like the characters in Toy Story, the gnomes have one major overriding rule – they can’t be seen moving around by the humans.
At first, the gnomes’ aggression is limited to grumbling, graffiti, and drag racing using the humans’ lawn mowers. The racing champs are Tybalt for the red gnomes, and Gnomeo for blue. When Tybalt damages the blue lawn mower by cheating, the rivalry slowly escalates into war.
Escaping from a botched raid against the reds, Gnomeo runs into Juliet, a red gnome on her own secret mission to pick a beautiful orchid from an abandoned garden in a neighbour’s yard. Both disguised, they fail to realize they belong to different warring families until it’s too late – they’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with each other, literally, in a cute battle scene over the orchid.
The rest of the story plays out much like Shakespeare’s. The skirmishes between red and blue become more violent, while Gnomeo and Juliet continue to meet in their neutral garden hideaway, wondering how their love can survive. The threats to all are real – we are constantly reminded how fragile these creatures are, one wrong move away from being smashed. Even their weather damage looks like scars.
It’s mostly light-hearted, but of course, the original Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy, a point which is played for a few laughs when Gnomeo meets a talking statue of Shakespeare in the park. This is a kids’ movie, however, so we’re pretty sure things will turn out okay in the end. But not before a few surprisingly moving scenes about love lost and the damage it can cause play out.
Executive Producer Elton John and husband David Furnish, also a producer, have obviously used their influence to hire a range of top-notch voice talent, including James McAvoy and Emily Blunt as the leads, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters, Jason Statham, Matt Lucas, and Ozzy Osbourne, a surprising standout as the deer statue Fawn. The soundtrack is almost exclusively John’s music, and fits fairly well with the action. The committee-written script relies a little too heavily on groaners and visual slapstick, often forcing the characters into situations purely for the joke, but that’s not unexpected.
Gnomeo & Juliet probably won’t encourage your kids’ love of Shakespeare, or even your own. But in the dead of winter, it makes for a lightly amusing hour-and-a-half.
Tags: Gnomeo and Juliet, movie review
About the author: David Raitt
David Raitt is a writer and lover of pop culture. He lives in Oakville. He has also worked as an actor for The Second City, and has written, produced and performed his own sketch comedy, including the Canadian Comedy Award-nominated ALL THE RAGE. Semi-retired from performing, he still teaches improv and communications skills to students and corporate groups through his association with The Second City. Check out Dave's website at http://davidraitt.com
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