Gnomeo & Juliet

In 2011, Disney distributed a film produced by Touchstone, Miramax, Rocket Pictures and Arc Productions. Based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Gnomeo & Juliet stared James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Jason Statham, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Patrick Stewart, Ashley Jensen, Stephen Merchant, Matt Lucas, and Ozzy Osbourne. With music by Elton John, the film grossed $194 million.

Elderly neighbors Mrs. Montague (Julie Walters) and Mr. Capulet (Richard Wilson) despise each other. And each one’s garden gnomes have an ongoing feud as well. Montague has blue-hatted gnomes and Capulet has red-hatted gnomes. But one day, Gnomeo (McAvoy) and Juliet (Blunt) run into each other and its love at first sight.

Why yes, director Kelly Asbury did work on Toy Story.

An appropriate word for this film could be “weird.” It seems to be self-aware in at the very beginning, it notes how the story has been told before quite a bit, but seeks to do so in a different way. And while that venture is successful, it has quite a few diversions from the original story. Most notably, Gnomeo and Juliet both make it to the end of the film, as does Tybalt. And it ends with a cast dance party.

There are also a lot of deviations with characterizations. Juliet’s disapproving nanny is now a wisecracking frog and the overly cautious and wise Friar Laurence is replaced by an overly excited lawn flamingo. Swordfights are taken over by lawn mower races, with cameos by Dolly Parton and Hulk Hogan (in the middle of England no less)

 A few of these deviations are cleverly referenced by a statue of Shakespeare, voiced by Stewart, who thinks his original idea was better. And there are a whole lot of other references laden throughout the film and for every good one, there’s one or two that just don’t work very well. As stated above, Shakespeare’s insistence that he “told you so” to Gnomeo is great. One of the gnomes quoting Bambi is funny, but feels out of place. Montague’s and Capulet’s houses are 2B and not 2B, clever but when Juliet comes across a dog and yells “out” while the owner yells “damn Spot” immediately after just feels forced. Elton John’s “Hello, Hello” playing when Gnomeo and Juliet first meet is a good song. But two gnomes referencing Brokeback Mountain and the frog referencing American Beauty don’t belong anywhere near a children’s movie.  

Why yes, director Kelly Asbury did work on Shrek.

The Shakespeare statue was correct, his version is much better and this is clearly changed for the kids. Sometimes that’s for the better. Other times, it’s not. And this film goes both ways.

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