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.

#93

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

After Disney launched the Touchstone brand, it was time to do a hybrid fantasy comedy. The result was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, released June 24, 1988. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, of Back to the Future fame with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer. Based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the film starred Bob Hoskins and Christopher Lloyd. The film made $329.8 million worldwide and sparked a renewed interest in the Golden Age of Animation.

Set in 1947 Los Angeles, cartoon characters live alongside human beings as an ethnic minority. Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer), a Toon movie star, is on the run from Judge Doom (Lloyd) after having been accused of murdering cartoon prop maker Marvin Acme. His only hope is the alcoholic private investigator Eddie Valiant (Hoskins) who refuses to work for Toons since his brother was killed by one. However, Valiant is sucked into the investigation and finds much more than he expected.

Hoskins was quite the actor and this film just shows it. He manages to effectively become one half of a comedic duo when the other half wasn’t even there. For most of the film, he’s just talking to himself. But Hoskins loved acting so much and had so much faith in the film itself that you can’t tell. And that’s not even going into his character.

Eddie is a racist. Pure and simple. He hates Toons and will never work for them after what one did to his brother. It’s not a good reason, but it’s a reason that shows how easily reactive we are in situations that affect us so much. And that’s even before the movie starts. He’s even more realistic in that he can’t let go and he hates Roger because of something that he had no power over. And Roger’s antics don’t help. At least not at first. It’s not until he he’s been exposed to Roger continually talking about the need for laughter and faced with necessity to face his past and go into Toontown does he realize just what an ass he’s been and that he can’t keep his mind focused on the past. It’s also gradual because he doesn’t keep hating on Roger, he slowly warms up to him before he has to go to Toontown.

And only then can he really face Judge Doom. And that confrontation is pure gold. It might seem like it comes out of nowhere, what with the athleticism and acrobatics, but remember, an early shot showed that he and his brother worked for the circus. He’s using skills he already knew and a newfound love for humor. And it’s really fun to watch.

Doom is also an interesting character. He’s obviously evil, and doesn’t care that everyone knows it either. But the interesting part comes in the subtlety that’s involved in personifying the character. Lloyd didn’t blink at all while on camera. Just to give him more of an inhuman feel. And it’s thanks to Doug Walker, that I noticed something else. In every scene he’s in, his clothing is flapping in some sort of breeze. Even if there’s no source. He’s just a villain masquerading as law and doesn’t care who knows it. That’s evil personified and he does a really good job.

Most of the side characters are pretty fun and the animation isn’t that bad either, especially for how the Toons interact with the humans. And Eddie being immersed in Toontown is one of the better parts of the film. It gets even better when realized that all the animation is hand drawn, which is a real feat in what they do with the humans. While it’s not as vibrant as Elliot was in Pete’s Dragon, the way it’s done helps to blend in more with the noir-ish type of film.

Also, not only is this film great for its content, acting and characters, but for the impact it had. If this film wasn’t made, then the general public wouldn’t have had a renewed desire for the animation present in the Golden Age. We would have had Batman: TAS, The Simpsons, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Beavis and Butthead, Rugrats, Cow and Chicken and countless other cartoons would never have been made. Nor would we have Pixar or the Disney Renaissance. This film is partly responsible for all of those.

Final Call: The best hybrid I’ve seen. It’s a great film and had a great cultural impact. #11. 

A New Shift

Well, I’m back.

In the last month, I’ve left California, moved to Colorado, rented an apartment, set up utilities, started a new job and set up internet for my apartment. It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks. And I don’t think I want to continue with Best Picture winners.

Back when I started this undertaking, it wasn’t long before I started figuring out what I wanted to do next. Big mistake as I chose Disney movies. It slowly became something I would rather do than Best Picture winners. The long pause between reviews has only further intensified that desire.

Originally, I didn’t want to do a shift in the films I reviewed as it would seem like I couldn’t stick with something. At the time, I was furiously looking for work and stopping a series and starting another one would make it seem like I was flaky and unable to finish something I started.

Well now, I have a job. And they know I see things through. The number of articles I’ve put out shows that. I’ve also been commended for some of those articles by the people I’ve interviewed.

So, I’m making that change. I’ll get back to Best Picture winners someday. Maybe I’ll do one or two a week while the other days are devoted to Disney. I’ll figure that out. But the priority series now is films put out by the Walt Disney Studios, including subsidiaries (Disney Channel Original Movies, Pixar, ESPN Films, Touchstone, Dimension Films between 1993 and 2005, Hollywood Pictures between 1989 and 2007, Miramax from 1993-2010, Marvel after 2009, and Lucasfilm after 2012) and Studio Ghibli. 

I’ll also have a new rundown of films since it’s a new series. As it stands, my list of Best Picture winners is as follows:

1.    Casablanca

2.     Gone with the Wind

3.     It Happened One Night

4.     Rebecca     

5.     Grand Hotel

6.     Mutiny on the Bounty

7.     You Can't Take it With You

8.     The Life of Emile Zola

9.     The Great Ziegfeld

10.   Wings

11.   Cimarron

*EXCEPTIONS*

All Quiet on the Western Front

Mrs. Miniver

I’ll have a separate post with this list as well.

Coming tomorrow: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.