DVD Reviews

Gnomeo & Juliet (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll May 25, 2011, 14:26 GMT

From a director of Shrek 2 comes your chance to step into the secret world of garden gnomes - Gnomeo & Juliet. Perfect for the whole family, this fresh and funny makeover of one of the world\'s most timeless story features music from Sir Elton John, and the voice talents of Emily Blunt, James McAvoy and sir Michael Caine. Caught up in a feud between neighbors, Gnomeo and Juliet must ...more

My kingdom for a gnome!  Et tu, Elton?  2B or not 2B?  Oh wait, wrong adaptations.  Elton John and company adapt Bill Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and populate the cast with painted actors cast from plaster, aka garden gnomes, in this whimsical, musical take on the classic play.  The results are a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Mrs. Montague (Julie Walters) and Mr. Capulet (Richard Wilson) live next door to each other and also hate one another.  Their gardens are divided into two color schemes – red and blue.  Montague’s garden is filled with blue garden gnomes and Capulet’s with red ones. 

When their owner’s backs are turned they come to life to tend the gardens in which they live, but they also share their human counterpart’s hatred of each group.  The red side is ruled by Lord Redbrick (Michael Caine) and the blue side by Lady Blueberry (Maggie Smith). 

Redbrick overprotects his daughter Juliet (Emily Blunt) but Blueberry allows her son Gnomeo (James McAvoy) to roam freely.  Juliet plots with her frog friend Nanette (Ashley Jensen) to try and escape and get a rare flower from a disused garden behind the house.  Gnomeo races lawnmowers with the red Tybalt (Jason Statham) and when Tybalt’s cheating causes his loss Gnomeo swears revenge. 

However, Gnomeo and Juliet meet up incognito and don’t recognize their colored loyalties and fall in love.  When they do realize they are from the wrong sides of the tracks the two try and make their romance work.  The park’s statue of William Shakespeare (Patrick Stewart) just knows that is not going to work out well. 

Gnomeo & Juliet is the umpteenth adaptation of the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet, a fact that the film brings to your attention.  This time around it has been done in kid friendly terms, so don’t expect his delightful animated adventure to end the same way. 

Don’t be mistaken because there is enough Shakespearean in-joking to make the harshest literary soul chuckle a time or two.  Elton John’s Rocket Pictures is the driving force behind the picture and certainly the legendary singer’s presence influences the high quality of the voice cast as I’d imagine that if Sir Elton calls you up that you show up do the job. 

So we have quite the compilation of Brit talent, including Elton impressionist Matt Lucas, and even Ozzy Osbourne, in a great twist and against typecasting, voices a cute character.  What Shakespeare didn’t have was a rocking soundtrack from the superstar Pinball Wizard, including two new songs, and lyricist Bernie Taupin. 

John’s songs are wonderfully placed and they certainly had me tapping my feet and grooving to them.  My three-year-old even got up and danced to Crocodile Rock.  I’m sure the new fathers Elton John and David Furnish would’ve been pleased. 

Gnomeo & Juliet is just fun and wildly entertaining.  It’s also wonderfully rendered and I liked how instead of glossy animated gnomes you could tell that they were done to look like chalklike painted garden gnomes just like the real thing.  It’s all in great fun and for all ages.       

Gnomeo & Juliet is presented in a 1080p transfer (1.85:1).  Special features, presented in high definition unless noted, include the 6 minute “Elton builds a Garden” with his involvement and the germination of the film, two alternate endings with the director Kelly Asbury’s introductions (4 minutes total), deleted and alternate scenes also with intros (42 minutes total), the 2 minute “Frog Talk with Ashley Jensen” about playing a rubbery, green amphibian, the 90 second “Fawn of Darkness” about Ozzy Osbourne voicing a concrete lawn ornament, and the 90 second “Crocodile Rock” music video with John and Nelly Furtado.  Disc two is a DVD copy of the film. 

Gnomeo & Juliet updates the classic, some may say elderly, tale and adds a Crocodile Rock beat and some funny in-jokes for Shakespeare fans.  I don’t think my kids knew who Elton John or William Shakespeare were, but they certainly got swept up in the tale of the two garden gnomes who dared to love. 

As the fledgling picture of Rocket Pictures, Gnomeo & Juliet soars and shows that Furnish and John’s film production company won’t be a flash in the pan if they keep this up.  Rock on.

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