Review of Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) by Daniel S — 28 Jan 2012

Shakespeare and the hits of Elton John are conflated in this film, and not very well. I understand Elton and David Furnish are heavily involved in the production of the film but did we really need his back catalogue playing throughout scenes that really didn't require it. Maybe I'm overlooking the Director cleverly using contrapuntal music in an homage to Kubrick, then again, maybe not.

On the whole the film is quite a pleasant experience with some funny moments and a nice voice cast, but if you want to see Shakespeare recreated for a younger audience (for some reason children need it watered down) then stick on The Lion King. It's a loose adaption of Shakespeare's best work and it doesn't pull any punches when characters need to be offed, I'm talking about you Mufasa!