Review of Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) by Paul S — 16 Dec 2011

Ok, I laughed my ass off - don't know if it was simply because I was in the mood for a lighthearted farcical romp through the Bard's canon, or if the silly brilliance of the concept and its zany execution won me over; but win me over it did.

From the outset, where a gnome enters the stage and states that this is a well-worn story, but this time will be told differently... but first a preamble, which the gnome admits is a bit long and tedious (of course this is old Billy's actual preamble... oh blasphemy!), you know that the filmmakers aren't taking this seriously (nor should they... after all, this is a tale about feuding gnomes fer chrissakes!).

Borrowing heavily from the bard's works in site gags, little asides and just flat out lunacy, the film gave me many a smile and a few laugh out loud moments. Our tale begins with two adjoining townhomes on Verona St. The mailboxes proclaim that the two neighbors are indeed Capulets and Montagues, and the addresses are 2B and... 2B with the international no slash through it (and if you don't get it then god bless you).

The lunacy includes drag racing lawnmowers (and the later purchase of the Turfinnator 5000 - complete with a angry voice over by Hulk Hogan), and Juliet, the Princess, who lives in a castle by a lake... um, make that pond - which has a power switch that turns on a spectacular light show playing to the Tiki Room music from Disneyland (this is a Disney production after all). Throw in a slightly crazy Flamingo, complete with a whacked out South American accent and well, you get the idea. . . and in case you don't, there's a menacing (to gnomes anyway) bulldog named Spot who at one juncture is asked to vacate the premises (ah come on, you get THAT one, don't you?).

The voice-over acting is a joy, as you get Michael Caine as the leader of the "reds", and his counterpart, the "blue" leader, voiced by Maggie Smith. That's enough cinematic royalty right there, but then throw in Jason Strathan, perfectly cast as the growling, street punk gnome Tybolt, and Patrick Stewart as the voice of the Bard's statue, who adds another level of levity as he tells gnomeo that his story sounds eerily like something he once penned. For good measure you have a cowgirl gnome voiced by Dolly Parton (who, in a strange bit of reality, has her own theme park).

It has been noted that Sir Elton John produced this film, and his music is prevalent throughout - I'm commenting simply because it's there, and didn't really effect me one way or the other - some of the altered lyrics worked, while others did not.

I had a really good time here - and yes, the ending was predictable, and at times the plot lagged, but overall this was simply a lot of fun; much more enjoyable than the later Shrek films.