Animation in Obscurity: Gnomeo and Juliet

Now, I remember seeing the trailer for this when I saw Tangled when it was out in cinemas with my friends and we all said the same thing after the trailer ended: that is the stupidest idea I've ever heard of! Why take a very tragic and well known Shakespearean play, and make it into an animated film made for the kiddies, but use something as uninteresting and creepy as garden gnomes to tell the plot?! I mean, that's like making, I don't know, an animated version of the Titanic with a rapping dog-oh wait that does exist...Anyway, directed by Kelly Asbury, who helped with the first two Shrek films, it was originally supposed to be made by Pixar, but John Lasseter didn't like the idea. Then the rights of the film were given to Miramax, but then they closed down. Finally, Starz Animation (who made Tim Burton's 9) in Toronto got the rights and the movie was distributed by Touchstone, a company owned by Disney. So can this movie show that garden gnomes can actually be an interesting subject to see on the big screen for kids, or would this movie make the old bard roll in his grave? Let's find out!

Story: Like I mentioned before, the ridiculous premise was what immediately turned me off from seeing this movie when it first came out. And I have to say, it gave me what I was expecting! The story is just way too simplistic and isn't strong enough to hold onto a 90 minute film. Only the basics of the Romeo and Juliet story are in the movie, with the forbidden romance, Tybalt being killed, the families at war yadda, yadda, yadda. The changes made are beyond stupid & don't make any sense, and are underdeveloped or have no purpose but to make the running time longer! The humour is just awful! It consists of bad pop culture references, or very very lame gnome or Shakespeare puns which are painful and annoying! The ending is the worst part because not only is it insulting to the source material and is censored for children, but it's also predictable and makes the movie very inconsistent with the concept of how gnomes die! Gnomeo's father is meant to be dead & it's established being smashed in the gnome world means you're dead. But when Tybalt dies, at the end of the film he's seen alive, but glued together! I mean, come on, you pretty much contradicted your own gnome rules! Talk about a plot hole!
Actually, is it me or is it like Toy Story but with gnomes? But here's the reason why the whole being inanimate thing worked in Toy Story, and why not in here! Even if the toys were in different places and were in different positions, it could easily be thought with the humans that their kids left them there. But in Gnomeo and Juliet, we're talking about garden gnomes, which would be kept in the same position in the same place all the time! If I noticed one disappeared or changed position, I'd be creeped out! The romance is extremely rushed and it doesn't actually feel like the protagonists are star-crossed lovers, but rather just a generic 'badass' couple we've seen in other animated films like Shrek. It doesn't really help it was directed by the same guy who worked on the movies! So, overall, I hate the story! It's uninspired, boring, generic & insulting to Shakespeare!

Animation: even if I don't like the plot, I have to admit the animation isn't bad. First off, I will say that it's very colourful and that it has a unique look. The textures are done well and the gnomes actually look like they're made of porcelain, and the sound editing helps with the chips and whenever someone touches them. Also, the backgrounds are very well done and are almost realistic, even though for nearly the entire movie, we're only in the back garden of someone's house. The character animation is a bit inconsistent ranging from realistic to more cartoony depending on each character. But there's a huge problem I have, and it's the character designs! I know, they're supposed to be gnomes, but I feel like they're not likeable designs and I found Gnomeo's very odd because it's as if they want us to find him bizarrely attractive and James McAvoy's voice doesn't suit it! Also, it doesn't feel like anything new, it just looks your generic animated film instead of anything amazing like other animated films out there! I can't say that it's bad, in fact it's good, but the flaws I mentioned are pretty big.

Probably one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen

Characters: I get the feeling that the part the writers cared the least about were the characters because none of them are worth liking or remembering! Most are just there to be one-off jokes or bland versions of the original characters voiced by millions of celebrities! First, there's Gnomeo, voiced by James McAvoy, and my problem with him is that he's just stupid. What I mean is he's just so naively optimisitc everything will be OK despite his romance with Juliet obviously being forbidden! Juliet, voiced by Emily Blunt, is just the generic sweet yet badass girl trying to be all sassy, and it doesn't really help that they try to make her original, even though we have seen this kind of character many times in modern animated women (again, look at Fiona from Shrek)! Nanette just annoyed me, which is a surprise for me since I normally like Ashley Jensen and she's just so unfunny in this! Tybalt, voiced by Jason Statham is just the cliched jerk with nothing else on him, and is an awful and bland villain! Benny, voiced by Matt Lucas annoyed me as well, and he was clearly the comedy relief, but he never made me laugh! Featherstone, a garden flamingo is the equivalent of Friar Lawrence and everyone loves him because of one scene where he lost his love, but he reminded me too much of Ray from The Princess and the Frog and annoyed me in the rest of the movie! Heck, they're both voiced by the same actor, Jim Cummings! The fawn voiced by Ozzie Osborne wasn't funny as well as them tiny gnomes with them irritating voices & ugly designs, and Lord Montague, voiced by Michael Caine, was just the generic overprotective father to Juliet! The only thing I will say is that the best character was the Hulk Hogan voiceover for the advertisement of the lawnmower: he's not in it for long, he at least made me chuckle a tiny bit, and he knew when to shut up! This is probably the worst part of the movie! It's not that the story is insultingly told by the original characters, it's told by the half-assed characters I just want to shut up whenever they appear!

I knew this would be a dumb film just based on it's premise! Gnomeo & Juliet is just a lazy piece of crap with an insulting & generic story, paper thin & bland characters but some nice animation. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, especially not Shakespeare fans who'd easily bash this film, and children might find some of the unsubtle adult humour funny. I'll just address the big elephant in the room with the music because it's nothing but Elton John songs, and they have no purpose whatsoever to be in the movie! They're poorly placed in sequences & even the score has some of his music in it! It's insufferable & annoying, & being an executive producer doesn't count! Now, I know there'll be a sequel to do with Gnomeo & Juliet meeting Sherlock 'Gnomes' (haha(!)) and all I have to say is...WTF?!

Story: 2/10

Animation: 7/10

Characters: 1/10

Overall: 3/10