GNOMEO & JULIET is an overcooked animated
drama that retells Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet using garden gnomes and Elton John songs. It
features the voice talents of Sir Michael Caine, James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Jason Statham, Patrick Stewart (as the statue
of William Shakespeare), and Ozzy Osbourne as Fawn (one of the enjoyable characters in the film). It is a short animated film and 84 minutes still feels too long.
The film revolves around red and blue garden gnomes knows as Reds and Blues.
They have a rivalry between each other which involves garden pranks and lawnmower races (which seem too long). Gnomeo (a Blue) and Juliet (a Red) find an unlikely romance. Will they find happiness? Will the two clans find
peace?
SPECIAL FEATURES:
ELTON BUILDS A GARDEN- a featurette looking at what involvement Elton John had in this film as a producer (Rocket Pictures is
his production company).
FROG TALK WITH ASHLEY JENSEN
THE FAWN OF DARKNESS (exclusive to Blu-ray)- Ozzy Osbourne talks about voicing the fawn while director Kelly Asbury sees the irony
in casting Ozzy.
CROCODILE ROCK music video featuring music
by Nelly Furtado and Elton John
The two alternate ending and assorted deleted
scenes (in animated storyboard form) are on the Blu-ray with introductions to each by director Kelly Asbury. Some scenes were rightfully cut while others shouldn't have been cut (the Weathervane sequence) and
some that are more enjoyable than the film (the Gnomeo Exiled scene which features a CSI parody which the director thought
was boring).
FINAL ANALYSIS: GNOMEO & JULIET is hit-and-miss. Some scenes I enjoyed
while other times I felt the short animated film was running too long.
this review is (c)5-27-2011 David
Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
