Synopsis: The neighboring gardens of Montague and Capulet are at war, but the gnomes, Gnomeo and Juliet, are in love.When I first heard they were making an animated kid's version of Romeo and Juliet (sort of) I wondered how they would deal with it, since it's actually a tragedy not a comedy and I wasn't sure how they'd even stay remotely true to the story. Somehow they did a pretty good job with it by giving plenty of nods to Shakespeare. There are a lot of references, some subtle some not so subtle, throughout and it was fun picked them out. For instance, the owners of the gnome homes (hey, a poet!) are named Montague and Capulet.... there's a bus that says "Stratford-Upon-Avon" which was William Shakespeare's home... the house numbers are "2B and Not 2B"... the moving trucks are from the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern moving company (Hamlet)... the glue that the gnomes use is called "The Taming of the Glue"... the flower that Gnomeo and Juliet fight over is referred to as "Cupid's flower"... Juliet says "out, out" to the big dog and the owner says "damn spot"... on a brick wall in an alleyway is painted 3x3 which is a reference to the witches ("by the power of three times three"). There are more and trust me I didn't even catch all of those, but found some online after watching it.
The film looks good as the gnomes are more textured than just standard computer animation plus they are fragile and break. They even make clinking sounds when they touch. The day to day goings on and the way things unfold in their garden worlds is just fun and creative. There's a great voice cast with some small parts that are sort of fun to try to figure out as well. Listen for Michael Caine, Dolly Parton, Ozzy Osbourne, Hulk Hogan and Patrick Stewart to name just a few. And if you like Elton John's music, you'll love the soundtrack. To say it's "Elton heavy" would be an understatement.
Overall it's got a lot of charm and is a bit funny at times but it's not really going to stand out in the crowded field of great animated films. The story is nowhere near as strong as a lot of Pixar's work and they borrow heavily from Toy Story, mixing it with a literature classic. This means you pretty much know going in everything that's going to happen, and it does. It's cute though and good for a few laughs, especially for the little ones.
6.5/10
