Gnomeo and Juliet

              Ever since I saw the film The Full Monty years ago I have had a thing for lawn gnomes.  I think they’re fun and quirky and I love when people do creative things with them.  This is why when I saw there was going to be a film called Gnomeo and Juliet, an animated film about lawn gnomes, I wanted to see it.  To be honest, wanting to see a film like Gnomeo and Juliet is kind of unusual for me.  It’s not because it’s animated, but because the story is based on the play Romeo and Juliet.  I hate Romeo and Juliet.  Except for the musical West Side Story, I avoid anything having to do with that play at all.  Which is why it probably took me so long to watch Gnomeo and Juliet even though I did want to see it.  Once I saw it once, I had to watch it again before I sent it back.  This hardly ever happens, which goes to show how much I liked this film.    

                Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) are from rival families of lawn decorations, the Blues and the Reds.  The two sides have been feuding forever but nobody knows how it started.  I suspect the homeowners have a lot to do with the animosity between the Blues and the Reds.  They share a backyard fence and cannot stand each other.  No matter what goes on, the other person is always to blame.  But anyways…

                One way the two sides let out their aggression is with lawn mower races.  During one of these races, while Gnomeo is competing against the Reds’ Tybalt (Jason Statham), Gnomeo’s lawn mower is destroyed.  Upset about his lawn mower, Gnomeo and his friend Benny (Matt Lucas) decide to get revenge on the Reds since Tybalt is the reason Gnomeo lost his lawn mower.  They sneak over to the Reds’ lawn during the night ready to do damage, but things do not go as planned and Gnomeo ends up in someone else’s garden.  In this other garden he sees another gnome, Juliet, and immediately falls in love.  He fights with her over a flower and she falls in love with him too.  Since they are both disguised in black, neither one knows that they are falling in love with the enemy.  Once they do, it is too late.  Their love for each other has been cemented and there isn’t any turning back.  With their families hating each other so much they don’t know how they’ll be together, but they know there has to be a way.  Somehow they’ll figure it out, unless something tragic happens first.

                I like the ending of this film so much better than the original play.  Plus, this film is funny.  I laughed so much while I watched it.  The lines are clever and I loved all the hidden references to Shakespeare’s works.  Some were hidden and could easily be missed, such as the name on the side of the moving truck, but they were there.  Then there was the music.  Elton John songs were throughout the film which made it even more fun, especially when lyrics were changed to go with the storyline and characters.  If I had known Mr. John was such a huge part of this film, I might have gotten it earlier.  

               Gnomeo and Juliet is such a fun film that I would like to own it and watch it over and over again. There are so many great actors who provided voices to the characters. Other than the ones already mentioned, there were also Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, and Patrick Stewart, to name a few. Some of the voices were done by non-actors such as Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan. Every single person who did a voice did a really good job. Everyone fit their characters perfectly, and there were a lot of characters. I especially enjoyed some of the characters that could be easily overlooked, such as the little bunnies and the mini gnomes. They were hilarious. Even though they had very few lines, and I’m not sure if the bunnies even had any, they were such a great part of the story. If they were part of Romeo and Juliet maybe I would like it better. Somehow I don’t think so. I doubt there is anything that can get me to like that play. As for Gnomeo and Juliet, I look forward to watching it again.