What is that crazy bird from UP doing in our movie?
GNOMEO & JULIET is an animated children's film loosely based upon the Shakespearean tale… But with animated garden gnomes lieu of dramatic Italians. Needless to say, no murders or suicides this time! Despite a sprinkling of jokes and references only adults will get, my advice is only to head with little ones in tow, and not for yourself.
This is a fascinating cast. Michael Caine and Dame Maggie Smith declare and harumph beautifully as gnome patriarch Lord Redbrick and matriarch Lady Bluebery - their voices seem tailor-made for animation. Their feuding clans of lawn ornaments are the Reds and the Blues, each decorating the back yards of feuding, human neighbors Miss Montague and Mr. Capulet. Leads James McAvoy and Emily Blunt play the young title characters well, although McAvoy's colorful Scottish accent comes across as far more playful and accessible than Blunt's more formally spoken British. The rest of the cast features everyone from Jason Statham and Patrick Stewart to Ozzy Ozbourne (whose unlikely voice alone as the deer ornament "Fawn" made me giggle). Ashley Jensen (Maggie from HBO's "Extras") stands out for her hilarious (ceramic, not organic) frog Nanette. Featherstone the pink flamingo (Jim Cummings) is amusing, but one has to wonder whether the idea of a tall goofy bird badly in need of companionship wasn't lifted directly from UP. Some of the absolute funniest characters however were G & J's smallest physically and had few, if any, lines: the little mushroom that thinks it's a dog; the fish repeatedly set free by well-wishers, only to hit the fake pond's bottom with a disappointed "Oh"; the lineup of high-pitched mini-bunnies and bumbling mini-gnomes dwarfed by their hats… Any time any combination of these clumps of wee ones popped up on screen I grinned.
The first two thirds of GNOMEO feel a little too cutesy at times. Also too simplistic, hemmed in scope by the two itty-bitty back yards where everything takes place. The kid-friendly cloak-and-dagger themes and bravado-filled drag races (with lawnmowers) don't seem fresh. But more than anything I wish the film exhibited more self-awareness - for the adults, if anything, since it's clear the filmmakers wish to draw them in too. When I first heard of this movie, my reaction was: Garden gnomes? Really? I think the writers would have been clever to acknowledge the randomness of their subject, then riff on and thus own that randomness. They could also have utilized more context, such as when the gnomes freeze into silly, grinning positions whenever humans enter the scene. Those moments not only always get a laugh, they also help show the gnomes' own self-awareness as (apparently) living, breathing pieces of plaster in a world run by humans.
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