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(G) ***
Director: Kelly Asbury.
Cast: (voices of) James McEvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Jason Statham, Maggie Smith, Ashely Jensen, Matt Lucas.
EVER wanted to see a performance of Romeo & Juliet featuring garden gnomes, lawnmowers of mass destruction, dog-like mushrooms and the songs of Elton John?
No, me neither. But that's what you'll get from this Disney-fied take on Shakespeare's beloved tale of star-struck (and very doomed) lovers.
Anyone familiar with The Bard's tale will know how this story goes, although the nine writers involved (this took nine writers?) wussed out on the tragic ending in a way that won't bother the kids but might feel like a cop-out to some of the older audience members.
For those not familiar with the thousands of different versions of the story, it's about two lovers - in this case Gnomeo the blue gnome and Juliet the red gnome, whose eyes meet across a not-so-crowded greenhouse. The blues and reds have been fueding for generations, making the budding romance a forbidden love (can you see where this is going?).
Meanwhile, the war between the two clans is escalating, and it involves huge lawnmowers (this last bit was not in the Shakespeare version, in case you were wondering).
The nine writers have a great field to play in - or back garden as it is in this case - and the film certainly has its moments. Particularly good is one touching montage that explains the back story of plastic pink flamingo Featherstone.
Some of the comic notes are worth a chuckle (although not quite a LOL), and there are even a few references to other Shakespearean plays that will get knowledgeable guffaws from the high-brow parents (the lower-brow parents can do the same with the Elton John musical references).
For the kids, this is pretty good. The age-old story and its themes of respect, love, and the pointlessness of fighting is vintage stuff and still worth imparting on the young. Plus, the film moves along at a good pace, has a neat visual style with strong voicework from the cast (although Ozzy Osbourne does seem out of place as a porcelain deer) and the musical reinterpretations of Elton's songs are mostly pretty good.
Finally, I'd like to make two last points. The first is a question: why does every non-Pixar CG film (including this one) insist on having a song-and-dance sequence? They stick out like a sore thumb, do little for the story, and are fast becoming a tired time-filling cliche. So why do them?
And my last point is this: I've seen quite a few 3D films now and I am convinced it adds nothing to movies other than a slight darkening of the picture and an added cost to the tickets.