Susan Granger’s review of “Gnomeo & Juliet” (Disney/Touchstone)
“Wherefore art thou, Gnomeo?” wonders Juliet, atop her fountain pedestal, in the attached, well-manicured Stratford-Upon-Avon yards of 2B and Not 2B Verona Drive. They’re the homes of Miss Montague (voiced by Julie Walters), who’s feuding with her neighbor Mr. Capulet (voiced by Richard Wilson). But the real drama is in their respective gardens, where Juliet (voiced by Emily Blunt), a red-capped ceramic lawn ornament, has given her heart to dashing blue-gnome Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy), not realizing that their kitschy, color-coded families are sworn enemies whose animosity periodically erupts in high-octane lawn-mower drag races.
Like the playthings in “Toy Story,” these computer-animated British gnomes spring to life only when humans aren’t looking, and the star-crossed love affair occurs much to the dismay of his snooty mother, Lady Blueberry (voiced by Maggie Smith), and her domineering father, Lord Redbrick (voiced by Michael Caine). Contributing to the turmoil, there’s Juliet’s feisty cousin Tybalt (voiced by Jason Statham), her frog nurse/confidante Nannette (voiced by Ashley Jensen), Featherstone (voiced by Jim Cummings), a Latino pink plastic flamingo, along with Bill Shakespeare’s statue (voiced by Patrick Stewart) and clever cameos by Dolly Parton, Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan as the monstrous Terrafirminator.
Nine (count ‘em) screenwriters contributed to the Bard’s playfully corny, revisionist fairy tale, whimsically helmed by Kelly Asbury (“Shrek 2” co-director) – after a long, precarious development process. Back in 2005, executive producers Elton John and David Furnish’s Rocket Pictures signed a deal with Walt Disney Feature Animation. But when executive John Lasseter took over, that was shelved and passed on to Miramax. Now it’s being released as part of the revised Touchstone division, via Toronto-based Starz Animation and unnecessarily converted to 3-D, with a catchy score by Elton John and Bernie Taupin that includes campy, updated tweaks to “Crocodile Rock,” “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” and “Benny and the Jets,” along with new songs like “Hello, Hello.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Gnomeo and Juliet” is an eccentric, silly 7, a goofy, G-rated romantic comedy, aimed at a juvenile audience.
