Ahhh… Gnomeo, Gnomeo, Gnomeo where for art thou Gnomeo? Well, beginning February 11th he will be at a theater near you and after seeing the movie you’ll notice him in countless gardens everywhere you look.

That’s right folks the slightly creepy idea of retelling Shakespeare’s classic tale The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of garden gnomes has finally come to fruition and we have both a standard 2D version and a useless 3D version of Gnomeo and Juliet for families everywhere to enjoy; and believe it or not I think they will. (But whatever you do please don’t waste your money on the 3D version. It really is a complete waste of your money. Stick with 2D and save some cash)

The literary snob in me wanted to protest the clearly base adaptation of one of the greatest stories ever written, but the truth is that’s the test of an amazing story. Can you take a truly brilliant story and adapt it to a world that is utterly ridiculous and still come out with a heartfelt effective character journey for those involved? And in fact they did.

Gnomeo and Juliet benefits greatly from acknowledging its own absurdity in the opening scene where a gnome proudly appears on stage with a huge scroll and proclaims that they are going to be retelling a tale that’s been told many, many times before. So they aren’t asking us to believe this is anything other than an entirely derivative romp pulled directly from the pages of one of Bills’ most famous plays.

As most people know we’re dealing with a feud of epic proportions between two families the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. In this version we literally have two houses that are physically joined – one in a bold red and the other donned in all blue. The only commonality between these two houses is their elaborate backyard gardens complete with gnomes dressed in their clans color. On the blue side we have Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and on the red Juliet (Emily Blunt). The two meet, experience forbidden love and eventually fight to be together despite the ramifications.

This is a kids movie so don’t worry they manage to cleverly side step the whole double suicide and murder issues and resolve the story in a far more family friendly way. The whole time they are making changes to the story though they are sure to let the audience in on those changes and they also feel free to reference some of Bill’s other amazing plays. One moment that really had me laughing was a scene where a gnome on one side of a fence is terrified by a dog on the other. The gnome shouts, “Out, Out!” followed by the dogs’ owner exclaiming, “Damn Spot!” Fans of Macbeth will get that one and another where one of the gnomes

states, “A weed by any other name…” (Sonnets)

There is more than enough colorful fun and humor to keep the kids entertained throughout the 84 minute running time despite the noticeable lack of musical numbers and happily for the grown-ups we have the Shakespeare references and some slightly risqué references that are guaranteed to go right over the kids’ heads.

So while I’m not over joyed by this movie I will say that based on the source material its far ahead of most silly ‘kids films’ and may even help the kids learn a thing or two as they are being entertained so bravo for that.

Also if I had to take my 8 year old niece to see a movie that would be fun for her and not terribly painful for me… this would be the one.

Forget that Bieber nonsense and go with a classic with a very noticeable facelift.

Synopsis:

An animated version of Shakespeare’s play, where Gnomeo (voice of McAvoy) and Juliet (voice of Blunt) are would-be lovers from rival garden-based families.