I like chilling with my Gnomes, but this movie kinda ruin or dumb down William Shakespeare's work. I hate that the opening prologue of the film is really disrespectful of William Shakespeare's brilliant writing, by saying its boring. I really don't think the writers of this film knew, how much an understatement that was. Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet at its core, is a tragic, violent love story with plenty of sexual innuendo, and humor to entertain anybody. By saying it's boring, is just ignorant and uneducated. The movie premise is a bit off-putting. Shakespeare's much beloved tragedy turn into a cutsey CGI animation movie about gnomes with little to no depth of the story, left. I'm willing to get off my high horse, and give this movie, a chance with an open minded. After all, there has been tons of outrageous retellings of Shakespeare's work, like 2005's Pizza My Heart, where a son and daughter of two rival pizzeria owners fall in love, much to the disapproval of both families or 2013's Warm Bodies- where a zombie and a human female fall in love, much to their factions disapproval. Even 1961's West Side Story was look down by purists as straying too far from the source material. Still, it's like retelling violent/sexual full book like Hamlet with cute talking pigs. Directed by Kelly Asbury, the movie is about two feud neighboring gardens gnomes; The Blues AKA the Montagues and the Reds AKA Capulet. Both are trying to outdo the other, with how nice, their garden could look. In this war is Gnomeo of Montague (James McAvoy) & Juliet of Capulet (Emily Blurt) whom happen to fall in love with each other. Both wish, the end of this bitter fighting. Can they end this bitter fighting with love or would the two warring factions hatred toward each other, sweep them off their feet, into tragic territory. If you go into Gnomeo and Juliet with an open mind, and you'll find this adaptation quite original and amusing. It does have some funny humor jokes that were mostly a hit than miss for me. I love the Hulk Hogan voice over for the ad for the Terrafirminator claimed that looking at it would cause people's heads to explode. That make me laugh. The joke about martial arts movies might so much. I love the inside jokes of William Shakespeare references like the moving company named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. There is also a truck labeled Tempest Teapots and the "Taming of the Glue" brand seen later in the movie. Looks for Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth and As You like it references. Look forward to other movies references like 1994's Forrest Gump & 1967's The Graduate & 2006's Borat. It was Easter egg fun, finding those. The animation is well-done and the voice acting pretty interesting. Great main cast and supporting cast. While the movie was written for Kate Winslet as Juliet and Ewan McGregor as Gnomeo, I have to think the replacement voice actors, Emily Blurt and James McAvoy did great in their roles. Some voice actors really stand out like Jim Cumming as Featherstone, while others like Ozzy Osbourne as Fawn weren't notice. I have to say, the soundtrack by producer Elton John was awesome. Nice to see John's best songs like "Bennie and the Jets," "I'm still Standing," "Crocodile Rock," and "Your Song" -- are all incorporated in the score. Still, there are some faults to the film, like how the movie sways away from the source material, skipping a lot of information key scenes like Queen Mab sequence, the whole Poison idea, and the changing the ending. The lack of mortality seem lost, when characters like Mercutio are missing from the piece. Even characters like Tybalt (Jason Statham) comes back, toward the end. It's insulting a bit. Yes, I'm might not be the target demographic, but regardless of that, I don't think a 'kids' movie should necessarily mean, it should be dumbed down. Kids deserve more constructive adept story-telling. I think children need to understand death. Having the happy ending here seem a bit of a cop-out. Some of the best films out there are kids' films because they aren't treating kids like they're stupid. They're simply dealing with themes, children deal with or are interested in but in a sophisticated manner. Films like 1996's Lion King that elements of Shakespeare's Hamlet didn't cop out, and had Mufasa come back in the end. I think this movie should do the same. Overall: While the result of this film is more family friendly than the source material. It's still not suitable for all ages, as the film rating suggest. In the end of the day, it's still a complex Shakespearean tragedy that was skin off, just to make a cute gnomes movie. I do think the movie is a double end sword. For one, it helps kids get into Shakespeare's work, while also insulting it. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a sleeper hit in the box office and a sequel, titled Gnomeo and Juliet: Sherlock Gnomes is in the works. The movie is still worth the watch. Like I said before, if you go into it with an open mind, you might find it entertaining.
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