Bottom line: Gnomeo & Juliet brings us a "garden variety" spin on the Shakespearean tale, presenting the profound love story about overcoming hate in a way that is both delightfully funny and kid friendly.
MPAA Rating: GGenre: Animation/Comedy-Adventure
Runtime: 81 minutes
Starring: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Jason Statham, Patrick Stewart, Ashley Jensen, Stephen Merchant, Matt Lucas, Jim Cummings, Julie Walters, Richard Wilson, Ozzy Osbourne, Dolly Parton, Hulk Hogan
Release Date: February 11, 2011
Gnomeo & Juliet - Overview
Tucked away in a quiet little neighborhood in Straford-Upon-Avon, is a quaint little duplex housing a whole lot of contention. In the gnome garden on the blue side, the Blue garden gnomes reside. On the other side of the fence, live the Reds. No one can remember exactly why, but the Blues and the Reds have been at odds for what seems like forever. So, when Juliet, daughter of Lord Redbrick, and Gnomeo, son of Lady Bluebury, meet by chance and fall in love, their relationship seems doomed from the start.
Nanette, a frog who is Juliet's best friend, covers for Juliet so she can sneak off to see Gnomeo. The only other confidant is Gnomeo's trusty friend, a lively blue mushroom. Gnomeo and Juliet find a quiet place of their own in the Overgrown Garden, where they meet Featherstone, a plastic pink flamingo who knows a thing or two about love and loss. With the help of their friends and against all odds, Gnomeo and Juliet determine to be together, but the feud between their two families threatens to tear them apart. Can the two star-crossed lovers bring their families together, or are they destined to suffer the same tragic fate that Shakespeare designed for an earlier Juliet and her Romeo?
Photo © Touchstone Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Gnomeo & Juliet - Guide Review for Parents
When you hear "Shakespeare," do you think of garden gnomes? No? Well, the marriage of the two actually works in this little flick from Touchstone Pictures. A delightfully funny twist on the tragic love story, Gnomeo & Juliet is a little quirky and a lot of fun. Throw into the whole Shakespeare gnome mix a soundtrack composed using various Elton John songs like "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," and "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart," among many others, and you've got quite an eccentric film that is predictable, yet full of surprises.
This G-rated film is a family friendly version of the classic love story -- no suicides, obviously. But, the story expresses the same strong moral of overcoming hate in a way that may seem a bit heavy-handed to adults, but is very accessible to kids, offering a fabulous opportunity for family discussions.
Some of the humor in the movie is slightly edgy in a still kid-friendly sort of way. A few rude words like "loser" and "idiot" are used, and there is some mild innuendo and puns like, "Let's go kick some grass!" The movie has one briefly spoken bad word, "damn," but it's delivered in a literary way, and it's funny. Many scenes contain vengeful gnome violence, and two gnomes are presumed dead for a while (after getting broken), which might be upsetting to children. On the racy side, one gnome man wears a revealing "mankini", while a girl gnome wears a shirt that shows gnome cleavage. For more information on the possibly offensive, imitative, or scary content in the movie, see the "Content Overview" below.
Gnomeo & Juliet - Content Overview
*May contain spoilers.- Violence (Medium): All the violence in Gnomeo & Juliet is between garden gnomes, and thus is less realistic. Some of the gnomes can be quite mean to each other as they try to one-up each other and seek revenge. One gnome in particular is out to prove his team better at all costs, and he ends up breaking another gnome. One gnome is broken to pieces during a gnome fight. Gnome fights generally occur in the context of lawn mower races.
- Scary Scenes (Low): Some young children may be afraid or unsettled by the destruction the gnomes cause to each other and the scenes where gnomes are broken.
- Sex/Nudity (Medium): A gnome wears a revealing "mankini." A female gnome shows a generous amount of cleavage. The star-crossed lovers kiss. Some phrases or jokes contain very mild sexual innuendo.
- Drugs and Alcohol (None)
- Language (Low): The word "damn" is used as well as a few rude words like "loser" or "shut up."
- Disrespectful/Imitative Behavior (High): The Red gnomes and the Blues, always trying to prove themselves better than the others, destroy each others' gardens, insult each other, and some do underhanded things to win the lawn mower races or beat their enemies in other ways. Some imitative phrases like "junk in the trunk" or "he's going to ditch you when he finds out how much you weigh" are used.
Photo © Touchstone Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
- Sad/Unsettling Scenes (Medium): Juliet and her father have a somewhat strained relationship, because he is very overprotective and she wants to be an independent and strong young woman. The scenes in which gnomes are hurt or presumed dead are sad and may be somewhat distressing to very young kids. Also, a scene set to music depicts the sad breakup of a man and woman who used to live in the house where the Overgrown Garden now is.
- Movie Topics Kids Might Have Questions About: rivalries, relationships, competitiveness, hate, breakups, Shakespeare
Gnomeo & Juliet - Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
The Gnomeo & Juliet Blu-ray combo pack provides the Blu-ray and DVD version of the movie. The bonus features include more additional footage than any release I've seen so far. We're talking alternate openings, alternate endings, and many deleted scenes or scenes that were just not part of the final version of the movie.
My favorite of these additional scenes is the Gnome CSI scene. The scene is hilarious, and very clever; however, it totally did not fit with the movie in any way, so it was good that they nixed it. Still, it's fun to watch now, and maybe they can use the idea in a future movie.
