Gnomeo and Juliet

"I'm not illiterate! My parents were married!"


The story you about to see has been told before. A lot. This was the opening line by a Red Good Gnome. After the movie I had to explain to my oldest son about Romeo and Juliet. I had to give him the cliff notes version of the play. His response: "Oh, this movie was way better than that one."

I had to watch this one in 3D, unfortunately, since it was the earliest showing. It was not to impressive in 3d. There were a few surprises in this film that I was not expecting. I knew that Sir Elton John did the music, but was thrilled to see that many of his songs were in the film. I was also surprised to hear the voice of Ozzy as a lawn reindeer.

The story was very close to the original play. **Spoiler Alert** It was obvious that they could not have to two kill themselves at the end so they make it close.**

My favorite part had to be the advertisement of the lawnmower called the "Terrafirminator" a 400hp lawnmower/tractor/wrecking machine. I laughed so hard thing about that. A lawnmower with the same power as a suped-up Mustang GT with a supercharger. I was laughing so hard though I think I was the only one in the theatre laughing.

I liked the idea that they were able to bring the story to the younger audiences, but as the opening line said, this story has been told many, many times before. There was something for the adults with the good music, innuendos and humor; but I think it did fall short. It just did not have that "it" factor that other animated films, like How to Train Your Dragon and any Pixar film, has.
This was a pretty good film. It is good for kids to be able to get a bit of Shakespere knowledge. This was a pretty good way to do it.