"Gnomeo & Juliet" Review

Shakespeare’s sure come a lawn way.

Take Romeo & Juliet, exchange all the characters for garden gnomes, move it to the present day, infuse it with some of Elton John’s best songs, and you’ve got the surprisingly delightful animated film, Gnomeo & Juliet.

I’ll admit—having an English degree and being a fan of Shakespeare—the very premise of this movie made me groan. Those groans quickly turned to laughter once the film began.

Like the original, Gnomeo & Juliet takes place in Verona—Verona drive, that is. The feuding families are the Reds and the Blues—the gnomes living in Mr. Capulet’s and Ms. Montague’s gardens, respectively. Capulet and Montague hate each other so their gnomes hate each other, too.

What makes this movie so much fun is its own self-awareness of itself as a retelling of Shakespeare… Does that make sense?

The film begins with a gnome reading the prologue from Romeo & Juliet before being tossed off stage in a vaudevillian manner. From then on the movie is one Shakespeare reference after another. Besides its obvious relationship with Romeo & Juliet, there are references to As You Like It, Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew. And, those are the ones I caught without really paying attention. I’m sure there are more if you look for them.

Another great part of this fun, post-modern Shakespeare adaptation is the cameo appearance of William Shakespeare himself—Well, his statue, anyway. During Gnomeo’s exile from

Verona Drive

, he winds up at Shakespeare’s statue in a park. He recounts the details of his and Juliet’s forbidden love, and Shakespeare tells him that their story sounds awfully familiar. *wink*

There is also a brilliant reference to the popular Powerthirst commercials. If you don’t know what Powerthirst is, do yourself a favor and YouTube it.

Of course, anyone expecting a completely faithful presentation of “Romeo & Juliet” is going to be disappointed—although, if you’re surprised that a movie about garden gnomes doesn’t follow the original 100 percent, you should probably go take a few tests.

My only real complaint with this movie is that it was too short--a total runtime of only 84 minutes. I would've gladly sat through another 30 minutes if it were as cleverly crafted and enjoyable as the rest of it.

8 of 10