Starring the voices of: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt and Michael Caine
Directed by: Kelly Asbury
Rated: G
Running time: 1 hours 24 minutes
Touchstone Pictures
Film: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall Grade: 4 out of 5 stars
Alright so when you hear that they took Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a timeless tragedy, turned into a movie about gnomes, I am sure some people rolled their eyes. I think the idea for this film is really cute though. Two different gnomes from different side, red vs. blue, and its forbidden love. The film also is based around the music of Elton John which is always fun and keeps its light, since this is a kids movie. Is it as good as Pixar or Dreamworks animation films? No, but it holds it own and delivers a fun time and some good music…not to mention good 3D (at least on 3D Blu-Ray). The only main issue I have is that at 84 minutes, the film feels a little longer.
The film packs on heck of a vocal cast including James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Jason Statham, Maggie Smith, Patrick Stewart, Ashley Jensen, Matt Lucas, Stephen Merchant, Ozzy Osbourne, Jim Cummings and Hulk Hogan. It was fun trying to pick out the voices in the film since they were so recognizable. The voicing is very critical in an animated film and I think that all the people involved in this film added a lot to it and really delivered. With a short 84 minute film, they surely pack it full of celebrity voices. I would also like to note that this film is about gnomes and only gnomes. You have human characters in the film but you never see their faces, which is cool.
Lets get to the animation like I said earlier it wasn’t Pixar or Dreamworks but it was well done. The colors on the film displayed amazing on Blu-ray and really shined. The sound on the 3D Blu-ray included impressive 7.1 surround sound, which really kicked some grass (as gnomes say) with my system. Overall like I mentioned the 3D really popped on this film and added some great depth. The special features on this disc are amble and do not disappoint. They include featured called Elton Builds A Garden, Frog Talk with Ashley Jensen Crocodile Rock music video, 2 alternate endings with filmmaker introductions, Deleted and alternate scenes with filmmaker introductions, 1 alternate opening, 1 alternate scene, 6 deleted scenes and The Fawn Of Darkness with Ozzy Osbourne. I personally like the original ending it has a very “Grease” feel, as my wife puts it. All the other extra scenes are cute and definitely worth a watch.
