Review: 'Gnomeo and Juliet' is boring garden lore

Film: Gnomeo and Juliet 3D (U)
Cast (voices): James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Jason Statham, Maggie Smith
Director: Kelly Ashbury
Rating: * *

The Bard’s revered tragedy is restaged as a romantic comedy set in the world of porcelain colour coded garden gnomes, lawn ornaments.

Red gnomes hate the Blue ones, their antagonism has something to do with history and remains largely unexplored- but when portly blue Gnomeo (McAvoy)meets up accidentally with shiny red Juliet(Blunt), they are in disguise and promptly fall in love. When they learn of each other’s true identities, their love for each other becomes a dilemma that could end in Shakespearean tragedy...well, not so nearly.

There's very little humour to be had. Gnomes finding love and rising above their differences might not be half as interesting for an Indian audience that has precious little experience of manicured lawns and their ornaments -boxed in as they are within their matchbox sized homes in the urban concrete jungles they reside in.

The characters have a goofy charm but the writing doesn’t really allow it to sustain. Elton John's songs take up far too much of the narrative space. Even the celebrity voices-Patrick Stewart as the Bard, Hulk Hogan as a mulching mower called the Terrafirminator; Dolly Parton as a gnome with big domes and Ozzy Osbourne as a lawn ornament shaped like a fawn, fail to add the expected lustre. The animation is also not of the high standards we’ve come to expect from Hollywood productions. The 3D conversion is merely gimmicky and adds zero value to the overall experience!