Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene…
“West Side Story (1961)”, “Romeo and Juliet (1968)”, “Romeo + Juliet (1996)”, and now Gnomeo and Juliet. This Disney movie had nothing going for it the moment it was decided upon, and set in motion. Sure, kids will love it, which was the film’s intention, but a good family-oriented film should be enjoyable for the whole family.
It goes without question that they ditched Shakespeare’s classic dialogue to fit with modern times, and to not bore their target audience to tears. The story itself follows the original story pretty closely, given the fact that the characters were just garden gnomes. That is just another minor detail that the writers could have changed to make the movie so much more watchable. They used gnomes simply so they could make a rhyming pun off the name “Romeo”, which is not a strong foundation to hold an entire film.
The fact of the matter is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, a tragedy that has gone down in history as one of the most important and recognizable pieces of literature out there. What Disney has done for itself is hand it’s audience a lose-lose situation. Because their target audience is families, you already know they can’t have the title characters dying at the very end, even if they tease it; it’s not going to happen. This already butchers the story, and all relevance the character’s death held. Even if they did kill off the characters, that again would be terrible for their careers as they just made millions of children cry. It is a lose-lose situation, you cannot have a story like this told as a friendly kid’s movie, it makes no sense to those people who loved the original story, and were forced to read Romeo and Juliet in schools all around the globe.
The only thing that is enjoyable about this film is the numerous recognizable voices heard throughout the movie. James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class), Emily Blunt, Patrick Stewart, Michael Caine, Jason Statham, Ozzy Ozbourne and Hulk Hulgan all have voices in this animated movie. The music was also a treat, if you are a fan of the classic Elton John hits, you will find this feature watchable. If you are a child under 10, and therefore don’t have the maturity to understand the importance of Romeo and Juliet, you will enjoy this flick.
“Gnomeo and Juliet” comes to Blu-Ray on May 24th, 2011. You can still view this film in theaters at Cinemark Movies 6 in Mishawaka, IN
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