Gnomeo & Juliet 3D (2011/Touchstone/Disney/Rocket Pictures Blu-ray 3D
+ Blu-ray 2D + DVD + Digital Copy)
Picture:
B/B/B- Sound: B/B/B- Extras: C Film: C
A film
that uses the music of Elton John you would expect to be quite amazing. Other films have done it in different ways; The Lion King, Moulin Rogue and so on, but none like Gnomeo & Juliet had the opportunity to do. Sadly, however, the film was doomed from the
very beginning. The film spent years in
production, then received a very poor advertising campaign that made little
mention of Elton John’s music, then had the Disney name barely supporting it,
and finally received lukewarm reviews.
The basis
for the storyline is a very loose interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet with Elton John’s music mixed in.
There are two families of Garden Gnomes, one set red and the other blue;
separated by some hedges and a fence.
Apparently the families have battling/ lawn mower racing (confusing I
know) for years, with no resolution in sight.
One day while traipsing around the yards Gnomeo (a blue gnome) and
Juliet (a red gnome) cross each others paths and fall pointy hat over heels in
love. Sadly for them, however, there
love can not be due to their families’ situation; all leading to romantic
rendezvous and secret plans. When the
families get wind of the couples doings, an all out battle ensues; with some
fallen comrades along the way.
Of course
this is all done in a “Disney” watered down/simplified fashion, but the general
premise is there. The Elton John songs
are adequate or a complete miss, no song crocodile rocked my socks off.
The
visuals are very well done, but somehow the quality of the presentation is
missing that something that Pixar and even DreamWorks consistently contains. It is more than apparent that a lot of
passion and effort went into the making of this film, but never the less I
found myself bored and expecting more.
The concept of a garden gnome animated film I find brilliant, but the
Romeo & Juliet angle I find forced and rather overdone. Where as if Disney through the efforts behind
the Gnomeo & Juliet team like
they have done for Pixar, this film could have been much more.
The
technical features of this 3-D release feel like the film itself; as in forced and
not all there. The 1.85 X 1 picture is a
nice 1080p AVC encoded MPEG-4 presentation that is not the most perfect 3-D
feature to date, but well done. The
colors are bright, the blacks are deep, and textures bring the characters to
life. The problem mainly lies in the 3-D
as the background blurs and the 3-D seems like an after thought that never
works perfectly. As mentioned before
something is just missing. The sound is
a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio that is well rounded, but fails to make Sir Elton’s
music pop like it should. The track is
by no means powerful, and whereas the dialogue comes through clean and clear it
remains a weak point.
The
Blu-ray (non 3-D) is almost better as it does not try to push the envelope and
fail. It still has all the brilliant
colors and textures without the 3-D nonsense.
The
extras are lackluster and as follows:
Elton
Builds a Garden
Frog Talk
with Ashley Jensen
Crocodile
Rock Music Video
Alternate
Ending with Film Maker Introduction (story boards only)
The Fawn
of Darkness
Deleted
and Alternate Scenes
Whereas
Pixar titles are standout films that go beyond just the animation genre, Gnomeo & Juliet on the other hand
does little to standout and instead slides by as an adequate children’s film
that adults will begrudgingly sit through, not even able to enjoy Elton John’s
music.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
