Rating Rom-Com Adaptations: Gnomeo and Juliet & Romeo and Juliet

Giving Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a gnome-makeover is a stroke of genius. Was the idea conceived because someone thought of the title pun and ran with it? Probably, but it created something genius nonetheless! With the executive producer being THE Elton John - how could it not be? In all seriousness though, Gnomeo and Juliet introduces the timeless story to children with the perfect use of comedy.

Romeo and Juliet Paramount / Gnomeo and Juliet Touchstone Pictures

In this animated version the feuding 'families' of the original text, the Capulets and Montagues, are instead blue gnomes and red gnomes in neighbouring gardens. Their rivalry is based upon both groups believing their garden is the best garden.

Gnomeo and Juliet Touchstone Pictures

The film mostly takes the iconic scenes from the play and gnome-ifies them. In true Romeo and Juliet style, there is a love at first sight scene in which Gnomeo and Juliet's identities are hidden. This happens during a heist rather than a masked-ball, a good excuse to cover their red and blue hats in a way that makes sense (because of course, gnomes can't take their hats off)! The scene is visually stunning, romantic, and cute with the backing of Elton John's Hello Hello (I'm sure the original play would have benefitted from this musical addition to the scene also).

Gnomeo and Juliet Touchstone Pictures

The script even adapts famous lines to fit the gnome setting. For example in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says 'what's in a name? A rose by any other word would smell as sweet'. The sentiment being - she would love Romeo whatever his family name and allegiance. In the gnome version, Juliet says instead: 'What's in a gnome? Because you're blue, my father sees red and because I'm red, I'm feeling blue... that shouldn't be the thing to keep us apart'. Shakespeare is quaking at how good that line is!

The original plot is basically followed except for one big change. To make it appropriate for families, no one dies at the end. It is true that the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is sort of the point! So how does the film drive home the themes without the deaths? Firstly, it meddles with the foreshadowing so not to set up any anticipation of real tragedy. For example, the prologue is mocked and interrupted with gags to undermine the heavy foreboding of the original prologue.

The second way in which the film subverts death to avoid children crying in the cinema, is to incorporate gnome lore! (I would like to know how many people have encountered the need to use the term 'gnome lore' before). The answer is that gnomes cannot die, or rather they are capable of an impermanent death. Tybalt dies in Gnomeo and Juliet by smashing into pieces but is glued back together by the end of the film. That way, some of the emotional gravitas from the original text that is necessary to teach the story is kept without the film being a tragedy (or rated 12)!

The third way this is done is by having the leaders of the two houses, Lady Blueberry and Lord Redbrick, recognise the damage their feud has caused to their gardens and gnomes. They declare the feud is over. This is a child-friendly way to get the message of Romeo and Juliet across, because it teaches the moral lesson of the text by having the gnomes lead by example on screen instead of by tragedy. The final deviation is when Gnomeo and Juliet get married on a purple lawn mower, signifying the union of the two gardens (because purple is the mix of red and blue. Mind blowing I know).

Gnomeo and Juliet Touchstone Pictures

The animated film is filled to the brim with Shakespearean easter-eggs and references. In one of the very first frames the post boxes say Montague and Capulet (the names from the play are the names of the humans who own the blue and red gardens in this version). The film is set on 'Verona Drive' like the Verona setting of Romeo and Juliet. The house numbers, '2B' and the crossed-out '2B', are a reference to the famous first lines of Shakespeare's Hamlet speech: 'To be, or not to be? That is the question'. The detail of one of them being angrily crossed out because it is presumably the wrong house number implies and introduces that the houses are feuding. This one shot including so much detail is a testament to how clever an adaptation it really is.

Gnomeo and Juliet Touchstone Pictures

The medium chosen also allows the film to take liberties of which other adaptations could never achieve. The best example of this has to be the William Shakespeare statue coming to life to tell his version of Romeo and Juliet to Gnomeo. This also helps with diverting the tragic ending because Gnomeo learns of the mistakes the original characters made and he does not make the same choices afterwards.

Of course we cannot talk about Gnomeo and Juliet without acknowledging how star studded the voice cast is! Whilst many adaptations in this blog series boast an impressively well-known cast, with A-Listers James McAvoy and Emily Blunt at the helm as the title characters, Gnomeo and Juliet wins this category by a long shot. The cast is such a random and fun assortment:

Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Jason Statham, Ozzy Osbourne (how did they get him to do this?), Matt Lucas, Dolly Parton, Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters, Steven Merchant, Hulk Hogan, and more. I would also like to add - for anyone who doesn't take this adaptation seriously! - that there are plenty of experienced Shakespearean actors in this cast including the two leads. In fact, Blunt played Shakespeare's Juliet professionally on stage.

Romeo and Juliet Clive Barda CFTShakespeare / Macbeth fotografierendelehrerin.blog

Overall, the concept of Gnomeo and Juliet is such an original idea for a Shakespeare adaptation and the execution is even better. Everything from the animation, writing, cast, references, and commitment to telling the famous story in a family friendly way is done with so much care. It is also very self-aware of its own absurdity that the jokes are funny for all ages. Who doesn't love Ozzy Osbourne as a garden reindeer and seeing gnome-cheeks in a mankini for free? It gets a gnome-ber ten from me. 10/10.

Gnomeo and Juliet Touchstone Pictures