Gnomeo & Juliet

Gnomeo & Juliet is a 2011 computer-animated family comedy film based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. The film is directed by Kelly Asbury, and the two main characters are voiced by James McAvoy and Emily Blunt. The film was released on February 11, 2011.

Plot
Mrs. Montague and Mr. Capulet (Julie Walters and Richard Wilson) are two elderly people who despise each other. When they leave the garden, objects come alive in both their gardens. The Montague garden is filled with blue garden gnomes, and the Capulet garden houses red garden gnomes. Later, both blue and red gnomes attend a lawnmower race. Representing the blues is Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and representing the reds is Tybalt (Jason Statham). During the race, it looks like Gnomeo is winning; however, Tybalt cheats and wins the race, destroying Gnomeo's lawnmower. Gnomeo and his best friend, Benny (Matt Lucas), insult Tybalt for cheating, but Tybalt ignores them. Benny watches Mrs. Montague ordering a new cheap lawnmower, disappointed.

Later that night, Gnomeo and Benny, infiltrate the red garden in disguise, with blue spray cans. Benny sprays Tybalt's well and accidentally triggers a security light in the process, alerting the red gnomes to attack. During the escape Gnomeo ends up in a nearby neglected garden. He bumps into a disguised Juliet (Emily Blunt), the daughter of the red gnomes leader Lord Redbrick (Michael Caine). Juliet is attempting to retrieve a unique orchid, and the two romantically fight over it. They each discover the other's colour before fleeing the garden. When they both go back to their gardens, Juliet tells her frog friend Nanette (Ashley Jensen) about her newfound love. Nanette states that the relationship is romantically tragic.

Gnomeo and Juliet then have secret meetings in a secret garden, where they meet a pink plastic flamingo named Featherstone (Jim Cummings). He supports and encourages their love, and the two begin to meet regularly. Though when the two of them are getting ready for a date, Lord Redbrick introduces Juliet to Paris (Stephen Merchant), a red gnome that Nanette has fallen for, though Juliet manages to get away. Later, when the two return back to their gardens, Gnomeo finds his mother Lady Bluebury (Maggie Smith), who is distraught after the reds infiltrated the garden and destroyed the plant Gnomeo's deceased father planted. The blues want Gnomeo to take revenge on the reds, and he realizes that he cannot refuse unless he tells his secret. He tunnels underneath to reach the red garden, but just as he is about to spray the prized flowers of the reds, Juliet sees him. He backs out suddenly, telling Benny that the nozzle on the spraying bottle was jammed.

When he and Juliet meet up again, they briefly argue until Featherstone stops them, telling them that other peoples' hate destroyed his love. He and his girlfriend were separated when the two people living in the house, where their garden was, got divorced. After he has explained this, Gnomeo and Juliet apologize, but when they are about to kiss, Benny sees them, distracts them, then runs into the alleyway, where Tybalt is waiting with his lawnmower. Tybalt drives at Benny and chops his hat clean off with a trowel. Tybalt fights Gnomeo on his lawnmower, but he is destroyed when crashing into a wall, killing him. The reds attempt to attack Gnomeo, but Juliet, to the surprise of her father and clan, defends Gnomeo, saying that she loves him. A woman suddenly jogs along, so all gnomes become still and inconspicuous. Gnomeo ends up on a road, and everyone believes he was run over by a truck. Lord Redbrick has Juliet glued to her fountain because he does not want to lose her like her mother. Gnomeo's pet, a mushroom named Shroom, is left alone and goes on the road, where he realizes that what appeared to be Gnomeo is actually a broken blue teapot, and that Gnomeo is still alive. Gnomeo eventually ends up in a park, and climbs onto a statue of William Shakespeare (Patrick Stewart) and tells him his story. Shakespeare tells Gnomeo that his story is very similar to Romeo and Juliet and that it is likely Gnomeo's will have a sad ending as well. Shroom and Featherstone come to find him.

Benny, meanwhile, buys the Terrafirminator lawnmower using the computer and cancels the order of the Kitten Clipper, to get revenge on the Red Gnomes, despite Shroom trying to convince him that Gnomeo is still alive. The Terrafirminator goes out of control and destroys most of the two gardens. Gnomeo makes it back to Juliet to try to un-glue her, but he is unable to. She tells him to go, but he refuses, and the two share a kiss just as the lawnmower crashes into the fountain, self-destructing in the process and the William Shakespeare statue in an "I told you so" moment of confidence. Everyone believes that both Gnomeo and Juliet are dead. Lord Redbrick and Lady Bluebury, both realizing that their feud was responsible for this, decide to call a truce. Suddenly, both Gnomeo and Juliet climb out of the rubble and are both fine just as Mrs. Montague comes back to see if the Kitten Clipper lawnmower has arrived and so was Mr. Capulet who are soon horrified to see the destruction. The film ends happily with Gnomeo and Juliet getting married on a purple lawnmower, which symbolizes the truce.

Cast
There is no counterpart for Mercutio, as stated by James MacAvoy in an interview with NBC, ”Gnomeo in this is a little bit of amalgamation between Romeo and Mercutio. We don’t have that Mercutio character in this. We don’t have that leader of the pack, which Romeo isn’t but Gnomeo is a little bit."[3]
 * James McAvoy as Gnomeo, the main protagonist; counterpart to Romeo Montague.
 * Emily Blunt as Juliet, the deuteragonist; counterpart to Juliet Capulet.
 * Michael Caine as Lord Redbrick, the leader of the red gnomes and Juliet's overprotective widower father; counterpart to Lord Capulet.
 * Jason Statham as Tybalt, the main antagonist and counterpart to Tybalt.
 * Maggie Smith as Lady Bluebury, the leader of the blue gnomes and Gnomeo's widowed mother; counterpart to Lady Montague
 * Patrick Stewart as William Shakespeare, a statue of Shakespeare.
 * Ashley Jensen as Nanette, a plastic garden frog and Juliet's best friend; a flamboyant water squirter who is loyal to Juliet; counterpart to Nurse
 * Matt Lucas as Benny, Gnomeo's impulsive and tall-hatted best friend; counterpart to Benvolio.
 * Stephen Merchant as Paris, a nerdy red gnome who was arranged to marry Juliet; counterpart to Count Paris.
 * Ozzy Osbourne as Fawn, a garden deer. The secondary antagonist and Tybalt's best friend; counterpart to Peter.
 * Jim Cummings as Featherstone, a lonely plastic flamingo with a thick Spanish accent; vaguely resembles Friar Laurence. His name is a reference to Donald Featherstone, the creator of the pink flamingo lawn ornament.
 * Hulk Hogan as Terrafirminator V.O., an announcer who tells people to buy the Terrafirminator.
 * Julie Walters as Ms. Montague, the elderly owner of the Blue garden. Her face is never shown.
 * Richard Wilson as Mr. Capulet, the owner of the Red garden, whose face is also never shown.
 * Kelly Asbury as Red Gnomes; counterparts to Gregory, Sampson, Anthony, and Potpan.
 * Shroom, a silent mushroom and Gnomeo’s friend; counterpart to Romeo's servant, Balthasar
 * The Bunnies, a group of small, cement bunnies that act as servants for Lady Bluebury and others in the Blue Garden
 * Dolly Parton as Dolly Gnome the lawnmower race announcer

Production
Gnomeo & Juliet is directed by Kelly Asbury. The original screenplay, inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, was written by John R. Smith and Rob Sprackling. Asbury, Mark Burton, Kevin Cecil, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Andy Riley, and Steve Hamilton Shaw worked on the final screenplay. Prior to the casting of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt, the roles of Gnomeo and Juliet were to be voiced by Ewan McGregor and Kate Winslet, respectively.[4]

The film was the original idea of Sprackling and Smith, who sold the spec script to Disney through Rocket Pictures. Initially, the film was going to be produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, but was shut down by its new chief, John Lasseter, after the Pixar acquisition. Miramax Films picked up the project and guided its production until the division closed down. Australian director Adam Elliot was approached and asked to direct the film, but he rejected the offer due the film's incompatibility with his style, as well as his lack of experience with CGI.[5] The film later was picked up and produced by Starz Animation in Toronto. It was released under the Touchstone Pictures banner on February 11, 2011, becoming Touchstone's first animated film since 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas and also Touchstone's first film to receive a G rating from the MPAA. The film's worldwide premiere was at Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on January 23, 2011.

The film was distributed in the United Kingdom and Canada by E1 Entertainment, and the film was released in 3D. Elton John and director Asbury presented 10 minutes of the film at the Cannes Film Festival.[6]

Starz Animation Toronto (which also made 9) produced all of the animation for the film, including the stereoscopic version.

In addition, this film reunites veteran British actors Maggie Smith and Michael Caine, from the 1978 Neil Simon comedy California Suite, in the roles of Lady Blueberry and Lord Redbrick, respectively.

Soundtrack
See also: Gnomeo & Juliet (soundtrack)The soundtrack was released on February 8, 2011, three days before the film's initial release. It features music by Elton John, Nelly Furtado, Kiki Dee, and selections from the score composed by Chris P. Bacon and James Newton Howard. The soundtrack was supposed to feature a much anticipated duet between John and Lady Gaga titled "Hello, Hello"; however, the version of the song featuring Lady Gaga only appears in the film, and on the soundtrack, the song features only John.[7]

Critical reaction
Gnomeo & Juliet received mixed reviews; review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 56% of professional critics gave positive reviews based on 117 reviews with an average rating of 5.6/10.[8] Its consensus states "While it has moments of inspiration, Gnomeo & Juliet is often too self-referential for its own good".[8] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a 53% rating based on 28 reviews on its review scale.[9]

[edit] Box-office
Gnomeo and Juliet has earned $99,967,670 in the North America and an $94,000,000 in other countries, as of October 23, 2011, for a worldwide total of $193,967,670.[2] Gnomeo & Juliet was ultimately a sleeper hit for Disney, outperforming the much higher-budgeted (and eventual box office bomb)[10] Mars Needs Moms the studio released a month following Gnomeo & Juliet. On its first weekend, the film had a worldwide opening of $30,680,933, finishing in second place behind Just Go with It ($35.8 million).[11] [12] However, on its second weekend —Presidents' Day weekend— it topped the worldwide box office (although not being in first place either in North America[13] or overseas[14] ) with $29,832,466, ahead of Unknown which ranked second ($26.4 million).

It opened in 2,994 theaters in North America on Friday, February 11, 2011, grossing $6.2 million on its first day and ranking third behind Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Just Go with It. It then finished the weekend with $25.4 million in third place.[15] However, it scored the largest opening weekend ever for an animated feature released during the winter period (both January and February). It also made the largest debut on record for a minor animated movie (i.e., one with little status, expectations and/or built-in audience), according to Box Office Mojo.[16] With a $99.97 million total it stands as the highest-grossing animated feature among those released in winter.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16">[17]

In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Malta, it topped the weekend box office by earning £2,945,627 ($4,716,248) on its opening. In total it has grossed $25,283,924, making the UK the only market, except the USA, where it grossed more than $10 million.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17">[18]

Home media
Gnomeo & Juliet was released on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD on May 24, 2011.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-IGN_18-0">[19] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Cinema_Blend_19-0">[20] The film was produced as three different packages: a 1-disc DVD, a 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, and a 3-disc Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD combo pack. The 3-disc package will also include access to a digital download of the film.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Theater_Mania_20-0">[21] Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the release will include the music video for Elton John and Nelly Furtado's version of John's "Crocodile Rock", as well as the extras "Elton Builds a Garden" and "Frog Talk" with Ashley Jenson.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-High-Def_Digest_21-0">[22] In addition, the Blu-ray version also has several deleted and alternate scenes, as well as a feature with Ozzy Osbourne called "The Fawn of Darkness".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Blu-ray.com_22-0">[23]