Gnomes are going missing around London. Sherlock Gnomes, a private detective gnome, suspects it’s none other than the pie mascot, Moriarty. Meanwhile, Gnomeo and Juliet move to London along with their friends and family. Their parents make them the leaders of the gnomes. Juliet feels it is a huge responsibility to take on. She feels it is more important than her’s and Gnomeo’s love at the moment. Gnomeo is trying to show how much Juliet means to him, but she is too busy trying to make their new garden look nice. All of Gnomeo and Juliet’s friends have vanished. They run into Sherlock Gnomes and his assistant, who he does not treat with much respect, Watson. Together Sherlock Gnomes, Watson, Juliet and Gnomeo do what they can to find the missing gnomes.
Blaine: Before “Gnomeo & Juliet” was released, the producers talked about making another film because they thought garden gnomes were lovable and funny. Then “Gnomeo & Juliet” was released and became a success with audiences and they decided to proceed with a sequel. Disney owned the rights to “Gnomeo & Juliet” and they weren’t interested in making another movie, so the producers looked for another studio that would finance the sequel and it took a while to find one that would say yes. Finally after five years, Paramount Pictures decided to buy the rights to the sequel. “Gnomeo & Juliet” was a love story between two garden gnomes who fall in love with each other. Problem is their love is forbidden because the gardens they come from have been enemies for a while.
The producers wanted to bring the characters from “Gnomeo & Juliet” back for the sequel, but they didn’t want the story to focus on their love the whole time. They wanted it to be an adventure movie and have the characters go around all of England because the first movie just took place in backyard gardens. Sherlock Holmes is a very popular character that everyone knows of and they decided to have this adventure be like a Sherlock Holmes case led by a garden gnome that is supposed to be Sherlock Holmes. John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) was hired to direct “Sherlock Gnomes” because he is funny and a creative person. John has always loved the character, Sherlock Holmes, so to direct a movie with a Sherlock Holmes character and adventure felt very exciting to him. The producers and John wanted “Sherlock Gnomes” to be a fun movie for the audience to watch. It’s a little slow in the beginning, but as the movie goes on the adventure becomes something fun to watch.
Emily Blunt was interested in doing the voice of Juliet again because she loves the character so much and she loved the idea of “Sherlock Gnomes” being an adventure movie and exploring England. Emily thinks voice work is one of the easiest jobs because you can show up to a recording booth not caring how you look because all it requires is your voice. She said she could show up in her pajamas if she wanted to. But doing voice work is also one of the loneliest jobs because you don’t have another actor in the recording booth with you to act with. All the actors would be in a different recording booth. James McAvoy was ok with being in “Sherlock Gnomes” and doing the voice of Gnomeo again because he said it’s nice to do something for the kids once in a while. In 2015, James McAvoy was starting to think “Sherlock Gnomes” was never going to be made because the producers were still looking for a new studio that would be interested in it. That was around the time Johnny Depp was hired to do the voice of Sherlock Gnomes. Elton John is one of the producers and it was his idea to cast Johnny Depp. Elton went to Johnny Depp asking if he would be interested in being apart the project. Johnny said yes to Elton because he has admired him for years. Johnny didn’t expect the script to make him laugh out loud while reading it. One of the things Johnny Depp and John Stevenson wanted to do with the character was bring the sprit of Sherlock Holmes into him. Johnny does a wonderful voice performance as Sherlock Gnomes. He puts so much into his voice and says his lines as good as Sherlock himself. It was easy for John Stevenson to direct an ensemble like this. He would tell the actors what to do and they would listen and do what they could to make him happy.
“Sherlock Gnomes” is about how important team work is. Watson, voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor, is a gnome who works with Sherlock in saving gnomes, yet he doesn’t get credit for helping save them and he is treated like a sidekick. All Sherlock does is focus on his work rather than caring for Watson. Meanwhile, Gnomeo is trying to show Juliet how much she means to him, but she is too focussed on work now that both her and Gnomeo have been put in charge of the gnomes. So two different relationships are going through the same thing. It isn’t till Juliet spends time with Sherlock that she realizes she has been acting like him.
Watson falls off the top of a building, you hear a cracking noise after he falls and you’re supposed to think he is dead, but I never believed he was. I figured he would show up sooner or later. And then when he shows up he is revealed to be the bad guy who has taken the gnomes, left clues for Sherlock and is planning to smash the Gnomes. That I didn’t believe either, even though the reason why Watson would turn bad would be a good one...but still. I never thought he was dead or the bad guy because he’s Watson and he is meant to do good just like he always has in the “Sherlock Holmes” books, TV shows and movies. Plus you can’t have Sherlock without Watson. Watson was never planning to smash the gnomes, I guess he just wanted to teach Sherlock a lesson. Sherlock does realize that friendship and partnership are what matter most. Sherlock also treats Watson as an equal now and Watson gets credit for being a hero after saving the gnomes from being smashed. Sherlock even saves Watson’s life when Moriarty tries to put an end to his life. Watson and the hero characters are on top of the bridge and Sherlock jumps and pushes Moriarty down and Sherlock is going down with him. It’ actually something that happens in the “Sherlock Holmes” books. “Sherlock Holmes” creator Arthur Conan Doyle finished his book series with Sherlock Holmes pulling Moriarty down a water fall. But because “Sherlock Gnomes” is a movie that kids will be seeing it would probably hurt them to see one the good guys end his life with a sacrifice. I could hear a little girl gasping when Watson was believed to have fallen to his death. Sherlock has always cared for Watson deep down, but it was so deep before that he didn’t realize it. Juliet made Sherlock realize that and now Sherlock and Watson are buddies again. “Sherlock Gnomes” is a awesome movie to watch and my thanks go to everyone who made it fun and adventurous.
My rating on “Sherlock Gnomes” is five out of five stars.
