My Review: Gnomeo and Juliet

I'm kind of half and half with this movie. While I thought that some parts were really cute, there were just as many parts that I found rather odd. I liked the beginning where the little gnome was explaining that this was a story that we've heard a million times (its the Romeo and Juliet story...with gnomes,) I liked all of the voice over performances, and I thought that the little bunnies and the tiny gnomes were cute. Having said that, I'll talk about some of the things I thought were a little off. For starters, there were references to films like Brokeback Mountain and American Beauty, which are good movies, but I thought that they were weird choices for a kiddie movie. Also, some parts just had a really strange tone to them. Like, for instance, the ending. *Spoiler alert* Gnomeo and Juliet have just been attacked by a killer lawnmower and everyone thinks they're dead and are all sad, and then we hear rocks move and see a little hand emerge. Everyone is excited because they think it's Gnomeo emerging from the rubble, but it's the gnome in the Borat bathing suit instead and he pops out and says "Its alright, I'm okay," or something like that. I thought that this was a weird spot to try to put in some comic relief, and I ended up literally saying outloud, "what the hell?" So, of course Gnomeo and Juliet both ended up being fine and they get their happily ever after. No surprise there.
While I'm sure that the animators who worked on this film wouldn't appreciate this very much, I spent a majority of the movie trying to figure out the voice actors. I already knew that James McAvoy and Emily Blunt voiced the title characters, so they don't count, but I figured out quite a few of them. Ozzy Osbourne as the deer was the most obvious one, and so was Michael Caine as Juliet's father. I also figured out Stephen Merchant's voice right away as the gnome with the glasses who was trying to woo Juliet. The one that took me a bit was Jason Statham as Tybalt. For a second I thought it was either Ray Winstone or Vinnie Jones, but I eventually figured out that it was Statham. I was getting so annoyed though because I couldn't for the life of me figure out who did the voice of Shakespeare's statue. I knew that I knew that voice, but I could not put face to voice for some reason. It was driving me crazy and I never figured it out...until, of course, I looked it up in IMdB after the movie was over. It was Patrick Stewart!!! How could I not figure that out??? Besides maybe Ozzy, he has the most distinctive voice out of the bunch, and I'm usually really good at remembering voices. Also I couldn't figure out Maggie Smith as Gnomeo's mom, but that one didn't bother me as much. My review: 5/10