Sherlock Gnomes

When it comes to animated family movies, there's a noticeable difference between that first most treasured entry and it's sequel whenever there's a change in studios and possibly the animation department. The course many of these go through typically is that the first starts with making a good impression on the big screen to the point where it doesn't need a sequel and then a period of time later an unnecessary adventure arrives that ignores the progress from before in favor of something that feels less than half effort as well as recycled (notable example being most of the Disney direct-to-DVD sequels). This brings us to Sherlock Gnomes, the continuation of Gnomeo & Juliet directed by John Stevenson (director of Kung Fu Panda) and written by Ben Zazove (writer of Tooth Fairy 2). At the time of when I saw the bad marketing campaign for it, I haven't seen the 2011 predecessor. When this 2018 followup went into its theatrical run, it was bashed critically and failed financially. I watched both films to see where it got its start before checking out this entry and after viewing it, I'm pretty agitated with how recycled, unnecessary, and awful this 2018 film actually is.

Thoughts on Gnomeo & Juliet (2011): Taking place in the backyard of feuding elderly neighbors Miss Capulet and Mr Montague, our titular leading gnomes from opposing gardens meet and fall in love. If you read or have seen any adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, you know how most of the events here hold up in terms of structure. With most of the screen time being limited to the opposing households, you can see the effort put by the animators to make these figures actually look and have the actual physicality of those objects. The chemistry between the duo is pretty serviceable given their demographic and the comedic tone it's aiming for. There's one annoying character here that can get somewhat grating and that's Nanette (Juliet's frog best friend), which is mostly on the writing as the actress Ashley Jensen is quite strong in her own right and was just doing her job (best use of her talent was in Arthur Christmas as Bryony if you want some proof). It's self-aware to the point where there's a statue of William Shakespeare that appears in the third act (played by Patrick Stewart) who makes some amusing commentary. Some jokes work and there are some expected puns that are okay (have subtitles on to see them). Overall while it's not a bad flick, it's charm and effort almost lead it to being considered good though the writing along with some cliches hold it back to being average. ⭑⭑⭑

Plot: The story follows the group from the prequel moves to London and get caught up in a kidnapping scheme that leads our titular duo to helping the figurine versions of Sherlock and Watson travel throughout the city to solve the mystery (or at least that's the main plot). If you've seen any Sherlock Holmes related media (which is public domain), it's easy to predict the events here. Everything that goes on here is sort of the movie that you would have thought that the first one would have been. It feels like the writer went on a drinking bender one night and realized he wrote in a bunch of things that he didn't intend but left it in there after forgetting to fix it in post (or just figured his talent would be enough since, if IMDB is to be believed at this point, he only wrote the Tooth Fairy 2). It fails to act as a decent followup where it pretends the charm from before never existed and treats its romantic couple as secondary characters.

It wants to preach a message treating your partner with respect but with the clutter of cartoon mischief going on, it's hard to keep track what this project actually cares about. It's difficult to find investment anywhere the story is jumping between too many areas and subplots  It's very clumsy in attempting to bring in a "twist villain" to where it can be telegraphed in the beginning. There's also an added romance subplot that's forgettable and forced that just drags due to the dull screenplay the actors are putting up with. In fact, all of the figurine characters all feel rubbery and plastic with all of the exaggerated action stunts done here. These additions include a vexed ex-girlfriend of Sherlock (voiced by Mary J Blige) who has a dance sequence, bland gargoyles henchmen, and stereotypical Chinese figurines/salt shakers whose mannerisms and dialog are racist.

Characters: The leads to focus on are Gnomeo (James McAvoy), Juliet (Emily Blunt), and Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp). Gnomeo is Juliet's husband who feels ignored by his wife when both of them are given leadership over the new garden and wants bring back the spark in their romance. James is a team player here as he shows up and does his job, no mattering how whiny his role is written. Juliet is Gnomeo's wife who's being pestered by her husband when she takes on new responsibilities and helps Sherlock look for their missing group. Emily gives a somewhat dried disinterested performance and considering the material she's given, it's easy to see why.

Sherlock is the selfish egocentric workaholic detective who's on a mission to find missing ornaments from his rival Moriarty. Johnny Depp is another actor here who's sleepwalking his way to get that paycheck (I can't believe that it took an animated family feature to talk about this celebrity for the first time here and no Fantastic Beasts, where he makes a cameo at the end doesn't count). Dishonorable mention goes to Nanette (Ashley Jenson) and Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou) with the former being more irritating than she was before with the downgrade in the script (despite having even less screen time than before) while the latter gives an unenthusiastic performance that feels standard and doesn't convey a fun sadistic nature that would expected from a rival.

Overall Consensus: Sherlock Gnomes wastes any potential to be competent through too many subplots, lack of investment in its central characters, an awful screenplay, dull acting, and disregarding the charm from its predecessor. ⭑3/4 Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes PG

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You don't mind pun filled jokes. You like watching bad family flicks.

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You are annoyed pun filled jokes. You hate bad family flicks. You liked Gnomeo & Juliet and don't think it needed a continuation. You hate Elvis's music being remixed in projects his film company Rocket Pictures co-produces.