Whoa... it sounded stupid enough from the title but... i saw michael caine's name in the cast so i gave the trailer a watch. W..T...F? i didn't laugh once; the jokes seem really cheap and pretty juvenile, and i can't understand how they got so many talented people to be in this.
I don't even like the original play that much, but this seems like a disgrace to Shakespeare.
Sora sees dead people!
I agree. I really want to have faith because this is such a great cast. But, when I saw the trailer, I was completely let down.
This movie has me quite befuddled. Why, why, why would these talented people sign up for this? What am I missing?
Draco Malfoy (about Hermione): One time she punched me in the face. It was AWESOME.
This looks freakin awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Oh, and also, Im wretchedly in Love with You."
the jokes seem really cheap and pretty juvenile
Disney movies are kid's movies, and yet I know lots of adults who love them dearly.
First of all, just beacuse something is made for kids doesn't mean you can put zero effort into it and get away with it.
Secondly, a good kid's movie can be enjoyed just as much by adults because of how good it is. Look at something like 'Batman The Animated Series'. This was a show made for kids, but the creators treated it seriously and made it just as enjoyable for adults, to the point that one of the episodes has an award for it's writing.
And thirdly, when making a movie for kids, you need it to be something great. Kids movies is one of the most popular genres of film and with bad reason: people think they're easy to make
There are too many movies made for kids for me to count, but a lot of them are terrible. You need a movie that can stand out and be remembered for being something special. Either something especially bad, or especially good, but you need it to be special regardless.
THAT is why people get so defensive about kid's movies and why people hate movies like this so much. I've not even seen it, but I'm simply answering your wonderment about adults complaining about kid's movies.
Interesting... I just read this whole thread, which was mostly posted 2-3 years ago, and here is the summary:
1) 95% of everyone who said something negative were basing their assessments solely on the trailer.
2) 95% of people who actuall saw the movie gave it a positive review.
This says a LOT!!!
This fits pefectly with my own experience. I thought the trailers looked dumb (but only kind of dumb - I think those calling it 'awful' or 'trash' are falling into the usual pitfall of online discussions of a tendency toward hyperbole). But being a parent, I ended up seeing it and found it way better than expected.
Also, my positive reaction was not based on rationalizing it as "Yeah so the jokes are dumb but it's a kids' movie, and kids like dumb jokes." It was almost exactly the oppsite: parents were laughing at a lot of the puns and clever references to Shakespeare that were going right over the kids' heads. Still, the kids enjoyed the colorful fun of the movie. More importantly, parents got a huge kick out of the old familiar Elton John songs, which the kids enjoyed but those songs did not have the same nostalgic significance for them.
Overall, the film is a delight, and one of the few movies I've enjoyed rewatching, out of dozens of kids' movies I've had to sit through in the past decade of parenthood. I think the real reasons it was not a bigger hit are that its trailers did not do it justice and that it did not come from the big movie machines of Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks.
What is amazing is what movies some of the critics here seem to think are better than this one, and what is really shocking is that anyone claims the advantages of those other movies lie in their 'originality'. Seriously, all those Disney princess movies are based on fairy tales, so not at all original. Sure, Disney did a good job with Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty & the Beast, and Mulan, but I hate what they did with Sleeping Beauty and The Princess & the Frog. Tangled was cute but only ok. Someone else here has also rightly pointed out the unoriginality of many Pixar classics, much as I like most Pixar movies. I could do without Ratatouille, and actually fell asleep during Cars, which was a very cliche plot, used, as the other commenter noted, in 'Doc Hollywood', as well as other movies & shows, e.g. 'Northern Exposure'.
And I really, really don't get anyone holding up 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' as an example of a better and/or more original kids' movie than 'Gnomeo & Juliet'. I found 'Cloudy' to be only ok, mostly because they departed so much from the original book concept, of a world completely different from our own, where weather has always been food-based, and instead made it just an ordinary town where it was a temporary disaster, brought on by the standard main character who starts out an unappreciated screw-up and ends up being the local hero (which was done much better in 'How to Train Your Dragon'). In other words, they pretty much made 'Cloudy' just like every other kids' movie, not original at all!
This is the kind of movie that I half-expected my mom to say looked kinda cute, but even she said it looked lame.
sharelooks like a copy at pixar, when pixar makes movies about: toys, cars, robots, superheroes, but since dreamworks can only make something with gnomes and cant even find a good story they rip off romeo and juliet. which is already been remade again and again, does not look very good, wont take my kids to that, especially at that costly movie theater down the street.
shareIt's not Dreamworks, either. It's Starz Animation and it's being distributed by Touchstone.
shareThe OP doesn't need to say 'in my opinion' because it IS awful. It's them stretching so far to try and find some thing 'new and fresh' by combining two crazy unexpected elements. You can literally see the meetings they went through to try and come up with this concept.
"What do we do for our next cash cow movie that can also have simple toys to make for it that kids will want?"
"Know what isn't on the market too much these days? Gnomes. Simple, adorable, put em on your lawn, give em to your kids (takes a puff off cigar) its just a good idea. What do we do though, we can't just make a movie 'bout gnomes for pete sakes"
"I got it, how about Romeo and Juliet? We haven't had one of those forbidden love stories for a while now (pppffppf) minus AVATAR but who saw that?"
"Not me!"
"Anyhow. Yeah. Lets call it 'Gnomeo and Juliet'. I'll be great. Lets start production."
I'll bring the BEARDS.share
^ Good but this is how the pitch REALLY went.
"Sir, let's make a movie that has no creative value whatsoever."
"Mmm. Is it educational?"
"No."
"Is it entertaining?"
"Not really."
"Is it suited for not pandering down to our children?"
"It panders *and* insults."
"Will we make money?"
"By the boatloads."
"Let's put'er through production!"
GNOMEO AND JULIET is a good movie
shareIt actually doesn't look that bad. Don't really get all the negative reactions. There were more movies which people judged by looking at the trailer. I thought 'Cloudy with a chance of meatballs' would be awful. But the movie had me pleasently surprised
shareDifference between Cloudy and this is that Cloudy, while based off of a book, came off as an original story. With this, anyone who's anyone knows Romeo and Juliet, so the idea of using the story to create an animated film about garden gnomes would leave a fair amount of people scratching their heads, and it doesn't help that the trailer, despite some mildly amusing moments, presents it as a Toy Story knock-off with some dated pop culture references.
shareAlright, you've got me there. I, too, thought Cloudy would be drivel-poop, but it was actually pretty good. Maybe this, too, is a movie that just LOOKS awful. And it does look awful.
shareIt was a DELIGHTFUL DARLING MOVIE! What a bunch of whiny hateful jerks to criticize this movie and SOME of you trashed it based on the trailer only?? TRULY STUPID PEOPLE!
shareHey fanboy, Dreamworks had nothing to do with this film, so don't let that be the reason why you hate it. "The director of Shrek 2" is entitled to do projects other than Dreamworks. Given Disney's passionate committment to smearing anything associated with Dreamworks, I'm not sure why Touchstone pointed it out in their own trailor, but maybe it was their way of hedging their bets. I don't know.
As far as that "original" Pixar studio, it copied "Doc Hollywood" with "Cars." Pixar copied "The Brave Little Toaster" with "Toy Story 3." It apparently took them until 2004 to decide to remake a movie that came out in 1987. I haven't seen "Watchmen", but I've been told that the book, which came out in 1999 is very similar to "The Incredibles", which came out in 2004.
>does not look very good, wont take my kids to that,
You were so wrong, my kids loved it.
its technically not Romeo and Juliet (its Gnomeo), but its does pay homage to the bard.
--------------------------
RIGOLETTO: I'm denied that common human right, to weep.
The trailer screams "STAY AWAY ! STAY AWAY ! "
WARNING!
Objects under T-shirt are larger than they appear!
I've made a deal with my friend. If both Gnomeo and Juliet kill themselves in the end of this movie, then I won't demand my money back. If they both live? Don't want. I enjoy watching two young people kill themselves over someone they've just met, damn it, and if they're going to do it with garden gnomes, they better be suicidal too. And even though this entire post may have sounded sarcastic, it is not. I seriously want these garden gnomes to die.
shareIf they died it would be pg-13.
I'll bring the BEARDS.share
What's funny is that this started out as a film made by the Disney Animation Studios... I hear from people I know who work/worked at the studio that it was a horrible movie then too. Which is why John L shelved it. It was never a good project to begin with.
-----
Local fighter for animator's rights.
"An animator is an actor with a pencil."
Characters can die in PG films.
"You've shown your quality sir. The very highest."
Are you serious, OP? I wouldn't call it genius, and it doesn't seem to have taken full advantage of Disney's filmmaking arsenal, but it certainly doesn't seem like the worst either. I was watching Tangled recently and they had preview trailers for Mars Needs Mums, Rio and this. Honestly, this looks way better than the other two. The others really looked ridiculously stupid and boring. What made me sigh was that some kid actually went "I want to see that!" for both those movies. No wonder bad ideas sell - kids completely buy them. They can hardly tell the difference.
Anyway this is only meant to be a funny and different reinterpretation. Certainly not an adaptation (I hope). I hardly think the reputation of Shakespeare's works would be irrevocably damaged because of this. Having said that, I think one would be better off going in with expectations of a good quality Disney movie, and not a Shakespeare adaptation. I don't think that was what they were aiming for.
I only do it with superheroes.
Screen_Queen, your posts are very balanced and astute...a rarity on these boards.
My general thought is to see a movie before judging it...and even then it's only my opinion as to what I think of it.
I'm amazed at the number of posts that dismiss movies based on a 1-minute trailer comprised of out-of-context images. I can't count the number of times I've seen a trailer that didn't interest me, then saw the film and LOVED it...and vise versa.
And still, all of the above is only my opinion.
Now watch, something I wrote here will infuriate someone.
I'll say this. I've watched all the clips that have been posted. The humor shows that its primarily directed at kids. I've read a couple interviews that pretty much say the same, so there's no reason for us adults to be mad at the film. I'm not mad at it, it's just not my kind of film. However, the sound of the gnomes walking on a hard surface is a rather clever technical aspect.
If there's a movie for us to be mad at, which I myself am mad at, it's that damn Justin Bieber movie.
What bugs me, though, is when people flaunt certain movies like they're the second coming of Christ when they don't look all that. That usually drives my interest down when it wasn't much to begin with.
My prediction for Feb 11th Weekend (I won't even try to guess the $, just the order):
1: Justin Bieber Never Say Never
2: Just Go With It
3: Gnomeo and Juliet
4: The Eagle
It's a pretty good horse race, though, because almost all demographics are represented...plus February is a very unpredictable month.
Fun Fun Fun! I love movies!!!
I'm still very skeptical about Justin Bieber's prospects. There's certainly a rabid fanbase, but I don't know if it's that big to constitute such a massive opening. Frankly, his album sales aren't as impressive as one would think. My World 2.0 has only gone 2x platinum by the start of this year. Miley Cyrus' album Meet Miley Cyrus went 3x platinum by the time of her concert documentary's release. Her movie opened around 30M. Using that as a measurement, Bieber would open around 20M.
Considering Gnomeo's not very strong marketing campaign, but the fact that it looks better than Alpha & Omega, that should open in the teens. Then Just Go With It would open like any Sandler film, which is mid-to-high 30s or low 40s, and then go on to be February's highest grossing film. And even if Just Go With It opens at number 2 behind Bieber, it would still win the month since Bieber will drop like a rock after opening weekend.
Well, you could be 100% correct ASFan213, but if this WERE indeed a horse race, I'd be BOXING that Superfecta lineup, because the order might suprise even the most seasoned studio distribution dept.!
I think Feb. 11th will be a fascinating weekend.
I go on twitter and all these "Beliebers" keep talking trash about the other movies opening against Justin Bieber, acting like Bieber is sure to win the weekend. I bet people said the same thing about Jonas Brothers. Even Michael Jackson's flick, though it made number one, a lot of people expected like a 50M weekend. Everyone overestimates these concert docs, and I doubt this will be much different from the rest, despite the rabidness of the fans. The numbers are more important than the rabidness.
shareThank you, BuddyPony. I could easily say the same about your post. I honestly thought my comment would incense some people as well, and I was expecting that much from your reply, but I'm glad you came back with a reasonable post. This too is a rarity.
I only do it with superheroes.
I do so agree with BuddyPony - it's totally unrealstic to comment on a whole movie just from trailers. Ok if watching the trailer puts you off seeing the actual fim, that's fine, although as BuddyPony also points out many trailers give a false impression of the actual movie. But to then write a rant about how rubbish the film is based on just the trailer isn't really helpful to anyone, is it?
One persons rubbish is someone elses gold and it's the same with films or music etc etc. The most anyone can really say based on a trailer is "I don't think it's something I will like" or "I think I want to see that".
Not only is such a comment more honest but it takes up a lot less space too!!
I, for one, will watch it before I make up my mind.
I will say I dislike the groan-worthy puns in the ads. Reminds me of Shrek 4's ad puns.
The first TV spot I saw was like "It's gnew! It's gnuts! It's Gnomeo!" And they pronounced the 'g' with those words. If that's not groan-worthy, I don't know what is.
I'm the opposite, I looked at the cheap looking writing and the bad TV advert and thought, cheap. But I've just watched an extended trailer on youtube and I think it actually looks pretty good. Will go watch it and see.
shareLooks like gar-bajh.
bushtony and his mother suffer from Congential Stupidtiy and they didn't see it coming.