Written by: Noa Climor
On February 11th, 2011, the world was introduced to yet another rendition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which I vividly recall watching at our local movie theater with my mom. But it was not just another play or movie with the same exact script; this was a special moment in cinema where the world’s greatest minds collaborated on a truly impeccable film.
Gnomeo & Juliet follows the garden gnomes and lawn ornaments in the yards of Miss Montague and Mr. Capulet, who despise each other so extremely that neither of them moved out; they simply split their house down the middle and maintained their hatred with spiteful daily interactions.
The Montague Garden gnomes are all in blue, while the Capulet gnomes are in red. Their owners’ feud extends to them and thus begins the tale of Romeo and Juliet — or to be exact, Gnomeo and Juliet. Even after years of not having seen the film, I still defend its portrayal of Shakespeare’s work. There are hundreds of Romeo and Juliet adaptations, and while many can argue that this is overly simplistic and inaccurate, it has successfully served its purpose of introducing children to the play and aids them in expanding their world view and literary analysis skills.
Gnomeo and Juliet’s purpose is not to be the most accurate adaptation of Shakespeare but rather to act as a bridge for children to explore a world that seems unattainable and overly complex. For the movie to be appropriate for children. Romeo and Juliet’s suicides have been removed and reworked. While this is an incredibly essential part of the play, as it symbolizes their age as well as the absurdity of the feud, it would not teach a young kid anything important, and therefore, the message would be meaningless.
The way the movie approached the subject of death was not to ignore it completely but rather reword the concept and insert scenes that make sense to a younger audience. Gnomeo and Juliet both have parents who were “smashed,” which clues the audience into the fact that unlike many children’s movies, characters here can truly be permanently gone. The breaking of the gnomes translates to the characters dying, and even if a child does not comprehend this as death, they are introduced to the concept of permeance and lack thereof. These are characters that are known to the audience as important, but we don’t get to see them at all. Rather, their absence and knowledge of why they are missing inserts a certain danger and motive to the story.
The movie starts off on a stage and makes it clear that the audience is watching. A gnome enters, and goes:
“The story you are about to see has been told before. A lot. And now we are going to tell it again, but it’s different. It’s about two star-crossed lovers kept apart by a big feud. No one knows how this feud started, but it’s all quite entertaining. Unfortunately, before we begin, there is a rather long boring prologue which I will read to you now.” (Gnomeo and Juliet, 1:49)
The gnome does begin the monologue, and no words are changed, but instead of allowing him to continue, he gets thrown off the stage by a trap door. This does not indicate that there is no importance to the prologue, but rather that the movie understands that the true purpose here is to make this as digestible and accessible as possible for the intended audience. The studio, writers, and animators all understood the importance of setting up a movie to be enjoyed by children and inserted the jokes at the beginning of it to replace the long, informational prologue.
By removing the prologue, the tragedy is made both less obvious and less of an essential point to the story. There could be arguments made that Romeo and Juliet must end in tragedy, but the simplicity of the film is how audiences are drawn in. For example, Broadway put up a production of Romeo and Juliet starring actors Kit Connor (Romeo) and Rachel Zegler (Juliet) and offered a modern setting to combat the dialogue. The play understood one important aspect that many miss; Romeo and Juliet are both extremely young, and by taking away from their age we remove their true characteristics and personalities. Even the movie made in 1966 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Clare Danes as Juliet focuses on their age and on bringing in a modern setting to the tale. Gnomeo and Juliet makes it clear that the audience is understood and welcomed by the show, and that their twist on the play is nothing new, but rather, a different and more unique approach.
The authenticity of the story has been brought into question, especially because neither Gnomeo nor Juliet die at the end of the movie. Instead, they are able to live happily ever after. But instead of thinking about how the new ending takes away from the story, one must focus on how this was presented in the first place. From the very beginning, it was clear that the tragedy will differ from the original work and include a more family friendly alternative, and when the purpose of something is to draw families in, the original ending of Romeo and Juliet might do the complete opposite. What it does correctly is make it entertaining and captivating to the kids watching. It including music (the movie is produced by Sir Elton John) and dances and keeps all of the original characters and the way that they speak. Those who enjoyed watching it while they were younger will remember having it presented in an accessible format and are more likely to enjoy reading Shakespeare in the future.
Featured Image Caption: The finest gnomes in all the land, Gnomeo and Juliet.
