Sherlock Gnomes

Much like Romeo and Juliet, the famous detective Sherlock Homes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has seen many adaptations and reinterpretations over the decades since the character's creation. In this sense, reinterpreting him as a garden gnome seems equally inevitable, coming in the form of a sequel to the box office hit Gnomeo & Juliet, titled Sherlock Gnomes. Much like Gnomeo & Juliet, Sherlock Gnomes is a movie I had avoided seeing for the longest time because of negative reception and an advertising campaign that failed to impress me. After finally watching Gnomeo & Juliet, however, I decided I may as well give the sequel a watch to complete the experience, and while I did think it wasn’t quite as bad as I was expecting, it was still a major step down by comparison.

Following the events of the first movie, the Miss Montague and Mr. Capulet have moved to a new home in London. After being placed in the garden, and leadership duties passed on to Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt), the gnomes believe the garden in need of some freshening up, though Juliet is more focused on that than her relationship with Gnomeo. Following a failed romantic gesture on Gnomeo’s end that involves leaving the garden, he and Juliet return to find the other gnomes missing, with Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and Dr. Gnome Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on the case with the belief that Gnomes’ nemesis Moriarty is behind it.

Within a vacuum of itself, the plot works decently on its own. It even features a twist that, while a bit too heavily telegraphed, is actually rather clever for a Sherlock Holmes story, even if it doesn’t wholly commit to the idea. In the context of Gnomeo & Juliet, however, it starts to fall apart the more you think about it. There is an interesting idea with conveying the film’s message by having parallel arcs with the relationship between Gnomes and Watson and that of Gnomeo and Juliet, but the latter feels forced when taking the events of the first film into account. On that note, there appear to have been some romances that were forgotten from the end of the first movie, which feels jarring when watching the two close together; in Gnomeo & Juliet, Nanette ended up with Paris and Benny paired up with an unnamed doll, but Sherlock Gnomes features a subplot where Benny hooks up with Nanette, with the previous romances not acknowledged in any way. There’s also a sequence with the character Irene that feels pointless since it not only reestablishes what was already shown about Gnomes’ character, but also feels like it was in there just to give Mary J. Blige an excuse to sing, impacting the pacing and taking away from the feeling of urgency.

 

Sherlock's (Johnny Depp) strained relationship with Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor)
shows itself during their investigation.

One thing I will give the film credit for is that it is internally consistent with the previous film’s Toy Story logic with the gnomes and other inanimate objects. Even then, the introduction of the Sherlock Holmes elements, while done in a similarly clever fashion to the Shakespeare references, is done in a way that feels forced and stretches the believability of the original premise. I also question how a human newscaster knows about Sherlock Gnomes' existence, since that goes against the otherwise consistent rules. One might even go so far as to say that this film might have worked out better if it was a story completely divorced from Gnomeo & Juliet, even if it still took place in the same universe.

Although minor, it's also worth mentioning that this film perpetuates a misunderstanding of the the famous Romeo and Juliet line "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" In many quotations, including here, "wherefore" is stated as though asking where Romeo's physical location is, when in actuality, it's a fancy way of asking "why," as in "why did you have to be Romeo?" (or, literally, "Why are you Romeo?").

On the flip side, the animation is actually pretty solid. While maintaining the first film’s animation style, even including the different frame rates between humans and gnomes, there are also some scenes that use a different style entirely. I particularly liked certain sequences in which Sherlock’s inner thoughts are represented with very impressive traditional animation. I will also admit that Moriarity’s animations in particular are also highly expressive, fitting in with Jamie Demetriou’s equally hammy performance. While the other performances were still good, including from the returning actors, I liked Johnny Depp as Sherlock Gnomes, in part because he displays an impressive vocal range to the point I forget he’s the one voicing the character.

 

The 2D segments are a highlight.

As with the previous film, the soundtrack makes use of Elton John’s catalog, since Rocket Films is one of the production companies. As someone who has some familiarity with his music, I thought it was interesting how some songs was adapted to a film score, including a returning heavy use of the tune from “Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting” during action scenes, and I was even able to pick up on some references made to his work throughout. The Mary J. Blige song, “Stronger Than I Ever Was,” isn’t bad, but as stated previously, it felt superfluous to the plot and the sequence it belonged to felt like padding.

 

Elton John's gnome-sona also returns.

Sherlock Gnomes has some interesting ideas, but overall it’s not quite as good as Gnomeo & Juliet, mostly on a storytelling level. Fans of the Sherlock Holmes stories and/or Elton John’s music may find something to like here, but even then it’s more difficult to recommend than its predecessor. It is worth watching once for the traditionally-animated sequences, but even that might not be enough for most.