A rainy half term holiday and a boisterous six year old. Not a good match. So we trekked off to the cinema talking about the relative merits of red and blue – the advertising for this movie has been pervasive, as he knew immediately that we were going to see this film.
Whilst waiting for our train he spied a South Eastern rail booklet with, yes you’ve guessed it, gnomes on the front. It’s actually quite a handy document as it lists lots of central London attractions. We identified enough potential outings to keep us going until his teenage years.
Anyway, we munched on popcorn (he insisted on salty which meant that he did most of the munching) and sported our 3D specs while we watched the adverts and tried to ignore the noise and fuss made by the mum with several children sitting near us who managed to lose their 3D specs, their chocolate and my patience.
He giggled at the trailer for King Fu Panda 2. Don’t think I can take much more of Jack Black though. Horrid Henry looks like it would fit the bill. I will definitely go along to Mars needs Mums as well as Rio (just loved those parrots – and he was well amused).
So the film started and did not disappoint. I was pleased to see the references to Mr Shakespeare – although not too much to deter my small person. I had worried that it might not contain enough action to capture his imagination but the early red versus blue lawnmower race to the strains of “Saturday night’s alright for fighting” dispelled that fear. Our heroine Juliet did some impressive ninja moves so no worries about traditional boy-girl typecasting and I loved her friend the frog Nanette.
My favourite scene was when Benny (Matt Lucas) is on the “banana” laptop dancing with the unmistakeable “Benny and Jets” playing in the background. Nice moves. And the young man was very excited whenever the monster lawnmower – the Terrafirminato (voice over by Hulk Hogan) - appeared. My favourite character was the pink plastic flamingo Featherstone (Jim Cummings) – although I really thought this was a Robin Williams special. It was good to hear “Don’t go breaking my heart” too after all these years - The Elton John music (and comic references) throughout the film gave the adults an additional dimension to enjoy.
It was great to hear the voice of Michael Cain in the role of Juliet’s father – very credible and well cast. I giggled at the warring neighbours – particularly with the original Mr Grumpy, Richard Wilson, as the head of the Capulets.
Luckily there is a happy ending – I was bracing myself for much upset (on the part of the six year old not mine you understand) if it followed the original plot. And the moral of the story being that divisions based on colour are not a good idea was not lost – although when you visit the web site (which is pretty good with nice graphics, activities (Design your own gnome) and games) you are asked to join red or blue.
