SHERLOCK GNOMES (2018)
Since anyone reading this is going to be a Holmes movie completist, the question you’re all asking isn’t “should I go and see Sherlock Gnomes?” but “how much pain will I be in while watching Sherlock Gnomes?” The good news is: not that much. In fact, you could argue that this kid-friendly comedy take on the Great Detective is closer to the spirit of Doyle than most 21st century big and small screen takes on the Canon—even if it also hinges on that crack in the relationship between the genius and his underappreciated best friend that has become the crux of the drama in so many Holmes movies since The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. It’s also an entry in the recent renaissance of British-made family films, which has yielded treasures like the films of Nick Park and the recent Paddington movies… An animated follow-up to Gnomeo and Juliet, Sherlock Gnomes isn’t quite in that league, but it’s the best ’toon Holmes spinoff since Basil the Great Mouse Detective and is studded with easter eggs for Sherlockians (from the Wisteria Lodge flower shop to a cow-shaped bird-feeder called Mrs Udderson). Animation fans will like throwaway products homaging Ray Harryhausen and Karel Zeman (homaged in a soft drink called Zeman and Lime).
It opens with gnomes arguing over which saga is going to get a make-over to follow the treatment meted to Gnomeo and Juliet in the earlier film, and a rapid-fire series of groaner gags proposing Game of Gnomes, The Twilight Gnome, etc. before we settle into a world where garden gnomes (kitsch ornaments which are the UK equivalent of pink flamingos) and other decorative figures are alive whenever humans aren’t looking at them, and Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) are moved to a scrubby London garden with their tribe of supporting players (voiced by the likes of Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Matt Lucas, Ozzie Osborne, and Stephen Merchant) and get kidnapped. In a prologue, Sherlock (Johnny Depp)—wearing something much closer to the traditional tweed and deerstalker get-up and with a proper beaky profile, albeit with a slight gnomy point to the hat and a chin-beard—and his dumpy, yet dextrous sidekick Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor, an inspired casting choice)—who seems to have borrowed Daredevil’s gadget-packed cane—have a final confrontation with Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou), an evil plastic pie mascot, that seems to be the peak of the detective’s career as savior of London’s embattled gnomes.
Then, the kidnappings start—carried out, as it happens, by gargoyles named after Ron and Reg Kray (Dexter Fletcher, Javone Prince)—and Sherlock is teased by clues that point to his arch-nemesis having returned from the grave (if looked at a certain way) and lead him back to the sites of his greatest cases (which are barely sketched in). The A plot—the most rote aspect of the film, and typical of a sequel’s need to pick at the scab of the happy ending of the first film—involves Gnomeo sulking because his more competent girlfriend has taken charge of the garden, and Juliet realizing she’s being unfair when she sees how Sherlock takes Watson for granted and charges around giving orders and quoting her own dialogue back to her. There’s even room for a tiny, serious moment that shows off just how good animated acting can be as Sherlock rattles off a speech about emotion being a handicap in his mission only to show by his subtle expression how he really feels when Juliet clumps off annoyed with him.
At one point, Sherlock’s nemesis describes his masterpiece as “the Sistine Chapel of evil plans”—and is annoyed that the heroes have “drawn a cartoon cat on it”—and the film does play fair as a mystery with an intricate storyline that has clues, solutions, several twists and a nice big peril at the end (set around Tower Bridge) that can be averted only by all the heroes doing something spectacular at the same time. The suburban world of Gnomeo and Juliet was mostly focused on old-fashioned garden tat—including the various rude novelty gnomes added to the traditional toadstool-sitting fisherfolk in recent years—but this expands to show new types of representative figure—including some priceless business with Chinese cats and a trip to a doll museum where a wasp-waisted, highly articulated Irene Adler (Mary J. Blige) gets to sing about her frustrations with Sherlock. Yes, it’s a musical too—the film was produced by Elton John and David Furnish, and is soundtracked with cleverly-adapted snippets of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin back catalogue that somehow fit in perfectly with the spirit of the thing. Directed by John Stevenson, who has worked on the Muppet franchise and in various capacities on things like Count Duckula and Felix the Cat, but hasn’t directed a feature since Kung Fu Panda (2008).
Sherlockians of a collection-minded bent will, of course, notice that there’s a lot of sweet Sherlock Gnomes merchandise about—including, naturally, Sherlock and Watson plush gnomes, a puzzle-book and a novelization.
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Kim Newman is a prolific, award-winning English writer and editor, who also acts, is a film critic, and a London broadcaster. Of his many novels and stories, one of the most famous is Anno Dracula.