Sherlock Gnomes - Film Review

'Sherlock Gnomes' is the sequel to the 2011 film 'Gnomeo and Juliet' and is centred around these garden gnomes in London who come alive when their owners aren't around. In this film, gnomes around London are going missing, so they hire Sherlock Gnomes, the sworn protecter of the garden gnomes, to track down the culprit.

'Sherlock Gnomes' is more painfully unfunny than its predecessor, with about as much gnome puns as to be expected. The film toys with some fun and smart ideas, but evidently those ideas begin to deteriorate over the course of the film. If you were excited about the Elton John songs for this movie, don't be. Almost all of them were poppy, electronic versions in the shadows of his notorious works. The character designs are rather sweet, as they do look like gnomes, but also have a creative spark to them.

The animation is rather well done, though at times the mouths moved differently to how the characters articulate words. At times the film wouldn't make a hair of sense and the mystery eventually solved wasn't a mystery at all. Sadly, this film has nothing heartfelt to offer. They try, but it's built upon Juliet not giving Gnomeo a high five, so their often squabbling is built upon nothing other than a simple high five. Character motivations in the film are often off the chart with how ridiculous they are.

'Sherlock Gnomes' is essentially everything you would expect from an animated gnome movie with a name as a pun. Although what makes it a failure, is how incompetently written it is, the mystery itself, and the eventual tedious third act which came off as predictable and meandering. Kids might have a lick of fun with this one, but in the end it's just a slightly less than serviceable animated film with talking gnomes.

'Sherlock Gnomes' - 33%