Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Sherlock Gnomes Blu-ray Movie Review

Punny funny.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 13, 2018

The game is afoot! Sherlock Gnomes is the not-so-hotly-anticipated sequel to 2011's Gnomeo and Juliet, a perfectly serviceable, maybe even moderately enjoyable, movie that played with puns and a classic story re-imagined in the world of the beloved garden gnome. This film, like its predecessor, revels in bringing classic characters to uniquely shaped and defined -- miniaturized, molded, and painted -- life. But like real-life garden gnomes, the film is attractive and carefully crafted on the outside but rather hollow inside. Plot set-up is basic and the film prefers to jump from one set piece to another without much consideration for narrative flow. On the flip side, the animation is first-rate and the voice actors soak up the opportunity to have some fun with decidedly enjoyable over-the-top cliché characters.

Sherlock Gnomes (voiced by Johnny Depp) has defeated arch villain Morarity (voiced by Jamie Demetriou) once and for all, making London safe for all garden gnomes. It’s a major accomplishment, but he misses sparring with his enemy. Meanwhile, a human family moves into some new digs in the city, and the gnomes -- many of them, including Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy) and Juliet (voiced by Emily Blunt) -- are flabbergasted by their new garden’s state of disrepair. Gnomeo and Juliet are assigned as new garden leaders, with the task of prepping for winter. But as they are out and about, and squabbling, their friends vanish. Gnomes and his sidekick Gnome Watson (voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor) take the case, teaming up with Gnomeo and Juliet in an adventure that will stretch their muscles and their minds and take them all over London.

The movie is charming at its most simple level but empty beyond. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The film aims to entertain, not enrich, and as a fairly mindless movie -- perhaps even a little more so than traditional animated kid’s fair -- it works well enough. It embraces Holmes-ian cliché and blends it, surprisingly seamlessly, into the worlds of small garden gnomes and big adventures that are otherwise not at all new or creative. If one replaced the gnomes with Smurfs and released essentially the same movie, nobody would probably bat an eyelash.

The film never strays from essential convention, participating in a basic run-through of various environments of manufactured adventure. Flow is decent enough, but the movie often feels like it’s made from assembly line animated movie adventure scenes rather than a carefully honed narrative structure. It's a movie in which set pieces are more important than the story that gets the characters to them. At least the set pieces are comprised of a few London hotspot highlights, but most of the little environmental touches are more for the adults than the kids, the latter of whom will likely be content to simply laugh at the mayhem that spills out of the screen, regardless of any cultural significance any given locale might have.

The animation is quite good. The character complexities are a treat and the environments are equally impressive, doubly so considering the vast diversity of places seen throughout the movie, from unkempt backyards to a deliciously detailed doll shop, from a museum to Tower Bridge. Voice work is fine. Because none of the characters are memorable, none of the voice work really stands out, but there’s enough enthusiasm and embrace of cliché as necessary -- particularly considering Johnny Depp’s work as the title character -- to carry the film through its jumps from one adventure to the next.

Sherlock Gnomes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sherlock Gnomes' textural qualities are excellent. The gnomes are noticeably complex, and the Blu-ray is more than capable of revealing every component. The digital artists have painstakingly created individual detail on every little point -- the hats, the clothes, the bodies -- and the clarity of individual flaws and textures is first-rate. Cracks, crevices, core details, name it, and the Blu-ray excels in showing it. Colors are rich and robust, vibrant and very well saturated, and capable of revealing complex nuance as well as the aggregate palette without flaw. Black levels are fine. Source and encode flaws are next to nonexistent. This is a very good presentation from Paramount.

Sherlock Gnomes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sherlock Gnomes' accompanying DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is enjoyable and well rounded. Music is pleasantly lively, spreading wide across the front and never shy about reaching around into the back. Surround speakers carry plenty of fun discrete effects as well, with well maintained clarity and manicured detail enhancing every opportunity sound takes to spread. London exteriors offer a healthy spring of activity to more fully immerse the listener into the movie's varied locales. Blaring alarms and beeps present with pleasing clarity and stage saturation in chapter three, while heavy downpours and cracking thunder fully cover the stage in the subsequent chapter. The track is never timid, ensuring each scene is accompanied by healthy stage stretch and a solid low end support. Dialogue is clear, well prioritized, and firmly entrenched in the front-center channel.

Sherlock Gnomes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sherlock Gnomes contains a handful of featurettes. A DVD copy of the film and a UV/iTunes digital copy code are included with purchase.

• Gnome Is Where the Heart Is (1080p, 7:00): A plot recap and character explorations constructed of film clips and cast and crew interviews. It also offers some insight into the voice acting process.
• All Roads Lead to Gnome: London Locations in Sherlock Gnomes (1080p, 3:10): A look at how the city's landmarks are implemented into the film.
• Gnome Wasn't Built in a Day: The Design and Art of Sherlock Gnomes (1080p, 5:59): A discussion of character design and crafting some key sequences.
• Miss Gnomer: Mary J. Blige and the Music of Sherlock Gnomes (1080p, 4:09): A quick piece about music's place in the film.
• Stronger Than I Ever Was (1080p, 4:05): A music video set to scenes from the film.
• How to Draw (1080p): Head Character Designer Gary Dunn reveals the secrets to drawing the film's characters, includeding Sherlock Gnomes (5:11), Watson (5:05), Moriarty (5:05), and Goons (3:19).
• Animating Sherlock Gnomes (1080p, 1:36): A quick recap of the animation process, from hand-drawn storyboards to the finished product.

Sherlock Gnomes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If there's another movie in this series in the coming years, it probably won't be some biopic called Gnome Chomsky or a baseball film about Gnomear Garciaparra. But considering that Sherlock Gnomes made $100 million less than its predecessor on a larger budget, maybe audiences are just saying "Gnomeore." Sherlock Gnomes is a serviceable, but superfluous, digitally animated film. It has some fun with classic characters but quickly devolves into a movie that's more a string of scenes and less a compelling narrative-driven adventure. It can be cute, it can be funny, but it's certainly not destined to live on as a classic of its kind. Paramount's Blu-ray does offer excellent video and audio. A handful of decent little extras are included. Worth a rental for the kids.