Sherlock Gnomes

Prequel: “Gnomeo and Juliet” (2011)

Not as witty as its predecessor, “Sherlock Gnomes” isn’t a terrible sequel; it goes through its plot quickly with a lot of action and a few mini life lessons along the way.

There isn’t much to the plot. The gnomes move to a new garden in the middle of London. Gnomes in their neighborhood begin to quickly disappear. When their family is taken, it’s up to Gnomeo and Juliet to join Sherlock Gnomes and Watson to solve the mystery before it’s too late.

The movie’s pace is pretty quick; there are hardly any wasted plot movements. I expect that some of the plot points will go over a child’s head. Gnomeo and Juliet argue, since she’s focused on rebuilding their garden, and he feels that she doesn’t listen to him. They argue like a Hollywood couple, so some younger kids may find this boring.

Content of concern

This movie is appropriately rated; younger children may find this scary. There are a lot of action scenes, loud noises, and scenes where gnomes are threatened with crushing or death. One of the gnomes is in love with a frog in the garden. They kiss in the end of the movie. When she asks how he learned how to kiss like that, he says he learned from the Internet.

One of the gnomes is named Mankini. He wears the infamous Borat thong-type mankini throughout the movie—“Sun's out, buns out.” The camera zooms in on his sunburnt butt cheeks at least 5 times, one time especially up close. Another gnome is on a toilet seat with his pants around his ankles. He’s shown dancing, and another time he leaves his toilet seat (pants down) and is clueless when people act shocked.

There are some replacements for curse words. There is a subtitle, using asterisks to curse. Other similar words are “fudge bucket,” “You're acting like a rear-end,” “fertilizer,” “Oh big hairy bums,” “cheese and crackers,” and “screw.”

Moral Lesson and discussion points

The movie’s moral lesson was my favorite: laying down your life for your friends and forgiveness. Sherlock Gnomes is willing to die for his partner Watson. It’s plainly stated, so if you do decide to take your child to this film, you could talk about appreciating your friends, not taking advantage of them, and forgiving them when they make mistakes. A discussion would be required afterwards because the movie only briefly states this before moving on. Most importantly, however, you can discuss how Jesus sacrificed his life for us, even though we sin.

Even though Sherlock Gnomes is more kid-friendly than the first film, I don’t recommend. I found it boring, and none of the kids in the theater laughed. However, if you’re really wanting to see a movie that is less objectionable than the current immoral trash that usually dominates the big screens, then this movie might be good enough for a single view.

• Violence: Mild
• Profane language: Minor
• Vulgar/Crude language: Minor
• Nudity: Moderate
• Sex: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.