Sherlock Gnomes

Sherlock Gnomes (also known as Gnomeo & Juliet 2) is a 2018 3D computer-animated fantasy romantic mystery comedy film directed by John Stevenson. A sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), the film stars the voices of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige, and Johnny Depp. It was produced by Paramount Animation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Rocket Pictures, with the animation service provided by Mikros Image. It was the first film from Paramount Animation to be entirely animated, and the first animated film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since 2008's Igor. The film was released in the United States on March 23, 2018, by Paramount Pictures. It grossed $90 million worldwide.

Plot
Sherlock Gnomes and his assistant, Gnome Watson, storm into London's natural history museum, where their nemesis, a pie mascot named Moriarty, is holding gnomes hostage, planning to smash them. After a brief battle, Moriarty is defeated by getting seemingly crushed by a dinosaur skeleton.

Meanwhile, Gnomeo and Juliet, as well as the other gnomes, are moving to London. While there, Gnomeo and Juliet are declared the new leaders of the garden. Noticing that Juliet has cast him aside to improve the garden, Gnomeo leaves to find a flower as a centerpiece, but nearly gets caught in a shop, forcing Juliet to rescue him. Gnomeo and Juliet return to the garden, but then find out that all the other gnomes have gone missing. Sherlock and Watson show up at the scene to investigate, and after Gnomeo and Juliet help them escape from a sewer flood, Sherlock agrees for them to team up.

Sherlock inspects a clue supposedly given to them by Moriarty, who he believes survived their last encounter, and concludes that the clue is leading them to Chinatown. They find the next clue at Curly Fu's Emporium, and escape a group of Maneki-nekos whom Sherlock had previously offended. They arrive back at the natural history museum, and Gnomeo suggest that they look inside for the answer to the clue, but Sherlock decides to ponder at an art gallery instead, and Juliet follows him. Outraged that Juliet doesn't trust him, Gnomeo goes into the museum anyway, with Watson in pursuit, only for a Gargoyle to kidnap Gnomeo, while seemingly smashing Watson. Gnomeo is brought in with the rest of the gnomes, and informs them that they are to be smashed the following evening during a fireworks celebration. Meanwhile, Sherlock figures out that the next clue is at the royal park. He and Juliet disguise themselves as a squirrel to get the clue from a dog, and succeed by evading the dog on a lawn tractor.

Gnomeo attempts to free the rest of the gnomes, but only he and the Red Goon Gnomes are able to escape before the gargoyles arrive to prepare their demise. The next clue leads Sherlock and Juliet to a doll shop, where they meet his former fiancée, Irene. Resentful towards Sherlock, she kicks them out, but allows Juliet back in after she distances herself from Sherlock. Irene provides the clue to Juliet, which leads her and Sherlock to Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London. However, they discover that Watson was apparently the true mastermind. He reveals that he pretended to be Moriarty to get through to Sherlock, who didn't respect or show appreciation for him, and supposedly has the gnomes in custody, only to find them all missing. The Gargoyles then reveal that they never worked for Watson, and dispose of Sherlock, Watson, and Juliet on a ship.

Sherlock realizes that the gnomes are being held at the bottom of the Tower Bridge with pie filling, and the group finds out that Moriarty really was behind everything and plans on smashing the gnomes with the bridge when it's raised. He states that, after witnessing Sherlock's mistreatment of Watson, he had the Gargoyles pretend to work for Watson so that they could view his map and identify where all the gnomes lived. Sherlock and Watson agree to work together a final time to save the gnomes, and they and Juliet head towards the bridge on a drone.

Gnomeo is able to stall the bridge opening by having the Red Goon Gnomes pretend to be humans on the bridge. He then reunites with Juliet, and together, they defeat the Gargoyles. Watson goes to save the trapped gnomes, and frees them with soap just before the bridge is entirely opened. Moriarty gives chase to Sherlock, and injured his leg while doing so. Moriarty attempts to kill everyone as revenge for foiling his plot, but Sherlock throws him over the bridge and into the river, while Watson narrowly saves him with his cane. Moriarty vows revenge as he helplessly floats away. Sherlock, finally appreciating his friend, reconciles with Watson, as does Gnomeo and Juliet, and the gnomes enjoy the fireworks.

The following spring, Gnomeo and Juliet take charge of the garden, and the gnomes hold a celebration for them, with Irene and the Maneki-nekos in attendance. Satisfied with the appreciation that Gnomeo and Juliet share, Sherlock and Watson leave for another adventure.

Cast

 * James McAvoy as Gnomeo, Lady Bluebury's son, Juliet's husband, Benny's best friend and a blue gnome counterpart to Romeo Montague.
 * Emily Blunt as Juliet, Lord Redbrick's daughter, Gnomeo's wife, Nanette's best friend and a red gnome counterpart to Juliet Capulet.
 * Johnny Depp as Sherlock Gnomes, Gnome Watson's friend and assistant, Irene's ex-boyfriend, Moriarty's nemesis and a gnome counterpart to Sherlock Holmes.
 * Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dr. Gnome Watson, Sherlock Gnomes' friend and assistant and a gnome counterpart to Dr. John Watson.
 * Mary J. Blige as Irene, Sherlock's ex-girlfriend, and a plastic doll counterpart to Irene Adler.
 * Jamie Demetriou as Moriarty, Sherlock's nemesis and a pie mascot counterpart to Professor Moriarty.
 * Michael Caine as Lord Redbrick, the leader of the red gnomes and Juliet's overprotective widowed father and gnome counterpart to Lord Capulet.
 * Maggie Smith as Lady Bluebury, the leader of the blue gnomes and Gnomeo's widowed mother; gnome counterpart to Lady Montague.
 * Ashley Jensen as Nanette, a Scottish-accented plastic garden frog, Juliet's best friend and Paris' girlfriend in first film now is the new girlfriend of Benny and garden frog counterpart to Nurse.
 * Matt Lucas as Benny, Gnomeo's impulsive and tall-hatted best friend, Call Me Doll's boyfriend in first film who is the new boyfriend of Nanette; gnome counterpart to Benvolio.
 * Stephen Merchant as Paris, a nerdy red gnome who was arranged to marry Juliet and Nanette's boyfriend in first film and gnome counterpart to Count Paris.
 * Ozzy Osbourne as Fawn, a garden deer.
 * Julie Walters as Ms. Montague, the elderly owner of the garden.
 * Richard Wilson as Mr. Capulet, the other elderly owner of the garden.
 * Julio Bonet as Mankini Gnome, a red gnome in a mankini.
 * Kelly Asbury as Red Goon Gnomes; counterparts to Gregory, Sampson, Anthony, and Potpan.
 * Dan Starkey as Teddy Gregson, a counterpart to Tobias Gregson.
 * Dexter Fletcher as Reggie, a gargoyle.
 * James Hong as Salt Shaker
 * John Stevenson as Big Boy Gorilla
 * Stephen Wright as Bridge Operator

Development
In March 2012, it was reported that the film was in development at Rocket Pictures. Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg, Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil, four of the nine writers on the first film, were to write the script for the film. Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish produced the film, and Elton John, an executive producer, was again composing new songs for the film. The film would feature Sherlock Gnomes, "the greatest ornamental detective" hired by the characters from the first film, who would try to solve the mystery of disappearing gnomes.

In September 2012, it was reported that John Stevenson, one of the directors of Kung Fu Panda, had been set to direct the film. Kelly Asbury, the director of the first film, was unable to direct the sequel due to being busy on Smurfs: The Lost Village for Sony Pictures Animation. However, he was involved in the sequel as the creative consultant and he reprised his role as the Red Goon Gnomes.

Casting
In November 2015, it was announced that Johnny Depp would voice Sherlock Gnomes and that the film would be released on January 12, 2018. McAvoy and Blunt reprised their roles as Gnomeo and Juliet, respectively.

Animation
Unlike the first film, which was animated by Arc Productions (now Jam Filled Toronto), Sherlock Gnomes was animated by Mikros Image in London and Paris. Like the first film, the movie's animation was created using Maya. Sixty percent of the animation crew was in London, and the rest were in Paris. During peak production, there were between 80 and 100 animators working on the project. Animation director Eric Leighton took inspiration from George Pal’s Puppetoons for the animation of the gnomes in the film. The animation of the human characters were done via motion capture. Additional animation was produced by Reel FX Creative Studios in Dallas, Texas, and the end credits animation was produced by Studio AKA in London.

Music
Chris Bacon was confirmed to return to score the sequel like in the first film while James Newton Howard did not return to co-compose the score since he was too busy working on the music for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. However, Howard did return only to be involved as a music consultant. The soundtrack album was released by Virgin EMI Records.

Release
The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on January 12, 2018. In May 2017, the film was pushed back two months to March 23, 2018. In the UK, it was released on May 11, 2018.

Marketing
On November 3, 2017, seven teaser posters were released. The same day, the title was shortened from Gnomeo and Juliet 2: Sherlock Gnomes to Sherlock Gnomes. On November 7, the first trailer was revealed.

The film had also released posters parodying previous films from 2017, such as Darkest Hour, The Disaster Artist, The Greatest Showman, The Post, I, Tonya, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, All the Money in the World, Wonder Woman, and The Shape of Water. The posters had different names.

Home media
Sherlock Gnomes was released on Digital HD on June 5, 2018, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 12, 2018.

Box office
Sherlock Gnomes has grossed $43.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $47.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $89 million, against a production budget of $59 million.

In the United States and Canada, Sherlock Gnomes was released alongside Pacific Rim Uprising, Midnight Sun, Unsane and Paul, Apostle of Christ, and was projected to gross $13–18million from 3,600 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up debuting to $10.6 million, underperforming but still finishing 4th at the box office.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on 59 reviews with an average rating of 4.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Sherlock Gnomes is sadly, utterly stumped by the mystery of the reason of its own existence." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.