(Sigh) . . . Lacking, would be my one word review of "Sherlock Gnomes". Though the animation itself is nice, the basic story and lacklustre script will probably leave most of the children in the audience bored, let alone the adults.

The vocal performances are a mixed bag. With Gnomeo and Juliet effectively sidelined for a lot of the film, their performers (James McAvoy and Emily Blunt) probably give the flattest turns, but this does allow for Johnny Depp and, particularly, Jamie Demetriou to shine as Holmes and Moriaty respectively. There is a song crowbarred in around the middle of the picture from Mary j Blige's Irene Adler, which is as inexplicable as it is awful. In fact, music in general it a bit of a problem for the film - with a few bars of various Elton John hits piped into certain scenes, but it's like hearing a panpipe version in a lift, recognisable but not entertaining.

There is, as I say, some nice animation but there aren't nearly enough gags that land, and certainly not enough that would appeal to any of the older kids / adults in the audience.

Ah, direct sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet. And you know? I kind of waited for it. Back in 2011 I thought that Gnomeo & Juliet was pretty cute. I always loved stories about the worlds of toys and garden gnomes added nice little touch to the concept. The biggest problem with Gnomeo & Juliet was the fact that it was somewhat... boring. It was a cute little family movie with nice animation and some pretty heartwarming moments, but... it was also somewhat generic. So, while 10+ kids had a chance to fully enjoy it, parents, on the other hand, were can't help but feel sleepy from time to time. Just because, well, they've seen most of the stuff already for quite some times. Yes, garden with cute little gnomes was a nice touch, but it wasn't enough to turn the whole thing into an exciting experience. So, what I expected from sequel is to fix that problem. Because with better script Gnomeo & Juliet had a chance to become really good. So, did sequel achieve that?

Unfortunately, no. Quite the opposite, actually. Sherlock Gnomes is pretty much exactly the same thing. Which means that we've got a lot of adorable characters, we've got stars (Ozzy Osbourne returns as Fawn, while Johnny Depp voices the title character), we've got surprisingly good animation with really nice 3D, we've got soundtrack with a lot of famous songs by Sir Elton John, we've got a story with meaning for both kids and adults, we've got some heartwarming moments... BUT we didn't get anything unique. Like with Gnomeo & Juliet, you won't miss anything special if you'll skip Sherlock Gnomes. Just because a lot of other animated movies can provide pretty much the same thing with almost the same stories and meanings. So, again, garden gnomes repeated their biggest mistake. They didn't provide the real reason to pay for a ticket.

Of course, there are moments in your life when you want a family movie and don't want to re-watch the Toy Story for like a million time. And that's where this movie shines. It's something that was made exactly for such moments. To fill the gap between you re-watching Toy Story and you re-watching Despicable Me during your family animation marathon on holidays. Some scenes are actually feel like they were made with those movies in mind. It's like more of the same and that's it. So, did I enjoy Sherlock Gnomes? Yep. Does it worth going to a movie and pay for tickets? Nope. Like previous movie, this one is something you occasionally watch on Netflix. And there's no other way to it, even if it means for you to miss pretty nice 3D.

I only watched this movie with the kids I was babysitting because of Johnny Depp's voice. Other than that save your money and time for a quality Disney movie.

You are left wondering exactly who 'Sherlock Gnomes (2018)' is for, other than the pun-masters who came up with its title while presumably snickering for a second and then realising they have to spend literally years to make an entire feature surrounding their wordsmith handiwork. See, it's not like any of the four year-old's this should be aimed at will get most of the 'adult' or referential humour or even know who 'Sherlock Holmes' is, much less care for his porcelain counterpart, and I'd even stretch to say that the 'potty' humour that's seen here is just too subtle to give kids a giggle, either. It simultaneously seems to aim too young and too old, failing to find its audience because of this. Where the first 'Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)' sought to bring a classic Shakespeare story to a younger audience, however successfully, this one clearly just started with a pun and spun out from there, with no real intention of adapting a proper source story or even sticking to the character in any real way. It's not too big a leap to assume the character was only chosen due to the earliest of his stories being in the public domain. The result is a mishmash of the first flick with these loosely adapted, but not really parodied, characters from a classic adult detective fiction that has no connection to either 'Romeo & Juliet' or any of the Gnome elements from the franchise. These pieces clash together and vie for attention in a bizarre way, both competing to control a film which should really be a sequel to its predecessor but can't properly be because it's not allowed to have time away from its new, essentially unrelated characters. It therefore doesn't introduce children to the 'Holmes' character through his 'Gnomes' variant, in the way that 'Gnomeo' leads nicely into 'Romeo' even though the former is a severely watered down version of the latter, but still heavily borrows an amalgamation of elements from several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and uses them as fodder for clumsy jokes and haphazard plot elements. It's almost as if you'd need to be a proper 'Holmes' fan to even understand most of these references, and if you're a fan you probably won't like this or its representation of the character - though, you probably won't see it, to be fair. The piece also opens the world up in strange ways that make it feel closer to 'Toy Story (1995)' in the worst way possible, a bad imitation losing its identity in every way it can.

It's actually a little hard to put my finger on why I disliked this one as much as I did, for in theory it ought to be a harmless, if joyless, experience that can be watched passively, yet easily. It's not offensive, the voice-work is decent and so is the animation. There was clearly work put into the piece and the messages are important, if a little ham-fisted. On paper, it is certainly far from the worst thing I've seen. Yet, I have a distinct distaste for it. I'm not angry, tired or still cringing about it (though I was cringing pretty much every time Elton John came on in lieu of a musical score), and I wasn't totally bored while watching. I think that might just be it, though: the lack of any real response. It isn't good for anything, not even putting you to sleep. 3/10

Sherlock Gnomes and Watson are the protectors of London's gnomes against the evil Moriarty. After defeating Moriarty, Sherlock is listless until he gets a new case of missing gnomes. Gnomeo and Juliet discover their family and friends have disappeared. They join Sherlock and Watson on their investigation.

This franchise doesn't have the highest of ambitions. It does have some fun characters. This sequel adds an interesting Sherlock and Watson duo. I like them and I like their opening battle with Moriarty. The start is muddled by the fact that the franchise protagonists are Gnomeo and Juliet. There is a split in attention. Once the foursome is formed, they are actually fun together. The best part is Juliet being smarter and more capable than the arrogant Sherlock. Once the group splits up again, the fun chemistry gets muddled again. Mostly, I like these characters and the overly complicated scheme does fit the plot. It's a fun short time and this movie is short.

Despite probably one of the greatest casts of all time for an animation the problem with this film is just.....gnomes are crap. There is nothing good about them which makes it very hard to like the characters and so not even a cast of the century can save this wooden diaglogue, predictable, 2nd rate film which fails to deliver even moderate entertainment. The folks who have scored this higher than a 3 were clearly high on crack when watching this

Enjoyed this but: Some of the storyline has been taken from Flushed Away, and in parts the story just doesn't work.However, if you love everything gnomes, then sit back, grab a drink and escape into a world of gnomes, gargoyles and Chinese cats!

After awhile I was pretty burned out on the friendship stuff, the theme was revisited so much I started to wonder if it was being used as filler.

The scene in the toy store with the cats and stuff was good and funny, that 'set piece' was the one redeeming feature for the movie, there wasn't enough of that kind of thing. I wonder if anyone did a cut of that scene and put it on utube, if so go to Utube and watch the one thing from the movie that was enjoyable and do something else with that time saved.

I could be wrong, but I think whoever came up with the toy cat stuff was hired as an outside consultant in relation to the writers and producers of this soap operatic gnome movie

You know, call me crazy, but I didn't think this film was half bad.

Of course it's predictable. Of course it's cheesy, But underneath that all is a great story, great characters to latch onto, and some surprisingly funny. Luckily Mankene wasn't in the movie too much.

I'm gonna have to give it a B or on an Imdb scale, a 7/10. Fun family entertainment.

5 minutes into the movie, you could hear children asking their parents about what was happening?? Who & What is Sherlock? 10 minutes into movie, kids wanting to go get candy or a drink or needing to go to the restroom. Upon their return, it was a buzz of chaos from the kids, again! 1/2 way through the movie, you could tell this movie was a flop to the kids. I tried to fill my G-daughter in on who Sherlock Holmes was......and to lay the plot up to her so she could catch up from her own Popcorn break.... but, she had already lost interest and was looking around at the other kids in the theater and asking how much longer was left of the movie, so we could go bowling. Not an attention getter for kids.

This was a great role for Johnny depp! His acting seems so natural it's like he's actually in the movie. Unlike other actors who seem to look so forced in acting. Overeggageratijg acting. I will always love johnnys English accent! I'm in the middle of the movie, good story line, good theme for a movie for a kids movie. I almost forgot this had Johnny in it.

The trailer should have been a dead giveaway that this would be a horrible movie. This movie made me sick with the sense of potty humor in this. A little is okay for the kids, but this was ridiculous. And it did make me uncomfortable. It was also just a bad story.

However, I have to give credit to the writers for throwing in those adult jokes that definitely gave parents and older kids a chuckle.

But still. Save your money.

I took my two young girls to see this at the cinema for some light hearted fun and omg, it disappointed from the beginning.

The animation and settings are dull, the characters flat and storyline tedious. Everything is just frankly monotonous and boring. The script and character roles are straight from a bitter angry feminists handbook and are just OTT.

The writers' clearly see a problem and attempt to lighten the mood with an Italian accented gnome in a mankini, which appears from time to time and makes a pointless one-line contribution.

Very few periods of this long film inspire any kind of positive response.

The trailer is full of Mankini and very little else. But the movie ends up only having half of the Mankini bits shown in trailer.

Once the inciting incident happens, the movie only stops once for the trailer jokes and it is again in the trailer. Mostly this is just an adventure movie. And it does that fairly well.

The prevalence of other main characters in a Sherlock Holmes pastiche is a bit odd, but it turns out this movie is a sequel to 2011 Gnomeo & Juliet, a movie you don't have to see to enjoy this.

You can see the plot twists coming from a mile away, but this is a kid's movie so the theory is not to confuse the little tikes too much, and this won't.

If you want to have a good time watching this movie, you will.

4/10 - not very original, but a nice Mary J. Blige/Elton John-infused soundtrack

I'm a bit of a Sherlock Holmes geek so when I saw this I had to watch it. There were perhaps thirty people in the cinema with me so I don't expect it will get a long release or become a popular DVD.

Sherlock Gnomes will entertain children up to perhaps nine. The animation and voices are excellent. The gentle story will hold their attention. It's a light adventure with a dash of relationship bonding and morality. The plot moves around London and does try to misdirect the audience.

I liked: The clink of porcelain every time the characters touched something hard that reminded us they were made of fragile pottery. The puzzles that made sense. Sherlock's portrayal - especially his, 'palace of the mind,' scene. The villain's henchmen.

I didn't like: Almost nothing for older viewers. Little humour; I smiled once and laughed once. The main villain was weak.

Add two marks to my score if you're six and subtract 2 if you're a parent. If however you are a pretentious teenager subtract 5.

The jokes were horrible, stuff was cliched, we didn't need this sequel. Don't watch this.

Breaking news from London-garden gnomes have been kidnapped! "Oh fertilizer!" This is one of many amusing jokes from the very British characters in Sherlock Gnomes, sequel to the 2011 animated film Gnomeo and Juliet. Although the plot of this family-friendly movie is somewhat predictable, it is still quite funny and clever.

In this sequel, the formerly star-crossed lovers Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) are married and have just moved to London where they are appointed by their parents as joint heads of the garden. Both Juliet and Gnomeo feel the pressures of their new leadership roles and the marriage begins to suffer through lack of communication and mutual appreciation. Meanwhile, their gnome friends are disappearing from homes all over London, and they attempt to search for and save them. With the help of Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the adventure begins - to defeat the evil pie company called Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou) and save all gnomes. We also see that poor Watson is quite ignored and under-appreciated by Sherlock.

My favorite aspects of this movie are the music, Johnny Depp and the "planning" sequences. I love the song choices used in transitions between scenes. If you are a fan of Sir Elton John, you will be pleased to hear many of his hits, including "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," "I'm Still Standing," "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" and a fantastic new song performed by the great Mary J. Blige. Johnny Depp is hilarious with his condescending British accent. I have seen almost every movie he has ever been in and he never disappoints with his comedic intensity. Another interesting thing that happens is when we see the inner workings of Sherlock's mind in 2-D black-and-white animation. One clinker for me is when super-intelligent Watson, looking for Gnomeo, says "Gnomeo, Gnomeo! Oh don't make me say it - wherefore art thou, Gnomeo?" (Of course "wherefore" means "why" in Romeo and Juliet.)

The message of this story is a good one - that you will succeed by respecting the people who support you. Sherlock learns that lesson when he realizes that Watson feels that Sherlock isn't listening to him or respecting him. Juliet learns it when she realizes that Gnomeo feels as if Juliet is ignoring him, too.

I rate this film 5 out of 5 stars because, almost all the scenes kept me laughing, the music is great, and I love the message. I recommend this movie for ages 7 to 18.

Reviewed by Lucia F, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic. For more reviews by youth, visit kidsfirst dot org.

I really liked the start of the film and thought the gnome makeover of sherlock and moriarty were good with the later being noticeably different to the films and TV series but the rest of the film let it down, the story wasn't particularly interesting and as is the case with many films aimed at a younger audience, the priority seems to be showcasing a positive moral attitude in this case, don't ignore your friends rather than telling a gripping story.

Obviously the animation is very good and with a steller cast of voice actors I can't really complain about the acting.

This is just such a beautiful specimen from the viewpoint of a simple tool in our gardens. Something that could seem so soulless use his brian juices to solve the spooky mysteries. I watched this with my 3 weeks old son and he loved it he only started screaming, creaming and crying about an hour in but other than that he was really chill throughout the movie, i didn't even hear a sound from him for the most part. Other than that, any movie starring Ozzy Osbourne is an instant classic for me, so i would say definetely watch this movie. It's also a beautful parallel to the human Sherlock Gnomes played by Will Ferrell.

Terrible. Not even that appropriate for kids. Disgusting. Waste of money!