Why So Blu?

Sherlock Gnomes (Blu-ray Review)

Gnomeo & Juliet have been holding on, waiting and waiting and pining for the sequel to their beloved animated film for seven long years. In 2018, they all could breathe a huge, collective sigh of relief as Sherlock Gnomes finally came together and was released to theaters. Adding a brand new character to the mix, the superfans had plenty of mystery going in on “Who exactly is this Sherlock Gnomes, anyway?” Twitter seemed okay with actor Johnny Depp playing the titular role, unlike some other franchises he’s been apart of, as not a peep or tweet was angrily made at the film’s screenwriter or director. No theories of Sherlock Gnomes having shapeshifting abilities were tiredly shared. Anyway fans, your day to own it is here. You’ll be able to grab a copy of the film when it comes to Blu-ray June 12th.

Film 

When Gnomeo and Juliet discover their friends and family have gone missing, there’s only one gnome to call – the legendary detective Sherlock Gnome. Working together, the mystery takes them beyond the garden walls and across the city on an unforgettable journey to save the day and bring the gnomes home.

Well, I have to admit that I never saw Gnomeo and Juliet. Superfans are going to have to tell me if I missed something vital from that movie that I need to go back and check out to make this film reveal more (Spoiler: I won’t go back and watch it). I think going in cold to this sequel, I’ve picked up the pieces well enough and can move forward with it. Maybe if there’s a third one I’ll go back and get the full feel for the series (Spoiler: I wont’).

Its takes no difficult analysis to read that this film is an animated film squarely for the kiddos. The movie features some fun voice talent that none of them (Aside from Johnny Depp) really do much with than just supply their regular voices to their characters. Much of them just play this straight, which is fine, but doesn’t bring the joys of having a voice or character actor craft a particular voice for a role.

As an adult, I’m sure many can and will cast this off as junk and that’s fine; its not for you. It wasn’t squarely for myself either. I’ll admit I did snicker at a couple jokes here and there for the film. It kept my 6 year old boy’s attention pretty well and my 4 year girl old gave up halfway. I had to go start to finish for the review. So, I suppose, there’s your full on assessment of Sherlock Gnomes.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Sherlock Gnomes comes to Blu-ray for the first time with a really terrific looking animated image. Its a full looking picture that showcases all the details and showcasing the texture of all the animation. Its a sharp image for the most part with just a touch of softness around the edges. I could see some little improvements on it here and there, but that would be nit picky. This more than does the trick for this release.

Depth:  The animated figures and objects look wonderfully three dimensional here and move freely and naturally throughout the picture no real distortions.

Black Levels: Blacks are pretty well saturated with different tints and some good outlining. No details are lost in any darkness or coloring. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are pretty strong and feature a nice primary palette. Pinks, purples, greens, blues and reds come off the strongest at their best.

Flesh Tones: N/A

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 DTS-HD MA, English Audio Description, Dutch 5.1 Dolby Digital, French Canadian 5.1 Dolby Digital, French Parisian 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Castilian Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Latin American Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Dutch, French Canadian, French Parisian, German, Italian, Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, Spanish (Latin America)

Dynamics: Sherlock Gnome’s 7.1 DTS-MA track is a solid presentation of the film. It keeps most of its action toward the front. There are some good displays of the well rounded sound effects in the mix. Vocals come with some good prominence in this mix when it needs to stand tall. Overall its a well balanced mix and I’m sure the single digit aged viewership will approve.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Things breaking, stomping, score beats, doors closing, wooshig and more get the subwoofer rumbling.

Surround Sound Presentation: This is a rather front heavy track, keeping the contributions of the surround and rear speakers to bigger moments. Travel and volume placement pretty accurate to on screen actions.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and captures every piece of diction from the voice actor’s diction of the lines.

Extras 

Sherlock Gnomes comes with the DVD edition and a digital copy of the film.

Gnome Is Where The Heart Is (HD, 7:00) – Emily Blunt, James MacAvoy and the other actors in the film talk about the story of the film, their roles and a respect of the other performers in it. This also shows some footage of the recording sessions.

All Roads Lead To Gnome: London Locations In Sherlock Gnomes (HD, 3:10) – The cast talks about getting the Gnomes out of their habitat and recreating many London landmarks to visit in the film.

Gnome Wasn’t Built In A Day: The Design And Art Of Sherlock Gnomes (HD, 5:59) – Creators and production designers go over creating new characters as well as little details like dance numbers and not making characters blink in the rain because their eyes are painting on.

Miss Gnomer: Mary J. Blige And The Music Of Sherlock Gnomes (HD, 4:09) – This focuses on the songs used in the film and how it shapes it, changing the series from a more musical film to a straightforward mystery plot. But they did add 3 new songs from Elton John and Mary J. Blige for it.

Strong Than I Ever Was (HD, 4:05) 

How To Draw – Head character designer Gary Dunn talks about the details as he draws the character (Shown sped up in a time lapsed version).

• Sherlock Gnomes (HD, 5:11)
• Watson (HD, 5:05)
• Moriarty (HD, 5:05) 
• Goons (HD, 3:19)

Animating Sherlock Gnomes (HD, 1:36) – A quick basic step by step from drawing storyboards to the final release image.

Summary 

Sherlock Gnomes (I can speak for it as a sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet) is a little piece of kids entertainment that offers little in the way for adults. That’s fine, they get to have their movies too. This Blu-ray release has a very good picture and video quality to it and carries extra ranging from kid-skewed to actually insightful craft tid bits. I’d say to grab it for your kiddos if they want it when it hits a nice sale price.