Red Goon Gnome 1: Prepare for a tale of suspense, intrigue, and mystery.
Goons 2 & 3: Ooh! Mystery.
Goon 1: Prepare for Sherlock Gnomes.
Goons 2 & 3: Ooh! Mystery.
Goon 1: Prepare for Sherlock Gnomes.
— The red goon gnomes starting the movie
Sherlock Gnomes is an animated computer-animated film that is the sequel to 2011's Gnomeo & Juliet, released on March 23, 2018. Produced by Paramount Animation as its first fully-animated film—as well as the first to not use Nickelodeon's name—and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as its first animated feature in an entire decade since the release of Igor, with animation by Mikros Image (The Little Prince, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie).
The film follows Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt), who, after their beloved friends and family are missing, must receive help from Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and his right-hand man Gnome Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) from suffering death from Sherlock's Arch-Enemy Moriarty.
Previews: Trailer
, International Trailer
Any tropes related to this film's characters must be moved to the character page.
Sherlock Gnomes provides examples of:
- Actionized Sequel: There are higher stakes than the first film which leads to more chase and fight sequences. Though while the first film's climax was a full scale battle between the two gardens, this film's finale takes place on the Tower Bridge, and the protagonists have a far more active role in the fighting this time.
- Action Prologue: The film opens with Sherlock and Watson rescuing some gnomes from Moriarty in a museum, and Sherlock and Moriarty's confrontation ends with the latter's presumed demise. The film's main story takes place a few months after this incident.
- Angst? What Angst?: In-Universe and Played for Drama. Watson is supposedly killed, and Juliet berates Sherlock for seemingly not caring. Truthfully, he is just as shocked and upset as she is, though he's trying to focus on his mission rather than his grief.Sherlock: Emotion is the enemy of logic.
- Appropriated Title: Despite being a sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet, the film is solely called Sherlock Gnomes.
- Art Shift: There are four brief sequences in the film inside of Sherlock's mind that use hand-drawn animation instead of CGI, one scene where paper cut-outs are used, and another where flash animation is used.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: Mikros Image replaced Starz Animation (then Arc Productions, now Jam Filled Toronto) for the film; animation was still outsourced in Canada. That's a reason why the characters look slightly different.
- Aspect Ratio: Changed from 1.78:1 to 2.35:1 in this movie, being the fifth computer-animated sequel to do so.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Like Finding Dory, it received a PG rating as opposed to the first movie's G rating.
- Bears Are Bad News: Irene's bouncer, bodyguard and general enforcer is a gigantic, hulking teddy bear who is missing an eye.
- Big Bad: Originally it's Watson. Later on it's revealed to be a trick by Moriarty.
- Big "OMG!":
Only in the trailer when Watson refers to one of the small red gnomes whose hat got broke off accidentally by Sherlock. - Call-Back: Near the beginning of the film, Gnomeo tries to get a Cupid's Arrow Orchid for Juliet to put in the new garden, recalling how they first met when she was trying to get one.
- Cat Stereotype: Gnomeo, Juliet, Gnomes, and Watson, at one point, are seen running away from the Maneki-nekos.
- Chekhov's Gun: Watson's grapple cane has been used about as many times. Used to save Sherlock's life, including his after falling to his death.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite prominent roles in the first film, Tybaltnote , Featherstone and the ceramic girl that became Benny's love interest are not seen or mentioned here.
- Comically Missing the Point: With the red gnome goons after hearing about the bridge being raised up.Goon 1: Oh, no.
Goon 2: I know, we didn't get to do our big finale. [one of the two other goons slaps him] What? - Continuity Nod:
- The opening scene has one of the Red Goon Gnomes having an introduction, this time in a library with a book as opposed to a stage in the first movie.
- There is a thin but only just noticeable line where Benny's hat has been fixed after it was smashed by Tybalt in the first film.
- In the film's teaser trailer, Sherlock accidentally knocks over one of the small red gnomes, causing his hat to break like Benny's in the first film.note
- Dead Hat Shot: In the prologue the only remains of Moriarty's body after a dinosaur skeleton display fell on it is his hat broken from his head.
- Deadpan Snarker: Someone always tends to have a snark at hand when Sherlock does or suggest something unorthodox.
- Demoted to Extra: Characters such as Benny, Nanette, Lady Bluebury, Lord Redbrick, and Paris are given supporting roles in this movie.
- Descending Ceiling: Moriarty plans to crush the kidnapped gnomes beneath the base of the Tower Bridge drawbridge, which descends as the bridge opens.
- Easily Forgiven: Soon after Watson helps kidnap all the gnomes in London, unknowingly helping the main villain's plan to smash them, he and Sherlock are back on the same team.
- Every Device Is a Swiss-Army Knife: Watson's cane displays a plethora of functions. These include a grapple line, a map case, and a laser pointer/garage door opener. After his leg is broken by Moriarty in the climax, Sherlock spends the rest of the film using it as a walking stick.
- Face–Heel Turn: Watson appears to pull one, but it's revealed that he doesn't plan to harm the gnomes, only to show Sherlock that he deserves more credit than he gets.
- Faking the Dead: Both Moriarty and Watson.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: Watson's cane doubles as a grappling-hook gun.
- High-Class Glass: Irene's giant teddy bear bouncer/bodyguard wears a tuxedo and a monocle when he accompanies her to the Awakenings ceremony at the end of the film. A nice touch is that he is wearing his monocle over his missing eye.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: "Oh, fertilizer."
- Home Sweet Home: All the gnomes move to a new home for an unknown reason. It's probably for the best, as Mrs. Montague and Mr. Capulet recognize that someone destroyed their backyards; they didn't recognize that their garden ornaments did all the destruction.
- Improvised Parachute: The gnomes use Chinese lanterns as parachutes when they jump from Curly Fu's to the roof of the bus.
- I'm Your Worst Nightmare: The bigger gargoyle introduces himself as this to Gnomeo and Watson.
- Indy Hat Roll: Gnomeo and Juliet desperately slide under the descending manhole cover as they follow Sherlock and Watson into the sewer.
- Interspecies Romance: Gnomeo's best friend Benny has a crush on Juliet's best friend Nanette (who is a plastic frog).note
- Ironic Echo: During their first big fight, Juliet tells Gnomeo "The garden can't wait! You can!" Later, she gets angry at Sherlock for not showing more concern over what has happened to Watson and Sherlock replies "The case cannot wait. You can."
- Literal Disarming: Irene rips the arm of Big Boy Gorilla while arm-wrestling him.
- Living Toys: Like the prequel, it focuses more on the garden gnomes rather than toys but the movie now shows us more types of characters such as statues and, of course, toys.
- Manchild: Moriarty, in spades.
- Mythology Gag:
- The name on the moving van that moves the gnomes to London is Sherrinford Movers. Sherrinford Bell was Arthur Conan Doyle's originally proposed name for Sherlock Holmes.
- Irene lives in Doyle's Doll Museum, named after Arthur Conan Doyle.
- When calling out for Gnomeo, Watson reluctantly calls out "wherefore art thou, Gnomeo."note
- In the climax, Moriarty and Sherlock fall over the waterfall.
- Never Trust a Trailer:
- A couple of the jokes and scenes (notably the "No ship, Sherlock" line) are either removed or altered in the final cut of the movie.
- The teaser trailer has Sherlock and Watson coming to the new garden at daytime (with Sherlock accidentally breaking off a small red gnome's hat off). However, Sherlock and Watson arrive in the garden when it's raining (and the aforementioned gnome is joined with his counterparts and other gnomes kidnapped).
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Among the pictures of the missing gnomes that the TV broadcasts, there's a gnomic version of Elton John (who took part in the production), wearing pink and with starred glasses.
- Oh, Crap!: A gnome with big ears overhears Gnomeo that they will all be smashed tomorrow, causing the others to scream in horror.
- Pantomime Animal: Sherlock and Juliet disguise themselves as a squirrel so they can move about a park in daylight.
- Parody: After Romeo and Juliet, Sherlock Gnomes. He's a gnome counterpart to Sherlock Holmes, of course!
- Pass the Popcorn: Three squirrels watch attently as Juliet and Sherlock (still disguised as a squirrel) are running from the hound. The one chewing nervously a nut brings to mind someone eating compulsively popcorn (or peanuts, etc) while watching the climax of a terror film.
- Pun: Gnomeo's response to Sherlock's claim that they need to commandeer a ship.Gnomeo: No ship, Sherlock.
- Ramp-rovisation: While trying to escape the hound in the park, Juliet drives the ride-on lawnmower up a pile of deckchairs that launches the mower into a tree.
- Ripped from the Headlines: In the '90s, garden gnomes actually tended to vanish sometimes — in France for instance, they were stolen by The Garden Gnome Liberation Front.
- Rolling Pin of Doom: Moriarty's primary weapon is a rolling pin. (He was originally the mascot of a pie company.) During the climax, he fences Sherlock with him using his rolling pin and Sherlock using his magnifying glass.
- Shaking the Rump: Sherlock demonstrates how a squirrel wags its tail.Sherlock: [shaking his rear back and forth] Do you see what I'm doing? See, do you see?
Juliet: Yes. You're acting like a rear-end. - Shout-Out:
- Moriarty says he was "deaded", that someone is "misrebable"... The Goon Show, anyone?
- In the opening scene, the two other Red Goons suggest other stories like Game of Gnomes, The Gnome Ranger, The Twilight Gnome, Spider-Man: Gnomecoming, and Indiana Gnomes instead of the main story.
- The sequence where Moriarty and Sherlock fight on the dinosaur skeleton brings the end of the first Jurassic Park to mind.
- The gargoyle chasing Gnomeo and Watson yells "You're never gonna away on those stubby little legs!"
- During their final fight, Moriarty says that he and Sherlock "are not different", then sings "you are the sun and I am the moon".
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Moriarty is not seen in either of the film's main trailers. Aside from a few brief shots in the TV spots, he is barely in any of the film's marketing.
- Suicidal "Gotcha!": When Gnomeo is cornered by Moriarty atop Tower Bridge, he takes a single step backwards and plummets out of sight towards the river. Where he is caught by Juliet who is hovering just below on the drone.
- Swarm of Rats: When their boat is stranded by the falling water level in the sewer, Sherlock and Watson start uses ropes to haul the boat off the floor of the tunnel. Gnomeo and Juliet are confused as to why, but quickly learn it is to get the boat (and them) out of the way of the swarm of rats that is approaching.
- The Stinger: After the credits, the animated Gnomes form a 'Sherlock Holmes' logo, which is then teased by the animated Moriarty, who is then smashed by the magnifying glass of the logo and says "I hate you, Sherlock Gnomes."
- Two Men, One Dress: Sherlock and Juliet disguise themselves as a squirrel.
- Weaponized Headgear: After Moriarty's hat (which like the Gnomes is actually a sculpted part of his head) is broken off during the prologue, he frequently uses it as an impromptu throwing disc.
"I hate you, Sherlock Gnomes."
