Gnomeo and Juliet

It's Red vs. Blue in this retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The star-crossed lovers take the form of ceramic garden gnomes in the 2011 CGI film Gnomeo and Juliet.

I was somewhat afraid that they would take the names and that would be the extent of the relation to the play, but it does follow the essential storyline of R&J. There are a few changes; the gnomes don't mix at a party, for instance, but Gnomeo runs into Juliet when she's cat-burgling an orchid for the Red's garden. Their first encounter is more of an acrobatic flirtation than a traditional dance.

There are a lot of great Shakespeare references for the aficionados as well as slapstick for the kids. (Honestly, I was pretty nervous throughout from the tinkling of ceramic in motion.) It all follows the story pretty closely -- included a ceramic shattering of Juliet's cousin Tybalt. Gnomeo gets chased away to the park where he encounters, in one of my favorite scenes, the statue of Shakespeare, who explains how the story is supposed to go, and why it's such good writing.

Although Gnomeo is the one who has the knowledge to possibly change their tragic fate, it doesn't come across too much as male heroics. I don't think I can spoil the ending -- it is a kids' movie, after all -- but I won't say anything more specific than that.

In spite of being, as I said, nominally a kids' movie, the pacing is good, and there are lots of puns and plenty of humor for the adults to catch. Shakespeare references, from other plays as well as R&J, abound, and the writing is sharp throughout. The casting is good, and the animation -- while veering more toward cartoonish than realistic -- was well done and fitting. I was completely charmed by this movie.

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

And we're swinging by Shakespeare again this week with Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay. Isn't that a luscious cover? It would make me want to read this book even if I wasn't a fan of Shakespeare retellings already.

Although this isn't so much a retelling as a "and then what," which intrigued me even more -- they're dead, right? So then what? Well, in Jay's novel, Romeo and Juliet's deaths are far from the romantic lovers' last stand. Instead, Romeo sacrifices their lives to grant them a kind of immortality; one in which they are forever drawn back to earth to try to save (in Juliet's case) or destroy (in Romeo's case) the young love of true soul mates.

The book makes funny references to the play -- Juliet hates that play, which was penned when Romeo told some hot-shot writer about their tragic death. The book takes place in the modern world, with occasional references to the many other lives Juliet has touched over the centuries.

Not quite your typical ghost story, Juliet Immortal plays with its own distinctive mythology, one that I wouldn't mind seeing again in some form, or knowing more about. For all of that, it's a neatly tied-up novel with no indication that there will be a sequel (but I would read one if Jay ever revisits).

Check out Stacey Jay's website for more reviews and tidbits on the book.

Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors

Mimi has a life a lot of girls would envy: a famous theatre family and the starring role in a Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet. What she wants to do, though, is go to college and study medicine--a point on which she and her mother could not more strongly disagree. Then, in a quill and magical ink incident, Mimi finds herself transported back to Shakespeare's Verona, watching the actions of the tragedy play out before her. She has to learn how to take things into her own hands, and not accept fate, before it's too late for the famous tragic pair.

I found that this started slow--oh, poor Mimi, stuck on Broadway--but when she gets to Verona the story and the humor pick right up. Selfors doesn't hesitate to play with conventions from our time or Shakespeare's, and altogether, this book is a compelling, satisfying read.

(While Shakespeare isn't strictly Fairy Tale, Folklore, or Mythology, I think that it's taken on the same status and retell-ability. Don't you?)