Gnomeo and Juliet

The story of unlikely pairing coming together against all obstacles. And that's just the uniting of Dame Maggie Smith and Ozzy Osbourne in the same cast list. I can't imagine many people predicting in the heydays of Black Sabbath that Ozzy would one day be voicing an animated fawn for Elton John.

This film brings together the music of Elton John, the story of Romeo and Juliet and animated garden gnomes. Added to the mix is a hugely impressive array of British vocal talent from established thesps - Smith, Walters, Caine, Patrick Stewart, Richard Wilson - to the new stars (McAvoy and Blunt) and the comedy talents of Stephen Marchant, Matt Lucas and Ashley Jensen. And of course Osbourne and Jason Statham, who are both surprisingly funny.

The story is familiar to all (as the film acknowledges), but this puts a fresh spin on it. It looks good, is consistently funny, the songs more or less work. And yet it never quite takes off as it threatens to do - its funny, but never hilarious. So what you're left with is a solid animated film with lots of inventiveness but never  quite achieves that something.

Overall - 6.5/10 An inventively solid  and consistently funny film that falls a little short of what you feel it could have been.