Film Preview: Sherlock Gnomes (2018)

Page Revisions:

(December 10, 2017) Original
(March 18, 2018) New Posters (#9-#24)

Release Date:

March 23, 2018

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Garden gnomes, Gnomeo & Juliet, recruit renown[sic] detective, Sherlock Gnomes, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of other garden ornaments.”

Poster Rating: C+ / C- (7) / C+ / D / D+ / D / D / D+ / C / D (6) / C- / C / D+

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Review: (#1) All the gnomes makes for a cluttered design with a font selection that looks utterly bland. (#2-#8) These character posters are literally quite ugly and even the gnomes don’t improve that.

(#9) A visit to London for a Portuguese audience. The lack of urgency and creativity is apparent. (#10) Cheesy taglines can work if the accompanying design is worth it. This one isn’t. (#11) A lot of animated films think they are being clever by taking another major motion picture’s poster and inserting themselves into it. This one is a particularly bad design. (#12) Another poorly executed Christmas-themed design, like a pair with design #10 and equally uninspiring. (#13) Unlike the two prior Christmas designs, this one has no tagline and uses an even uglier white background. (#14) All of our characters are in display here without a gimmick in the background. It’s not a great design, but it’s better than most of the ones for this film so far.

(#15) A day at the beach for characters that don’t really feel at home. While it’s a cheeky design, it’s not too impressive. (#16-#21) This series of character posters is the epitome of a designer not trying very hard. White backdrop, generic poses, and horrendous taglines. Nothing in this grouping works. (#22) A design for a new holiday, Valentine’s Day isn’t exactly the holiday most would want to advertise an animated film during and the end result isn’t much more logical. (#23) This is a much more astute design for Portuguese audiences with its Rio setting. It’s not a great design, but is also one of the better ones they’ve done. (#24) Almost the same as an earlier design, this one feels a bit more detailed and energetic, but not by much.

Trailer Rating: B

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Review: There are a couple of really funny scenes in the trailer, but it doesn’t look like a film that has much reason for being and certainly doesn’t feel like a natural extension of the original.