Gnomeo and Juliet
Gnomeo and Juliet was made in 2O11 and directed by Kelly Asbury. This film is an animation, made for children. This film is based in London (in the suburbs), present-day (21st Century). As this film is made for younger children, some of the main themes from Romeo and Juliet have been taken out and changed. There are two gardens, separated into the Montagues which are the Red gnome's and the Capulets are Blue gnome's. The Red and the Blue create war over the garden fences and compete with each other on lawnmowers (instead of fighting with sword's which is in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare), which adds to the comedy of the film.
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| Balcony scene, act 2; scene 2 Romeo and Juliet script By William Shakespeare |
Although there is no death in this film as it is made for young children, one of the gnomes Tybalt, gets smashed which is slightly similar to Romeo and Juliet as Tybalt get killed, although at the end he does get put back together which makes it a happy ending.
In the animated film, Gnomeo and Juliet first encounter when finding a Orchid(flower) that they both want. Both of the gnomes are unidentifiable, in this scene of the film they didn't know that they were a Montagues or a Capulets, they thought that they were just any gnome. It is very clear that they fall in love straight away by their actions towards each other. When falling into the pond, they see each others true colours. Similarly when Romeo and Juliet meet at a masked ball, so they cannot identify each other either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJHDiw1COL0
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| First Encounter of Gnomeo and Juliet |
Act 2, scene 2 in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is standing on her balcony after meeting Romeo, and because she is in love with Romeo but she is a Montague, it is forbidden for her to be with him as he is a Capulet. This theme has not been changed in in Gnomeo and Juliet but the wording has, in stead of using Iambic Pentameter (Shakespearian language), they rhyme to each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6HpUndEtP8
Finally, there was one part in the animated film that I found very interesting was the way the director added Shakespeare as a talking statue. As Gnomeo is asking Shakespeare for some advice, and Shakespeare explains the true ending (what happens in the original, his own play). Although, Gnomeo does not understand why both Romeo and Juliet should die at the end. Shakespeare goes to explain that his story is a tragedy and it shouldn't be a happy ending, and they should die, he shakes his feather pen, and Gnomeo nearly dies. I thought this was very cleaver because when I first watched the film I though Gnomeo was really going to die and it wasn't going to be a happy ending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwajSVAV0zc
Ballet - Romeo and Juliet
The Ballet version of Romeo and Juliet was first recorded in March 2O12 at the Royal Opera House. I found very hard to find similarities and differences, also why it hasn't changed over time. Because it is very similar to Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, apart from there is no speaking. Although there is no speaking, you can see the emotions of the characters through the music and the movement of the ballet. From the ball scene onwards you can really tell that Juliet is really showing her emotions of her young self and shows her love for Romeo.
- I think that this version was not changed because ballet is very traditional
Here is our script:
Molly:
A performance is amalgamation of things, dependent on the type of production, there are different aspects.
Khadija:
There are musicals, films, stage, animated films and even radio. They are all require more than one element in order to create an engaging production. The best shows (as well as all shows) have a solid structure and are normally adaptation's of plays, which may have originally been books. An example of a great playwright as well as a poet and actor is William Shakespeare.
Molly:
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1954 and lived until 1614. He came from a large family being the third eldest of seven siblings. His father John was a glove maker and a wool merchant whilst his mother the daughter of a land owner in South Warwickshire. In 1582, at 18 years old, he married the local farmer's daughter Anne Hathaway who birthed their first daughter six months post their wedding. A couple of years later the pair had a set of twins, however, their son passed away at 11 years.
Khadija:
The 16th century was not the most pleasant time period. The outbreak of the bubonic plague between 1592-94 affected many civilians; this was the water borne virus which due to the lack od sanitation levels of the environment at this time it was very easily spread and deathly. An estimated 2O,OOO people who perished from the plague.
Molly:
Shakespeare began putting together his first batch of sonnets, as plays were not requested due to the theatres closing down. Along side this many of his well-known plays such as Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and A Midsummer Nights Dream; Romeo And Juliet was written between 1591-1595
Khadija:
Living during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, and then James 1, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. James 1 was rather fond of his work and welcomed many of Shakespeare's productions. Obtaining the ruler of the time period's approval was like gold dust at theatre was till a rather taboo topic. Even though Shakespeare has female roles within plays, women were not allowed to be on stage.
Molly:
As well as progressing as an actor, Shakespeare, partnered and ran a company with one of the Lord Chamberlain's company (also known as the King's Company). Their performances took place in either the Globe or the Blackfriars, both theatres near the banks of the River Thames.
Khadija:
This meant that he would commute frequently between his life at home with his family and London and shows. After producing two plays every year from 1594-1611, Shakespeare brought a large house in Stratford. Continued success meant that he was able to move upmarket Silver Street )close to the Barbican theatre now) where many of his other tragedies were formed.
Molly:
Living a rather successful life, he spent his last few years in New Place, Stratford. All in all, unlike others in this time, Shakespeare passed but rather wealthy and with a large property which he left to the male heirs of his eldest daughter.
Khadija:
A tragedy in itself, Shakespeare made his mark and well to the point we are in the 21st century and he is a key aspect to world history. Mostly famous for his plays; one of the more popular ones Romeo and Juliet was our source. We from there began to access where and how its been contextually modernised over the years and the different interpretations that have come from the base plot.
The story of Romeo and Juliet contains themes of love, fate, duality(light and dark though imagery) and day time. There are two rivalling families the Montagues and the Capulets, due to the past measures they are sworn enemies. It's not until the Capulets hold a masked ball that the descendants of the Lords and Ladies meet. They fall in love at first sight and exchange. The play begins with a 14 lined prologue in sonnet form which is spoken by the chorus; the changes as the rest of the play is written in blank verse and iambic pentameter. Dependent on character, the Nurse is a good example of blank text as her comments are almost colloquial e.g. "well you have made a simple choice, you know not how to choose a man etc.." Mercutio is another example of this during the 'Queen Mab' speech, it's known as epic poetry as it's large narrative section.
Websites I used to help me:
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/romeojuliet/page_78.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/sparknotes/video/romeojuliet
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_shakespeare/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/9/list-top-10-romeo-and-juliet-screen-adaptations/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLDbfyWqSrg
I feel as though my presentation didn't go as well as I wanted it too, and I really do feel fully responsible for this. I should have looked deeper into the success criteria and should have gone over my research with my partner. I did struggle quite a lot with this presentation/module, but I felt as though I tried my best.
In the presentation I was very that I was very nervous and I did miss out some of my key points that I wanted to make. Also, because I was so nervous I can see that I was speaking very quickly and some of my words were not pronounced correctly (as you can see in the video I couldn't say Iambic pentameter, and Khadija had to help me). Also some of my words were broke up, so my sentence's do not make sense. I felt that because I was nervous it affected my performance and how I wanted to perform the presentation but I also should have looked into more depth of 'Gnomeo and Juliet' directed by Kelly Asbury and 'Romeo and Juliet the musical'(Ballet version).
Also, I noticed that I was constantly looking down on my script and not making eye contact with my tutor, I should have tried harder to remember the script.
I think because I didn't mention some of my key points and explained into more depth, I feel fully responsible for how the presentation went.
Also I feel as though I didn't write down my notes in to depth and didn't show why and how the movie and musical has changed or not changed over the years, I didn't say as much as I wanted to.
If I was to do this presentation again, I would make sure I have found all the key elements of all the plays and explain why I thought it had changed over the years.
