"The Mushroom is Bathazar!"

Yesterday we finished watching Gnomeo & Juliet and it was very interesting to hear student observations about this movie after having studied Romeo & Juliet and watched the 1996 film version of Romeo + Juliet.

Students made all kinds of fabulous comparisons! Some were obvious...the rival families are now red and blue garden gnomes, Tybalt is still an angry and vengeful Tybalt, 'Benny' is Benvolio, the street brawl scene is now a lawn mower race, the  ending is happier and no one dies!...

And then there were the subtler observations:

The frog is like the Nurse...
Instead of swords or guns they fight with lawn mowers...
The flamengo is like Friar Lawrence...
The cutting of the flower is like Mercutio being stabbed...
The mushroom is Bathazar, Romeo's loyal friend....

And many more...

Students were very observant and detailed in making comparisons between the two. Almost every scene brought a round of 'what does this represent', 'what part of the play is this', 'who is missing' and 'who is this character supposed to be?'. Great!

Afterwards, we read a movie review, discussing (and justifying) our own opinion of the movie in comparison to what this reviewer said. Students were (and are) encouraged to provide *very specific* details to support their reasoning, referencing examples/evidence from the film/play.

Students will soon be writing their own movie reviews, choosing either this one or the 1996 film starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

I look forward to reading these!