Someone somewhere must like garden gnomes and some of them must live in the United States. This movie is definitely for such people and those who like gray stone bunnies and pink flamingos (and we’re not talking about the 1972 John Waters kind). And even if you, like Ian and I, don’t like any of the above, still give this movie a go, if you like animation and a good family laugh.

This is Shakespeare gone goofy with a war between the blue-hatted gnomes and the red-hatted gnomes. And creator Kelly Asbury added a little casting craziness: Ozzy Osbourne as a ceramic fawn? Jim Cummings as a Latino flamingo with a heartbreaking past? Hulk Hogan as the advertising announcer’s voice for the high-powered lawn mower, the Terrafirminator? Rival clans racing on lawnmowers?

We also get some Shakespearean credentials with Patrick Stewart as the bard, but in the bronze statue form.

Asbury’s re-tooling of the William Shakespeare tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” has plenty of chuckles and laugh out loud moments and we didn’t mind the transformation that brings us to a happy ending. This is, after all, family entertainment. This movie is set in contemporary times in a lovely London suburb. The gnomes happen to inhabit the neighboring yards of an elderly man, Mr. Capulet (Richard Wilson) and an elderly woman, Miss Montague (Julie Walters)–both gardeners but not on good terms. Both have yards that are immaculate wonderlands devoted to gnome life and some of those gnomes are unlike any gnome you’ve ever seen. Unless there are really mankini gnomes?

Like “Toy Story,” the conceit is that the gnomes spring to life when the humans aren’t around. Gnomeo is a blue-hatted gnome voiced by James McAvoy (the Scottish actor who played Mr. Tumnus in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and the love interest in “Atonement”) . And in a cute-meet, Gnomeo falls in love with the red-hatted Juliet (Emily Blunt, the London-born actress who was in the 2006 “The Devil Wore Prada”). Caught between the prejudices of his mother, Lady Blueberry (Maggie Smith), and her father, Lord Redbrick (Michael Caine), Gnomeo and his Juliet find neutral ground in a neglected yard where our flamingo friend, Featherstone, acts as both chaperone and love counselor.

Elton John is the executive producer and his music fills most of the soundtrack (along with Chris Bacon and James Newton Howard). Asbury even gives us a gnome Elton John alter ego which makes one wonder if gnomes don’t come to life.

With gnomes as the theme and John (and Bernie Taupin) on the soundtrack, of course, there’s dancing. A little hip hop (and we’re not talking about those bunnies), a little old school rock and some moonwalking.

This animation has some chuckles for adults and yet is suitable for children with its sweet romance. Despite it’s switch to a happy ending, the moral of “Romeo and Juliet” remains. How can that be bad? “Gnomeo & Juliet” opens today.