Trailer available here

When this first came out in movie theatres I remember a part of me was really looking forward to watching it; The original Conan Doyle books were something I got as a set in my teenage years and I read and re-read them. Adaptations always bothered me and even ‘well-received’ ones had actors I can’t stand or obvious gaps in the plot that I just couldn’t get behind. But this clearly deviated enough from that to be more of a cute animated piece based loosely on the characters. Anyway, I was basically shamed out of going to ever see it and it wasn’t until recently that I sat down one day and just watched it on my own.

I don’t actually like gnomes though. There is just something about the garden variety that bothers me, in the same say as nutcrackers and a lot of figurines do, and then of course they have a stinking bad personality in most TTRPGs that have given me a small loathing towards their personality too. But this movie felt like it would be a good balance of that terrible gnome personality and animated enough to not make them terribly uncomfortable creatures to be around and it sort of hit the spot.

It certainly turned out to be nothing particularly special but it was good enough that I didn’t feel like I had regrets for actually getting around to watching it in the end. There were a few moments that brought me a chuckle and a little gasp to go with it as well and it was certainly a delightfully simple enough take on the original characters, whilst intentionally deviating far enough, to feel enjoyable. I wouldn’t go out of my watch to watch it again but it was a good wholesome enough movie to be pleased to have ticked it off the list after all these years.