Product Details

• Actors: Daniel Trippett, Tricia Trippett, Chip Albers, Michael Toland, Steve Goldberg
• Directors: Phil Nibbelink
• Writers: Phil Nibbelink, William Shakespeare
• Producers: Margit Friesacher
• Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: Indican
• DVD Release Date: June 12, 2007
• Run Time: 76 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000G0O3SE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,572 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Romeo and Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ROMEO & JULIET:SEALED WITH A KISS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "This is a romantic emergency!", May 24, 2011

By 

Mike Sehorn "Rezo the Dezo" (APO, AE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Romeo and Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss (DVD)

In my book, director Phil Nibbelink is a good guy in the world of animation, due to his involvement in two of my fondest childhood flicks, An American Tail - Fievel Goes West and We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. The guy is clearly mainstream material, but the turn of the century saw him (willingly) entrenched in very questionable independent features that I'm just not a fan of. However, things began to look up in 2006, when he released his take on Shakespeare's classic romance and proved that having a one-man production crew isn't a death knell for a movie; changing cries of "this junk looks like it was done by one guy!" to a more optimistic "wow, only one guy did all this?"

Nibbelink's adaptation of Shakespeare's play is decent, arguably more true to its source material than the recent Gnomeo & Juliet. It's basically the traditional story, with a brown sea lion of the Montague herd (Daniel Trippett) falling for a white sea lion of the Capulet clan (Tricia Trippett) in the midst of a violent family feud. Nibbelink's decision to define the families by skin color kinda makes interracial relationships part of the message ("Oh, what's in a color? A fish of any other color would still smell as sweet!"), but it doesn't betray the story. The biggest alteration to the original tale is combining the characters of Tybalt and the Prince into a single manatee (voiced by the director) - a disappointing decision, but probably made because one man can only animate so many characters by himself. The story's tone is regulated by the medium, (SPOILER) so nobody ends up dying, but the tragedy and moral is represented well enough, nevertheless; Disney may have been able to pull it off better in their heyday, but in a time when feature animation has difficulty finding a middle ground between cloyingly sweet and depressingly dark (and, of course, adult-oriented Shrek humor), this one does just fine.

Additionally, since it's so rare to have a full-length cartoon be traditionally animated nowadays, "Sealed with a Kiss" stands out pretty well against its direct-to-video competition by default. Many of the backgrounds and environmental effects have been created via computer graphics, but the character animation - Phil's main strength - is almost entirely (95% or more) drawn by hand. Again, keeping in mind the constraints under which the movie was produced, these primary visuals are very good, with the characters displaying all the expression you could ask for in a 2D kids' film. The characters of Mercutio (a sea lion, played by Chip Albers) and Friar Laurence (an otter, played by Michael Toland) have been done particularly nicely, and burst with personality and physical liveliness. The background animation is generally good, too, with minimal looping of character action. The only real disappointment the visuals offer are the underwater scenes, during which it's only the digital bubbles and occasional stationary background piece letting you know that the characters are not floating through space.

The remaining tidbits compose a mixed bag of likes and extremes. The duet sung between Juliet and Romeo is pretty nice, but just about every other song - short as they all are - is forgettable. At least one scene between Mercutio and Benvolio (uncredited) is completely unnecessary to the story but still fun to watch; on the other end of the range, the second half of the movie punishes viewers with the introduction of a chorus-esque fish, played by the director's daughter, with a voice so annoying she makes Orko, Snarf, Slimer, and Scrappy-Doo sound like James Earl Jones. Oh, and prepare for kissing. Lots and lots of cutesy smooching between our lovebirds. Even the other characters comment on how overboard they go.

In the end, it all amounts to an average rating. I expected relatively little from this movie, but ended up getting a lot that was eventually watered down by storyline and stylistic shortcomings, some of them less forgivable others. At the very least, it's a decent film for the kids to enjoy, and a message to animators old and aspiring that you needn't stoop to studios to make something worth watching.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nauseatingly Cute, but relatively awkward, September 23, 2007

By 

Kathlyn Reed - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Romeo and Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss (DVD)

overall, a very sweet and endearing movie (with freakishly cute animation), but it tries much too hard to stay true to the original story, while pushing the Shakespere angle WAY too hard. ("To be or not to be" is uttered far too often). For those of you worried about the kiddies, don't worry, the ending isn't as dark as the original, but most children will lose interest long before then, from the pseudo-songs and irritating villain and best friend.
Rent it, or at least wait so you don't have to shell out $20+.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this movie!, June 27, 2011

By 

deanna lee (LAS VEGAS, NV, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Romeo and Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss (DVD)

This is such a cute movie! My 2 and 6 year olds loved it. It kept them interested the whole time. Romeo was by far their favorite character. Would recommend to all ages! :)