Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss

Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Phil Nibbelink
Produced by Margit Friesacher
Phil Nibbelink
Written by Phil Nibbelink
William Shakespeare (play)
Based on Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Starring Daniel Trippett
Patricia Trippett
Chip Albers
Michael Toland
Stephen Goldberg
Phil Nibbelink
Chanelle Nibbelink
Narrated by Michael Toland
Music by Christopher Page
Tommy Carter
Stephen Bashaw
Jack Waldenmaier
Steven Wenger
Bill Holloman
Curt Macdonald
Kirk Cirillo
Edited by Phil Nibbelink
Production
company
Phil Nibbelink Productions
Distributed by Indican Pictures (USA)
Marvista Entertainment (International)
Release dates
  • October 27, 2006 (2006-10-27)
Running time
 71 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,000,000[1]
Box office $463,002[2]

Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss is a 2006 American animated romantic fantasy film loosely following the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The film is about two star-crossed seals, Romeo and Juliet (voiced by Daniel and Patricia Trippet respectively), who fall in love against the wishes of their warring families. It was released in Europe in mid-2006 and on October 27 in the United States.

The film was written, animated, and directed entirely by one man, former Disney animator Phil Nibbelink. The film, created on an estimated budget of $2 million, took 4½ years to complete and required 112,000 frames, all drawn by Nibbelink on a Wacom tablet directly into Flash 4 in combination with Moho software. Despite the film's negative reviews, it won an award in Best in Show at the Southwest Film Festival.

Plot

Warring Capulets (Michael Toland) and Montagues (Stephen Goldberg), portrayed as Steller and California sea lions respectively, have their feud watched sadly by Capulet's only daughter, Juliet (Patricia Trippett). A fight on the shore is ended when the Prince (Phil Nibbelink), a large and monstrous elephant seal, appears and warns the two groups that, should there be any more disturbance, the seal who caused it shall be exiled to Shark Island, a fin shaped rock where a shark lives. Romeo (Daniel Tripett), Montague's only son, is depressed, wishing to fall in love with someone. His humorous friend, Mercutio (Chip Albers), urges him and another of his friends, Benvolio (Sam Gold), to go to a Capulet party later that evening. They attend the party, covered in white sand to look like Capulets, and Romeo falls in love with Juliet at first sight. Juliet, however, was promised by her father to marry the Prince, who attends the party. Romeo and his friends manage to wreak havoc, and are revealed to be Montagues. Later that evening, the play's balcony scene is recreated on a cliff on the beach where a tree grows. Romeo promises Juliet that they shall marry the next morning, and she will not have to marry the Prince.

Romeo begs Friar Lawrence, a sea otter, to wed them. After some thought, the friar believes their marriage will end the feud between their families, and agrees. Romeo and Juliet are wed that morning and traverse the sea in their happiness. However, even the other sea and land animals strongly oppose their being together. A fish finds them a lovely couple, but warns them that they will be in big trouble if the Prince finds out. Back on the beach, Mercutio is telling many jokes, which leads to him making insulting jokes against the Capulets, and the Prince is headed in that direction. When he arrives, Mercutio mocks him as well. Romeo rushes to aid his friend, but after a struggle Mercutio falls off the cliff where Juliet met Romeo the previous evening, and everyone thinks that he is dead. The Prince, jealous of Juliet's affection for Romeo, exiles Romeo to Shark Island. In despair, Juliet seeks the Friar's help, and he gives her a potion to put her in a deathlike state. Mercutio is revealed to be alive and sees the whole thing, remarking, "What a tangled web we weave."

Lawrence shows the Capulet seals that Juliet is "dead", right as they were celebrating the marriage. But Benvolio sees her as well, and swims to Shark Island to tell Romeo. The Friar chases him to stop him, but is attacked by a shark. After receiving the terrible news from Benvolio, Romeo heads to the shore to see if Juliet is truly dead. Friar Lawrence arrives too late and tries to follow Romeo, only to have his tail maimed by the shark. After an undersea chase and some help from the fish Romeo and Juliet met earlier, Lawrence escapes and heads to the beach. A heartbroken Romeo walks past the mourning Capulets and tries to kiss Juliet, only to have some of the potion slip into his own mouth, putting him in a deathlike state as well. Both groups of seals begin to weep for their loss, and Lawrence, who has just arrived, teaches them a lesson about where hatred leads them. Suddenly, Romeo and Juliet awaken, and all is well. Mercutio returns, and the Prince finds a new mate, a large elephant seal like himself. The movie ends with the two families at peace, and Romeo and Juliet remaining together.

Cast and characters

Production

Background

Nibbelink, a former Disney animator, founded an independent company with his wife, Margit Friesacher, called Phillip Nibbelink Productions, in 1998.[3] He stated that he grew tired of the "big industry merry-go-round" and wanted to make films himself.[4] He had independently created two feature-length animated films before Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss—Puss in Boots & Leif Ericson: The Boy Who Discovered America.[3] Nibbelink decided to make Romeo and Juliet in 2000,[1] when he was finishing Leif Ericson,[3] and began work on it in early 2003.[1] Nibbelink wanted the film to be a family-friendly version of Shakespeare's original tale, because of the few appropriate family films available at the time.[3]

Animation

Nibbelink in his studio working on the film

The film took 4½ years of animating and required 112,000 frames, each of which were completed in under 2 minutes[4] and drawn on a Wacom tablet directly into Flash 4, in combination with Moho software.[5] All the frames together were done in a month, by Nibbelink's estimation.[3] The Moho software was used for the "over-the-shoulder" or the "listening" characters, or crowd scene characters.[5] The film was a half-year in post-production.[3] Nibbelink used Flash 4 because when he tried to migrate to Flash 5, it created forward-compatibility problems. Even cut-and-paste work using Flash 4 and Flash 5 launched at the same time created RAM issues and crashed.[5]

Audio

Most actors of the film were Nibbelink's friends and children, whose voices he recorded in a studio in his basement.[4] The film's Spanish dub was originally done in Madrid.[3] Nibbelink said his daughter's voice-over was completely unscripted. "I would take these silly improvs that my little daughter would do. I mean, lines like, she would say, ‘Babies – p-ew! I hate stinky babies!’ I said, ‘That’s hilarious!’ So I would use it."[3]

The film had no official composer. Nibbelink bought melodies from royalty-free music compositions, and wrote the lyrics for the music.[3] These royalty free music companies were Intents Creative Music, British Audio Publishing, Crank City Music, Jack Waldenmaier Music Productions in association with The Music Bakery, River City Sound Productions, Bejoodle Music, Fresh Music, and Music 2 Hues. Three songs are included in the film: a version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", performed by Chanelle Nibbelink and arranged by Elva Nibbelink, "Bite My Tail", performed by Michael Toland and arranged by Nibbelink, and "Singing Starfish", performed by Jennifer, Russell, and Gigi Nibbelink.[6]

Release

Theatrical release

Nibbelink standing in front of the poster for the film

Nibbelink sold the film to 800 people, and it was picked up by distributors MarVista Entertainment for release in foreign territories and Indican Pictures for a domestic release.[3] A preview of the film was screened at Sony Pictures Entertainment in Los Angeles, California on November 17, 2004,[7] and the movie was later showcased at the 2005 Asia Television Forum in Singapore.[8] It was released as Fofita, una foquita la mar de salada to 32 theaters in Madrid and Seville on June 23, 2006.[3][9][10]

Sealed with a Kiss was rated "G" by the Motion Picture Association of America.[11] The film had a domestic total of $463,002 in its 34-week (238-day) box office run. On opening weekend in 2006, the film, which debuted in Los Angeles, California,[4] grossed $80,938,[2] with an average of $4,220.[12] That same week, it grossed a total $109,720.[13] The film closed its box office run on July 19, 2007,[2] having grossed just $895 that same week.[13] Despite being a minor box office bomb, as of June 2013, the film is the third most profitable film released by Indican Pictures.[14]

Home media

The film was released to DVD on June 12, 2007. Animatedviews.com's Ben Simon, in his review of the DVD, gave it an overall 7 out of 10, praising the large bonus content for a low-budget film, but criticizing the glitchy sound and audio of the feature.[15] A giveaway was previously held in 2005 by Abbey Home Media and Courier Kids, and the prize was a DVD copy of the film and a toy seal. Ten copies were given.[16]

Critical reception

The film was negatively received by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that only 20% of critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 3/10, based on 5 reviews.[17] Movies.com's Dave White compared what he considered the film's poor animation to the animation of The Wild, and criticized some dialogue of the film judged "vaguely Shakespearean", satirizing the fact that "children like English pronouns 15th century."[18] Sam Adams of the Los Angeles Times called the film a "genuine tragedy, although not in the Shakespearean sense" and wrote that a "comprehensive list of what's wrong with Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss would stretch farther than the unabridged works of William S."[19] LA Weekly's Luke Y. Thompson said that the film "should find its primary audience among college potheads who like to watch '70s Hanna-Barbera creations on the Cartoon Network late at night."[20] Common Sense Media writer Renee Schonfeld said in his 2012 review that it was "an amateurish effort with a grating villain, tired jokes, and sub-par music". He gave it 2 out of 5 stars.[21]

In contrast, Reel.com's Pam Grady gave the film a 2.5 out of 4, saying that, "surprisingly, it's not terrible".[17] Animatedviews.com's Ben Simon defended the film, saying it was "a charming little movie" that "remains faithful to Shakespeare's text."[15] The film won two awards at the Southwest Film Festival, in the animation and Best in Show category.[3][22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Romeo And Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss Production Information. The Big Cartoon Database. Accessed on May 25, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Armstrong, Josh (August 10, 2007). "Phil Nibbelink: Sealed With A Kiss". Animated Views. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Raugust, Karen (November 22, 2006). "Independence Day: The Growth of Indie Animated Features". Animation World Network. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 One Man, One Movie, 112,000 Drawings. October 17, 2006. Cold Hard Flash.
  6. ↑ Romeo And Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss Cast & Crew List. Big Cartoon Database. Accessed on May 26, 2013.
  7. ↑ Phillips, Julian (November 22, 2004). Classic 2-D Animator Phil Nibbelink talks about new project: Shakespeare for children. Skwigly. Accessed on May 25, 2013.
  8. ↑ Globo TV, Marvista's bonanza at ATF. Indian Television. November 26, 2005. Accessed on July 27, 2013.
  9. ↑ Aniort, Carmen (June 23, 2006). Un romance con personajes de peso (in Spanish). ABC. Accessed on May 25, 2013.
  10. ↑ ABC Seville (in Spanish). ABC. June 24, 2006. Accessed on 25 May 2013.
  11. ↑ Search results for "Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss. filmratings.com. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  12. ↑ Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. Box Office Mojo. Accessed on August 3, 2012.
  13. 1 2 Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss - Weekly Box Office Results. Box Office Mojo. Accessed on August 3, 2012.
  14. ↑ Indican. Box Office Mojo. Accessed on May 25, 2013.
  15. 1 2 Simon, Ben (August 10, 2007). Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss - DVD. Animated Views. Accessed on May 26, 2013.
  16. ↑ A classic tale... sealed with a kiss. Halifax Courier. October 27, 2005. Accessed on July 27, 2013.
  17. 1 2 Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  18. ↑ White, Dave. Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss Review. Movies.com. Accessed on May 26, 2013.
  19. ↑ Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. Metacritic. Accessed on May 25, 2013.
  20. ↑ Y. Thompson, Luke. Film Reviews at the Wayback Machine (archived November 28, 2006). Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  21. ↑ Schonfeld, Renee (April 14, 2012). Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss - Movie Review. Common Sense Media. Accessed on May 25, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Romeo and Juliet Takes Top Prize". Cold Hard Flash. January 18, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
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