Seeing as I love seals and Shakespeare, I thought I'd give this little animated tidbit a go. I knew this much - that it was animated entirely by Phil Nibblelink (who worked on Basil the Great Mouse Detective and others), that it was a lighter and happier version of the play and various sea creatures (mainly seals) were the cast.

The story starts out with two warring seal clans - the brown Montagues and the white Capulets. Like the original story, the reason for their hate was lost in time, but the actual hate itself was as strong as ever. And of course, Romeo and Juliet are introduced and they both fall in love yadda yadda yadda, you know the rest.

A lot of the characters from the play are transformed. The Prince is a gigantic, blubbery elephant seal who's not the brightest of the bunch (and his breath stinks). Friar Lawrence is portrayed wonderfully as an amusing yet slightly sinister sea otter. The best of the bunch is Mercutio. Since this film has a young public, his demise is not as unfortunate, and he doesn't resort to violence (he uses insults instead). Despite all this, he really steals the show and is actually quite funny. However, there are times when he is on the verge of being annoying.

The songs were short, unnecessary and forgettable. The only exceptions were the beautiful love song between Romeo and Juliet and the Prince's short musical number.
Also, Phil's daughter sang 'Twinkle twinkle Little Star' which was quite sweet.

What I didn't like about this film was that it was too light. Yes, it's a kids film and all - but it could have been a little darker. Look at The Little Mermaid. Yes, Disney added sunshine, but it still had its cloudy moments. Or look at Disney's 'Hamlet with Lions' - The Lion King.

Die-hard Shakespeare fans will probably hate this, but if you're a sucker for animation (and cute animals), you'll love it. It's a really sweet movie if you overlook its flaws.

Okay, okay -- I know what you're going to ask me: "Are you absolutely nuts?"

Indeed, I am. This piece is amazingly amazing! Sure, the story of Romeo & Juliet is a classic known to mostly everyone, but who would have thought that seals would create such adorable lovers?

The art is mostly smooth and beautiful to behold, the characters are interesting and try their best to stay within their character (although at about halfway through the film, Mercutio goes a little bit too far on his jokes . . . almost to sheer racism; but I suppose it's building up to one of the film's early climaxes), and the songs are mainly short and sweet, mostly going straight to the point. Character designs were quite lovely, and the voices aren't all that bad.

The story, however, is another story (heh), and it isn't your mother's Shakespeare either. The fact that the feuding Capulets and Montagues are only different by color could be used to make some people consider that this verges near the point of being like a Brown vs. White situation (you know, discrimination and race . . . and all that), but it all leads to the tragic ending that we all expected . . .

*SPOILER*
It all ends with a Disney-style happy ending. Gah.
*endSPOILER*

Despite that one little thing, overall it's not that bad of a film, really. The fact that one man made this whole film and it was released is awesome! Mr. Nibbelink should give himself a pat on the back . . . because although it was a risky piece and almost a bit controversial at some moments, this clearly deserves four stars.

Well done! If you can buy it, let your family enjoy it. You know I will!

I was shocked and suprised by the negative reviews I saw on the web, I thought this film by Phil Nibbelink (director of An American Tail : Fievel goes West) was very good from the moment I saw the trailer; and also I love seals.

I always love the works of Shakespeare (ever since I studied him in my High School English Classes),and I agree with Laura Tiffany of "Home Media Magazine" and Rick Bentley of "Fresno Bee" : It's Impressive and a sweet film that should delight the family. Overall all that, I give this a big A+ for :

· Great Backgrounds and Excellant Color Styling and...
· Very Good Music

The shortest credits list I ever seen for a full length feature, most of it just for the actors and special thanks. Most of the hard graft of writing and animation was done alone by Phil Hibbelink, working on flash and that via a tablet; but was it a mistake to go solo? Did Phil outstretch himself? And most importantly, is the finished film worth watching?

Shakespeare with seals as the principal cast may not have been the first thing that comes to your mind, but through animation history we’ve had things like Opera with Bugs Bunny, Dickens with cats and dogs: Treasure Island in space and lets not forget muppet renditions of such things. Thing is, how is this film any different from those or other takes like that version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio set in modern day Verona. If it makes Shakespeare (Dickens, etc) more palatable to the intended listeners ears then so be it. To be honest, most children care not for the old English plays (I certainly can’t say I really enjoyed having to learn Macbeth for my English exams). Those who enjoyed it may move on to the real thing and if this is to be a introduction to the playwright’s worlds then so good.

I do have some more grounded annoyances: Mercutio being reduced to telling really bad insults-as-jokes being a major one, one could read the Capulet joke rant he goes on as a form of racial hatred (in spite of the fact that in the beginning of the film he’s trying to woo some Capulet ladies). Also Kissy has a habit in the later part of the film of quoting lines from a certain film, much to the confusion of the other characters who have no knowledge of what she means.

I’ll admit to also being a bit jolted when lines from other Shakespearian plays were thrown into the mix, but I just shrugged it off; you would be hard-pressed to let this go in a serious adaptation: yet I never expected this to be a serious one and so felt that I’ll let it the film get away with it. If I can accept and enjoy The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s take of these plays I can cope with this, I never said I was an inflexible purist.

The film starts moments before a battle between the two feuding seal families, the white seal Capulets and the brown seal Montagues. Their combined noise awakening Prince, a massive dofus of an elephant seal with a real short temper. He tells the families that whoever disturbs the peace again, will pay with their lives as he’ll banish them to shark island (which of course is home to a hungry shark: happy at the prospect of seal dinner).

So overall the film makes a attempt to follow the original story, even if it has been given more simplistic (and racial) overtones in place of the original multi-generational feud of the play. This does make it simpler for Romeo and co to Disguise themselves as Capulets to crash their party by covering themselves in some white mud/sand (which kind of reminded me of the coal scene in 101 Dalmatians). Some might say that this is an oversimplification, well yes it is: not that that’s anything new in animation (or film-making for that matter).

The animation is at times smooth (and on ones), but at others it can be quite stiff and jerky. This has a bit to do with the limitations of using vector processes on flash, which can occasionally cause things to jar and move in unconvincing ways. Most noticeable is a few scenes with Friar Lawrence, who at times looks distinctively flash in origin, a fact not helped by his design; flash just isn’t good for classic 2D animation with characters with too many lines and colours. The seals, being primary one colour and easier to draw mostly get away with this problem (apart from in a few close-up shots). The animation on the two principals is the best in the film and overall it verges towards the kind of decent stuff you’d expect from a Disney-trained animator.

The films songs, though admittedly short, few and far between, are hampered by the singing voices of their characters. Some of them are not actually played seriously as one character comments “This is embarrassing” whilst Mercutio ‘sings’ a romantic melody when Romeo and Juliet first meet. I did find Kissy’s rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” rather cute (others might just find it annoying), and Prince’s little egotistical song is just daft enough to be likeable.

It’s cute but sometimes overly schmaltzy. It mostly sticks to the bare bones of the source material, if not the actual wording. Individual scenes are better than the whole. Unfortunately there isn’t much real bite in the film and the resolution is too easily solved. So is it worth watching? Well despite its faults, I think so; if only to see that one can make a film by oneself, if only one had the time.

Just don’t expect it to sweep you away or anything.