I remember accidentally stumbling on watching this movie with a family member one night back in later 2006 as a late teen, and I don't remember it being as bad as the 3.7/10 total user rating currently shown on the film's page. Which isn't too surprising given that lots of people today are hypercritical of things or films that aren't "by the book", as I definitely remember this one being a little unique from the Shakespeare play this movie is based on.In terms of an animated movie altogether for all audiences and not just kids, it's not excellent or probably not very good either, as I remember some things were too childish to my taste. But nevertheless, after looking at some clips of it again now, there were a few scenes that are interesting to say the least. Particularly, the wedding scene between the young Romeo and Juliet seal couple with the otter Friar, as the way this entire part was done (including the organ music) is the one I had remembered the most from this film.

If you're expecting me to bash this movie into oblivion then you will be very disappointed because I don't hate this movie. In fact, I don't even dislike it which is ironic since it has almost everything I'm against. Here's a full list: Underdeveloped romance, flat characters, nonsensical plot points, a rap number (yes really,) bringing characters back from the dead, and rewriting an overdone story. With that in mind, I should hate this movie but I don't! Why you may ask? One reason is nostalgia. As a kid, I absolutely adored this movie. I saw it almost every day until I was like 8! So when I watch this movie I get a bit of nostalgia for some of those scenes in the movie that sucked me in as a kid. Another reason is the absolutely gorgeous hand drawn animation. Yeah the designs are a little off but I like it. Plus, the backgrounds are very atmospheric. I guess I like young love and even though it's underdeveloped, seeing 2 cute little seals in love is just adorable to me. I can see how it could be creepy for other older viewers but I think it's cute. The ending is also pretty satisfying. While it doesn't follow the book, it's downright adorable. Speaking of the book, this movie followed the book as close as it could without killing off our adorable main leads. They even kept the balcony scene! Overall, this movie does get a little childish at times (and I do skip those scenes) but it's overall cute and sweet.

I love Shakespeare, and was intrigued at how "Romeo and Juliet:Sealed with a Kiss" would turn out. I did hear from people it was a disgrace to Shakespeare, but I have been known to disagree with critics and the IMDb ratings, so I gave this a chance. It wasn't absolutely repulsive, but it didn't quite click with me. The best asset of the film is the animation. The backgrounds are fluid and colourful and the characters with the exception of the Prince were well drawn. Considering the animation was done by one man, Phil Nibbelink, it was quite impressive visually. The story pretty much follows the storyline of the play, except it is about seals, plus some (I think) pointless scenes with Friar Lawrence and a shark, and the voice acting was on the whole decent. However, there are a lot of things wrong with it. I personally didn't care for the music. I love good music in animated films, but here I found the songs forgettable and bland, and the incidental music felt misplaced. I will say I liked one or two of the characters, Romeo and Juliet are appealing enough and the Kissing Fish is really cute. However, Friar Lawrence is not the wise caring character I associate him with, and I do not know why the Nurse was omitted when she provides the most effective source of parental love in the play. In my opinion, I didn't like the character of the Prince at all, I didn't like how he was drawn and his voice was too monotonic for my liking. Worst of all was the script, constant misuse of the Shakespeare language and Mercutio's jokes went well overboard, and especially in his death scene they weren't even funny. Overall, this movie was okay but I don't recommend it. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This movie was bad on its own. The singing was horrible. But the fact that they took Shakespeare play and turned it into mush is unacceptable.Everything was different from the original Shakespeare script. For starters, NOBODY died in this movie. Not Romeo, not Juliet, not Mercutio, not Tybalt(who was not even in the film). And Juliet is to marry the prince instead of Paris(who again, is not in this film) I know that its for kids but you are doing Shakespeare so all his plays have tragedy. None of his films have happy endings. This film might have been a bit better if it was a brand new film, but if you say you are going to follow Shakespeare, at least do not change the whole plot and have the guts to pin it on him.