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.

WARNING NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN!!!!!!!!! This movie is absolutely atrocious! The animation is lazy and the characters are poorly crafted at best. I showed this to my high school students and they were uncomfortable with some of the innuendo and awkward moments provided by a demonic floating fish. No one dies, the singing is awful, the prince is rather rape-y, and the animation is sub-par, especially for 2006! Go watch Gnomeo and Juliet if you want a quality adaptation of Shakespeare's work. This "adaptation" if we are giving it that much credit is a stretch of the truth. The Mercutio character is in incredibly poor taste and the thinly veiled racist undertones are uncalled for and rude. As my students said "Let's hop the nope train out of here."

Before I went into watching this film I read a bit about it from other viewers and based on what they said I had pretty low expectations for it. But after viewing the whole thing I've come to the realization... it's not that bad. The animation is really well done and the story is filled with Shakespeare jokes that any thespian or theater buff will get a good chuckle out of. Not that there aren't problems with it though. The voice acting and singing can often range from good, mediocre, or just plain bad. The characters themselves are all moderately enjoyable except for one in particular... a fish called Kissy(you'll know her when you see her and you'll either love or hate her).If you're looking for a movie to entertain your kids or to just kill some time I'd recommend this to you but be forewarned, this is the kind of movie you'll either hate or like.I give Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss a 6.5/10 leaning towards a 7.

Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss (DO YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE? IT'S ABOUT SEALS!) is possibly the laziest excuse for a film I've ever seen. There are maybe 5 surnames in the credits to this film - clearly the backers of this film called in every family favour they could. One of the characters, a talking fish, is played by the director's daughter, for instance. She sounds about 8. She gets to sing a solo of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This should give you some idea of the sheer skill and respect for the craft that went into this.First of all, an interpretation of Romeo and Juliet where no-one dies feels... well, redundant. You can't really take one of the great tragedies and tack on a happy ending. Doubly so if that happy ending involves Mercutio surfboarding in taking racist jokes with the punchlines replaced by the word "Capulet".Also, there is a dance scene on the Titanic. I don't know why these awful children's films feel the need to use the deaths of thousands for cheap laughs, but it's a trend that is apparently spreading.And when it's all said and done, the Shakespeare content is pretty weak. The family rivalry is replaced by lazy racism, characters are cut or merged to the point of nonsense (we want Tybalt!), the ending is changed, all the scenes describing their courtship are cut and replaced with badly sung musical numbers, and yet Mercutio feels the need to constantly quote other Shakespeare plays! And use words like "thou" and "wherefore" wrongly, which isn't very educational at all.All in all: hilarious for adults who know Shakespeare and are drunk. Weak otherwise.