ROMEO & JULIET: SEALED WITH A KISS
SYNOPSIS
Directed by Phil Nibbelink
Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss is a fully animated feature fantasy about two
star crossed seals from warring families that fall in love against their parents'
wishes. When Juliet's father gives her hand in marriage to the monstrous elephant
seal Prince, Juliet must fake her death in order to be reunited with Romeo. But the
plan goes afoul and becomes a desperate race against time! With the help of their
friends Friar Lawrence and Kissy (the kissing fish), the day is saved and the young
lovers are reunited in this wonderful retelling of the ageless tale of love and
prejudice set in an undersea world.
Rating: Pending
TECH SPECS:
ROMEO & JULIET: SEALED WITH A KISS
Directed by Phil Nibbelink
Starring: Daniel Trippet, Patricia Trippet, Chip Albers, Michael Toland, Stephen
Goldberg, Phil Nibbelink and introducing Chanelle Nibblelink.
Runtime: 92 minutes
Format: 1:85 Flat (35MM)
Sound: Dolby Digital
Rating: G
Country: USA
Website: www.indicanpictures.com or www.romeoandjulietfilm.com
Genre: Children’s Animated
Trailer: Available
Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss
HEAD CREDITS
Phil Nibbelink Productions
Romeo & Juliet
Sealed With A Kiss
TAIL CREDITS
Written, Directed and Animated
by
Phil Nibbelink
Produced
by
Margit Friesacher
Starring
Daniel Trippet
as
Romeo
Patricia Trippet
as
Juliet
Chip Albers
as
Mercutio
Michael Toland
as
Friar Lawrence and Capulet
Stephen Goldberg
as
Montague
Phil Nibbelink
as the
Prince
and introducing
Chanelle Nibbelink
as
Kissy
the kissing fish
Special Thanks
Tony Anselmo
Alex Cirulis
Robert J. Morris
Audrey Johnson
Jacqui Carbonna
Michael Smith
Mike Kelly
Alex Moradian
Ted Wilson
Bruce Tausher
Richard Kaufman
Karen Prell
Roman Hobbs
Paul Nibbelink
Paul & Isa Friesacher
Max Howard
John McKenna
Bill Panagouleas
Music Courtesy of
Dick De Benedictis
Christopher Page
Intents Creative Music
Tommy Carter
British Audio Publishing
Stephen Bashaw
Crank City Music
Jack Waldenmaier
Jack Waldenmaier Music Productions
in association with The Music Bakery
Steven Wenger
River City Sound Productions
Bill Holloman
Bejoodle Music
Fresh Music
Curt Macdonald
Bejoodle Music
Fresh Music
Kirk Cirillo
Music 2 Hues
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
performed by
Chanelle Nibbelink
arranged by
Elva Nibbelink
"Bite My Tail"
performed by
Michael Toland
lyrics and music by
Phil Nibbelink
Singing Starfish
performed by
Jennifer Nibbelink
Russell Nibbelink
Gigi Nibbelink
Film Recorder
by
Upgrade Technology Inc.
upgradetech.com
Negative Cutting
Debbie McAfee
Film Laboratory
Hollywood Film & Video Inc.
Producer Rep.
Mark Litwak
copyright 2005
Phil Nibbelink Productions Inc.
All Rights Reserved
PHIL NIBBELINK
List of Credits
‘The Fox and the Hound’ - Disney
Animator
‘The Black Cauldron’ - Disney
Animator
‘The Great Mouse Detective’ - Disney
Animator
‘Oliver & Company’ - Disney
Animator
‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ - Disney/Spielberg (Co-Production)
Directing Animator
‘The Magic Voyage’ - MS Film/Bavaria
Animation Director
‘An American Tail - Fievel Goes West’ - Amblimation (Spielberg) at Universal
Director
‘We’re Back’ - Amblimation (Spielberg) at Universal
Director
‘Casper’ - Universal (Spielberg)
Animation Director
‘Boogie Woogie Whale’ Sing Along - Phil Nibbelink Productions
Writer/Director
‘Puss In Boots’ - Phil Nibbelink Productions
Writer/Director
‘Leif Ericson - The Boy Who Discovered America’ - Phil Nibbelink Productions
Writer/Director
‘Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss’ - Phil Nibbelink Productions
Writer/Director
Phil Nibbelink went to the Disney Animation program at California Institute of
the Arts and started work at Disney Studios as an animator in 1978. There I
animated on “The Fox and the Hound”, “The Black Cauldron”, “Basil the Great
Mouse Detective”, “Oliver and Company”, and I was a directing animator in
London on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. I then went to Germany and did
direction and animation on “The Magic Voyage”. From there I joined Steven
Spielberg to form Amblimation in London where I directed “An American Tail:
Fievel Goes West” and “We’re Back”. I moved back to L.A. and directed the
animation on “Casper” and developed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats”. In 1998
I started Phil Nibbelink Productions with my wife Margit Friesacher as
Producer and together we made direct to video films “The Boogie Woogie
Whale Sing-A-Long”, “Puss in Boots”,and “Leif Ericson: The Boy Who
Discovered America”.
In 2000 we decided to make the 35mm feature film “Romeo & Juliet: Sealed
With A Kiss”. After completing my other projects I began working on Romeo &
Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss in early 2003. It was exciting as I was putting my two
favorite things together, seals and Shakespeare. I figured if Bugs Bunny can
do Opera...seals can do Shakespeare! Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss
Production Notes
I worked for many years in the big studios as an animator and director. The crews on
my films ranged anywhere from 150 to 500 people. And although everyone says
‘filmmaking is a collaborative effort’, I came away feeling that it was filmmaking by
committee. A lot of money and time was wasted by going in circles. And sadly, the final
product was often a confused mash of competing ideas.
I was jealous of the novelist, painter and composer, who can sit alone and produce
entire creations, free of the noisy clash of egos. And so I determined to make a hand
animated feature all by myself.
It was a simple question of math. A 78 minute feature would require me to produce
112,320 drawings. If I could make a drawing every 2 minutes, I’d have a finished film in
5 years. I love the play Romeo & Juliet. And I love marine mammals. What if I combined
the two? I figured if Bugs Bunny could do opera, seals could do Shakespeare.
But how can one man do the work of hundreds? I had to rethink the way animated
features are made. They have always been animated with paper and pencil. The final
drawings used to be traced onto sheets of celluloid and shot over a background under
an animation camera. Now the drawings are scanned and colored in a computer and
the digital files are sent to a film recorder. I decided the most efficient way for me to
work would be to forget paper and animate directly into the computer using a graphics
tablet. This enabled me to skip a lot of time consuming steps. I animated in Flash, a
vector based animation software, which produces perfect vector lines that can be blown
up to the big screen. And I painted the backgrounds with Painter, which has a natural
media look. Unlike traditional film productions, I discovered I didn’t need to make
storyboards. The story and staging was clear in my mind and being a one-man-band,
meant I didn’t have to pitch my idea to 200 people.
All I needed to start, was voices. I built a small recording booth in my basement. And I
invited my children and a few friends to help me create the sound track that I would
work with for the next 5 years. My daughter Chanelle was 3 years old when she first
started recording for the part of Kissy the Kissing Fish. She was so good at improvising
that I started making her part bigger and bigger. I could only record a couple of lines
with her before she’d get fussy and run back upstairs. So her lines were recorded over 3
years.
Once the sound track was cut on my computer I would animate to the voices one
drawing at a time. The animation was then digitally composited over the backgrounds. I
bought a used film recorder and shot the 112,320 frames to 35mm film. Finally I cut the
film and transferred the sound to a 35mm sound track.
Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss took me 5 years to complete. I had finished an
entire animated feature in a ‘paperless studio’. I wore many hats and had to come down
a huge learning curve. But acting and story telling with art has always been my great
passion. And making all those thousands of drawings was the fun part for me. I like
bringing characters to life. They say an animator is ‘an actor with a pencil’. But with a
computer I have being able to play all the rolls. I have surrounded myself with the
technology to realize all my dreams.