Romeo and Juliet is a 1994 American animated musical romantic comedy-drama film produced by Miramax Animation as its first feature film. Based on the Shakespearean tragedy of the same name, the film was directed and co-written by Michael Winters in his directorial debut, co-written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and Noni White, and features the voices of Tate Donovan, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Kline, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Patrick Stewart, Tracey Ullman, Rupert Everett, Whoopi Goldberg, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It follows Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers who fall in love against the wishes of their warring families.
The film was released in the United States on September 9, 1994, by Miramax Films under their Miramax Family Films imprint, and was a critical and commercial success, earning over $186.3 million against its $44 million budget.
Plot[]
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Cast[]
- Tate Donovan as Romeo, the son of Lord Montague and his wife Lady Montague
- Brad Kane as Romeo's singing voice
- Sandra Bullock as Juliet, the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet who falls in love with Romeo
- Sally Dworsky as Juliet's singing voice
- Kevin Kline as Mercutio, a close friend to Romeo and a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris.
- Gene Hackman as Tybalt, the son of Lady Capulet's brother, Juliet's short-tempered first cousin, and Romeo's rival.
- Jim Cummings as Tybalt's singing voice
- Nathan Lane as Benvolio, Lord Montague's nephew and Romeo's cousin.
- Patrick Stewart as Friar Laurence, a wise advisor to Romeo and Juliet.
- Tracey Ullman as the Nurse, the personal servant, guardian (and former wet nurse) of Juliet Capulet, and has been since Juliet was born.
- Rupert Everett as Count Paris, a suitor of Juliet. He is handsome, wealthy, and a kinsman to Prince Escalus.
- Whoopi Goldberg as Rosaline, the niece of Lord Capulet.
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Queen Mab, a symbol for freedom and also becomes Romeo's psyche after he realizes that he is also a floating spirit.
Additional voices[]
- Charlie Adler
- Jack Angel
- Corey Burton
- E.G. Daily
- Jennifer Darling
- Debi Derryberry
- Mr. Lawrence
- Sherry Lynn
- Mickie T. McGowan
- Patrick Pinney
- Frank Welker
Production[]
Development[]
In the late 1980s, during his work at Paramount Feature Animation, Michael Winters began pitching ideas for an animated adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet as he wanted to make it as a suitable animated musical following the success of the Disney Renaissance films. Originally, the idea was conceived as a television special, but Winters felt it had potential as a feature film. In July 1989, Winters wrote a 40-page film treatment which remained very faithful to the original story and was originally much darker and grittier with the ending which involves the deaths of the two main characters as depicted in the original story.
While working on Little Helpers To the Rescue, Winters proposed the treatment to Paramount Animation late CEO Nancy Farwell, who was dissatisfied with Winters' pitch and suggested Winters make changes to the treatment, complaining that "you cannot let the main characters die at the end. That'll make the kids cry in the audience and a bunch of parents angry." Because of this, Winters started to leave Paramount due to disagreements with the studio. After he left Paramount, Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein convinced Winters to launch a new animation studio for Miramax, in which Winters accepted. For the new division's first project, Winters was allowed to transfer to the new animation studio to pitch Romeo and Juliet. During that time, Winters had always learned that Disney made significantly changes to their adaptations of original fairy tales such as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid and left out many gruesome details to make them more light-hearted. Meanwhile, Miramax recruited Maria Jenkins to serve as producer on the project while also promoting as president of its animation division.
Production began in late 1990. During this time, screenwriting duo Bob Tzudiker and Noni White came on board to rewrite the original screenplay by Winters. They were later joined by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio after finishing work on Aladdin.
Casting[]
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Animation[]
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Music[]
- Main article: Romeo and Juliet (1994 film)/Soundtrack
Release[]
Romeo and Juliet was released in theaters on September 9, 1994, by Miramax Films under its Family Films label.
Marketing[]
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Home media[]
Romeo and Juliet was released on VHS and LaserDisc on January 31, 1995. It was later released on DVD for the first time on August 14, 2001, with both full-screen and widescreen versions on one disc, an audio commentary by the filmmakers and a sneak preview at Miramax Animation's next feature film, The Curse of the Powerlight, among other features.
On September 9, 2014, for the film's 20th anniversary, the film was released for the first time on Blu-ray by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, and contained new special features in addition to most, if not all, of the old special features from the previous DVD releases.
On March 4, 2021, Romeo and Juliet, along with other Miramax Animation films, became available on Paramount+.
Reception[]
Box office[]
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Critical response[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an average grade of 90%, based on 75 reviews. The site's concensus reads "Based on Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Romeo and Juliet delivers smart and fun experiences with the dazzling performances by Donovan and Bullock." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 75 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Accolades[]
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Video games[]
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Transcripts[]
Main[]
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.
Trailers[]
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.