[jiggy2011]

Play framework uses hibernate + JPA under the hood (although you may be able to switch it for something else) but provides so much candy around it that it feels like using Doctrine or something.

This isn't a bad thing as hibernate is an extremely powerful and complete ORM which I trust allot more than any of the half baked ones.

If you want to use hibernate properly I recommend reading "Java Persistence with Hibernate" It explains the framework very well including the logic behind allot of the things that feel strange or over engineered with it.