The Prince of Egypt Review

 

        In the mid-90s, director Steven Spielberg, former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and music producer David Geffen created the studio DreamWorks. The studio was established so that it can distribute its own films without the need for other major studios. They created an animated division. First, they debuted their film Antz, which is sometimes referred to as a rip off to Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. I won’t get into that drama. Their next film, was the one to differentiate themselves to Disney. And is considered a classic.

1. Story about Brothers

        You know that I know that this film is based on the biblical chapter called Exodus. Given that Moses’ story as a prince to savior is only worth about two or three pages long. So the film has to take some creative liberties to tell a dramatic story interwoven with a biblical story. At its core, the film is about the tragedy among two brothers: Moses and Rameses. 

        Moses was adopted to Ramses’ family and is the more carefree of the two. Ramses receives the punishment from his father Seti, due to him being the next in line for kingship. They both have this camaraderie where we don’t see them as distant or unaware of each other. We see moments where they race across the streets and play jokes on the priests. This aspect is important since to put it into context, the last adaptation of Moses’ story The Ten Commandments, had the two be distant. 

        It’s a compromise since the usual complaints about adapting any biblical story is that you have little to work with. Having the drama be the focal point is that it lines up with Moses’ story of letting the Hebrews go from Egypt. The arc of the two brothers grow since when Moses returns to Egypt, both men act like brothers who haven’t seen each other in a long time. The film never strays but keeps it on Moses’ perspective. 

        Another thing that is important to make the story about two brothers worth caring about is to give them depth. For Moses, he is a lighthearted person who realizes that he is the son of a slave. His brother on the other hand, is the one that is disciplined a lot. As we see him again, he has big daddy issues and maintains that he must keep his Egyptian tradition going of keeping the slaves. Which makes sense in his perspective that he can’t just let Moses’ people go.

        Among the drama, the film does a great way to show God’s wonders in animation. Like when Moses sees the burning bush and talks to God. One fact that I wasn’t aware is that Val Kilmer not only voices Moses, but as God. He doesn’t have a booming voice that one may think of God. More so that Kilmer’s voice has a calming nature to it when he speaks to Moses or himself. Anyways, the animators must’ve gone all in when showing the plagues happening. 

        Obviously, I must talk about the big moment. Every adaptation of Moses’ story must have the parting of the red sea moment. When director Cecil B. DeMille did The Ten Commandments, he used special effects at the time that were groundbreaking back in the late 50s. This sequence, while animated took the animation team two years. It is worth it just seeing it combine traditional and computer generated to simulate the water parting and crashing back.

2. The Last of The Great Biblical Movies

        I feel that now the genre has been overrun by propaganda films from the production company PureFlix. They have films mostly about faith, but the substance in them lacks since they’re really about nothing. Yes, they do have a trilogy of films called God’s Not Dead, but the main criticism is that they mostly present a topic such as faith but paint it in a mostly biased perspective instead of just having it be up for interpretation and makes people think.

        They even try to make the story of Samson into an action film. It seems that the way to make a good biblical film is to have it be a drama. Not just that, but to give characters more to do and depth instead of just relying on a specific audience to have an expectation on who the character is on the Bible. The Prince of Egypt works because it does something unique in the story by making it a brotherly tragedy while tying it together with the main story. Those two concepts never get tangled.

        I feel that the next evolution to these films is to have it be about a person dealing with their faith. Just recently, Hacksaw Ridge is heralded as a great World War 2 film. Also, that it contains concepts relating to faith since the main character has that streak about him of not killing. Martin Scorsese directs an adaptation of Silence, which is about having one’s faith questioned in a foreign land. 

        The overall point that I’m attempting to make is that there needs to be more care and attention when doing a biblical film or a film about faith. Having it be done authentically is one thing, and still people will complain about it regardless. The one thing that is ultimately important is the characters since in the context they are used is that they do more in their stories. As such, they need to be an active protagonist instead of a passive one in their stories when it’s adapted to film. 

3. Overall 

        The Prince of Egypt is one of last traditionally animated films to close out the 20th Century. It should be Dreamworks Animation's best film. Although, there can only be so much Boss Baby sequels. 

        The Prince of Egypt gets a four out of five.