Review The Prince of Egypt (1998)

filmfan95

Member: Rank 3
(Summary taken from Wikipedia):

The Prince of Egypt
is a 1998 American animated musical drama film and the first traditional animated film produced and released by DreamWorks. The film is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells, the film features songs written by Stephen Schwartz and a score composed by Hans Zimmer. The voice cast consists of Val Kilmer in a dual role, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

Trailer:


Jeffrey Katzenberg had frequently suggested an animated adaptation of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments while working for The Walt Disney Company, and he decided to put the idea into production after founding DreamWorks in 1995. To make this inaugural project, DreamWorks employed artists who had worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation and the recently disbanded Amblimation, totaling a crew of 350 people from 34 different nations. The film has a blend of traditional animation and computer-generated imagery, created using software from Toon Boom Animation and Silicon Graphics.

Theatrically released on December 18, 1998, and on home video on September 14, 1999, reviews were generally positive, with critics praising the animation, music, and voice work. The film went on to gross over $218 million worldwide in theaters, which made it the most successful non-Disney animated feature at the time. The film's success led to the direct-to-video prequel Joseph: King of Dreams(2000) and the development of a stage adaptation.[6][7] The song "When You Believe" became a commercially successful single in a pop version performed by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and went on to win Best Original Song at the 1999 Academy Awards.

Former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg had always wanted to do an animated adaptation of The Ten Commandments. While working for The Walt Disney Company, Katzenberg suggested this idea to Michael Eisner, but he refused. The idea for the film was brought back at the formation of DreamWorks SKG in 1994, when Katzenberg's partners, Amblin Entertainment founder Steven Spielberg, and music producer David Geffen, were meeting in Spielberg's living room.[9] Katzenberg recalls that Spielberg looked at him during the meeting and said, "You ought to do The Ten Commandments."[9]

The Prince of Egypt was "written" throughout the story process. Beginning with a starting outline, Story Supervisors Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook led a team of fourteen storyboard artists and writers as they sketched out the entire film — sequence by sequence. Once the storyboards were approved, they were put into the Avid Media Composer digital editing system by editor Nick Fletcher to create a "story reel" or animatic. The story reel allowed the filmmakers to view and edit the entire film in continuity before production began, and also helped the layout and animation departments understand what is happening in each sequence of the film.[10] After casting of the voice talent concluded, dialogue recording sessions began. For the film, the actors record individually in a studio under guidance by one of the three directors. The voice tracks were to become the primary aspect as to which the animators built their performances.[10] Because DreamWorks was concerned about theological accuracy, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to call in Biblical scholars, Christian, Jewishand Muslim theologians, and Arab American leaders to help his film be more accurate and faithful to the original story. After previewing the developing film, all these leaders noted that the studio executives listened and responded to their ideas, and praised the studio for reaching out for comment from outside sources.[9]

The task of creating God's voice was given to Lon Bender and the team working with the film's music composer, Hans Zimmer.[18] "The challenge with that voice was to try to evolve it into something that had not been heard before," says Bender. "We did a lot of research into the voices that had been used for past Hollywood movies as well as for radio shows, and we were trying to create something that had never been previously heard not only from a casting standpoint but from a voice manipulation standpoint as well. The solution was to use the voice of actor Val Kilmer to suggest the kind of voice we hear inside our own heads in our everyday lives, as opposed to the larger than life tones with which God has been endowed in prior cinematic incarnations."[18] Although, in The Ten Commandments (1956 film), Charlton Heston, who played Moses, also provided the voice of God.
 

filmfan95

Member: Rank 3
(My review):

(The following review contains my religious opinions on it. I have tried to be fair and analyze the film based on film quality as well, but I cannot review a Bible-based film without getting my religious opinions involved in it someplace.)

Being raised in a Christian family (and still being a Christian today in fact), this was a VHS that my parents would borrow from the city library a lot. Why? Because it's a Bible story. My parents were always buying and renting movies that were based on Bible stories, and this was no exception to that rule. So, I saw this movie at least once or twice a year. Strangely enough, despite my family's great enjoyment of this movie, we didn't own a copy of it until my early middle school years, and even then it was a VHS copy (we got a DVD copy quite awhile later). But, in my teenager years, I often found myself going back to watching this movie again and again, and even as an adult I'll still watch this film frequently. This hasn't happened with most other Bible-based films and cartoons from my childhood, and so for a long time I wondered why this particular film was so special.

But, now that I've gotten to the age that I can look at film critically, I know why. It's because it's a good movie. It takes a story that most people probably already know, and puts a nice cinematic spin on it. Even if it wasn't based on a Bible story, it would still be a good film.

First, the music. Wow. I am blown away by the music every single time I watch this film, despite having seen it so many times. The music conveys the exact emotions that are expected from the scenes they go in. The music over the prologue, showing the cruelty of the Egyptians towards the Israelite slaves, with Yocheved and young Miriam and Aaron attempting to hide the baby Moses, concluding the prologue with Moses being adopted by the Egyptians, giving the Israelites a hope for freedom; Wow. The prologue of the film could be its own ten-minute short film, and it would still be great. Burning Bush scene? Dang, the music is chilling during that scene. The plagues on Egypt? Epic. The Pharaoh's evil magicians' song? Fun and creepy at the same time. I can't say enough about the music.

Next, the animation. Once again, this blows me away. The amount of detail put into the movie is just mind-blowing. And though I don't usually like the combination of CGI with traditional animation, it works very well in this film, especially in scenes where supernatural things happen, where the CGI looks very otherworldly.

The script is very well written as well. Since the Bible doesn't really elaborate much on Moses' life as an Egyptian prince, the filmmakers did research about the time period they chose to place the timeline in (since there is no given time period in the Biblical account), and put in actual historical events from that time period to expand upon the story, and also came up with a story about how Moses learned about his true heritage. The voice acting is spot on, and the character designs are also done very well. While we aren't told in the Bible about Moses' relationship with the Pharaoh of the Exodus aside from their arguments, the film portrays Rameses (the Pharaoh of the Exodus in this film) as a close brotherly friend to Moses, showing the struggle Moses has to go through when he challenges him, because it pains him to see the family he grew up with suffer through the plagues on Egypt, and upon the death of Pharaoh's young son, Moses actually breaks down and cries before leading his people to freedom. It's an interesting interpretation of Moses, and I have great respect to the filmmakers for expanding upon the idea.

The film is does make changes to the Biblical account, which is something of a grey area with Christians, including me. But to their credit, the filmmakers did put a disclaimer at the beginning of the film that admits to the changes made, and also directs viewers to the Book of Exodus for the traditional version, so I have respect for the filmmakers for that. There are Bible films made by actual Christians that don't even do that, so it's great to see a secular film studio actually put a disclaimer in the film so that viewers won't be confused as to what the story of Moses is supposed to be.

Despite being a family film, this doesn't shy away from the pain of the slavery of the Israelites, nor does it sugarcoat the horrific nature of the plagues. It is also one of the few children's adaptations I've seen that actually keeps the part where Moses kills an Egyptian to save a slave (though Moses flees Egypt out of frustration rather than out of fear for his life). Of the changes from the Biblical account, I don't have much of a problem with any of them with the exception of the portrayal of Moses's brother Aaron, who, for all intents and purposes, is an entirely different character to the point where it felt like they should have given him a different name and called it good. But, despite this, it is still a spectacular film, Bible story or not, and one that I highly recommend to people who like really good movies. It is my favorite Moses film (yes, sorry, I like it better than The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, even though that was really good too).
 

The Seeker

Member: Rank 6
I’m sure it’s a good movie, but as a person of Egyptian descent and a recent athiest, I object to the story itself. First of all there is no archeological evidence of an exodus from Egypt and 40 years spent in the desert. If it had happened there would surely be some evidence. Probably the story was inspired by Egyptians leaving Egypt to join the Hebrews because their religion appealed to them. The Hebrews (according to historical evidence) came from all these (what we now call) Middle Eastern countries - in fact they started as a sect of people who left the Canaanite tribe and founded their own religion.

Second the pyramids were not built by any slaves. They were built by Egyptian farmers during the off season for agriculture. One thing I have against the Jewish religion and their holy book is this slander of other people and the persecution complex. I know this probably has next to nothing to do with the movie, which I haven’t seen, but I felt I had to say something. Btw Egyptian Christians do believe in the Exodus but resent the implication that Jews built the pyramids.
 
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