CN Thanksgiving Movie: The Prince of Egypt [11/24]

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The Prince of Egypt
Airs Thanksgiving Day at 5:00 PM

<img src="http://www.canoe.ca/MovieImagesP/princeofegypt_poster.jpg" align="right" vspace="10" hspace="10">Film Review and Synoposis by Doug Thomas (Amazon.com):

Nearly every biblical film is ambitious, creating pictures to go with some of the most famous and sacred stories in the Western world. DreamWorks' first animated film was the vision of executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg after his ugly split from Disney, where he had been acknowledged as a key architect in that studio's rebirth (The Little Mermaid, etc.). His first film for the company he helped create was a huge, challenging project without a single toy or merchandising tie-in, the backbone du jour of family entertainment in the 1990s. Three directors and 16 writers succeed in carrying out much of Katzenberg's vision. The linear story of Moses is crisply told, and the look of the film is stunning; indeed, no animated film has looked so ready to be placed in the Louvre since Fantasia. Here is an Egypt alive with energetic bustle and pristine buildings. Born a slave and set adrift in the river, Moses (voiced by Val Kilmer) is raised as the son of Pharaoh Seti (Patrick Stewart) and is a fitting rival for his stepbrother Rameses (Ralph Fiennes). When he learns of his roots--in a knockout sequence in which hieroglyphics come alive--he flees to the desert, where he finds his roots and heeds God's calling to free the slaves from Egypt.

Katzenberg and his artists are careful to tread lightly on religious boundaries. The film stops at the parting of the Red Sea, only showing the Ten Commandments--without commentary--as the film's coda. Music is a big part (there were three CDs released) and Hans Zimmer's score and Stephen Schwartz's songs work well--in fact the pop-ready, Oscar-winning "When You Believe" is one of the weakest songs. Kids ages 5 and up should be able to handle the referenced violence; the film doesn't shy away from what Egyptians did to their slaves. Perhaps Katzenberg could have aimed lower and made a more successful animated film, but then again, what's a heaven for?

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Notes:




The film is animated by Dreamworks, the same company to bring us Shrek and Shark Tale.
Prince of Egypt has a full A-list celebrity cast includingJeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ralph Fiennes, Sandra Bullock, and Val Kilmer.
Directed by Simon Wells (An American Tail: Fivel Goes West, Balto).
This is the first time a Biblical story (sans Santa Claus) has been shown on Cartoon Network.
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Comments:
The rich animation of this film makes this a marvel to stare at, regardless of what religion you subscribe to. With a much more serious tone, this is one of the first mainstream animated films to present historial and religious subject matter in a manner that doesn't cater to children specifically. Enjoy and please leave your comments.

[Tak Mazé]

I remember this one I think! :) It's well worth watching if it's the same one I think it is ^^ Don't miss it!

[Sharklady]

I agree that 'Prince of Egypt' is a most worthy effort. It's a real shame the Oscars had no Best Animated Film category in 1998, 'cause this one deserved such an award.

[Behonkiss]

This is Dreamworks' only decent 2D movie. The thing that made it work for me is the added relationship between Moses and Ramses- the scene at the end with Ramses dying out on the rock and calling Moses' name is absolutely heartbreaking.

Too bad the songs sucked.

[I.R Joey]

Assuredly the Prince of Egypt was the best movie that Dreamworks animation ever put out (I haven't seen Shark's Tale though). It had everything you'd want in an animated movie of its type. The passover and the parting of the Red sea are two of the most breathe takngi moments in animated movie history IMO. Seeing those two walls of water shoot up, was magnificent in a giant theatre.
Personally I thought "When you beleive" was the best of the songs in the movie. I thought it was quite moving personally, seeing the people leave slavery, and the Egyptians just watching in awe.
Sadly Dreamworks never accomplished something on that level again. El Dorado, Spirit, and Sinbad may have had some interesting technical bells and whistles, but the Prince of Egypt was something else.
By the way I never noticed this on the big screen, but at the end of the movie their are quotes from the Torah, the New Testemant, and the Qu'aran. I;m suprised the Book of Mormon (or one of the other LDS scriptures) didn't make it.

[Mugen]

This is the first time a Biblical story (sans Santa Claus) has been shown on Cartoon Network.



CN aired Joseph: King of Dreams back in April.

[lostrune]

I agree that 'Prince of Egypt' is a most worthy effort. It's a real shame the Oscars had no Best Animated Film category in 1998, 'cause this one deserved such an award.
I don't think it would had garnered the votes though. As I recall, when this was released (around Xmas), it was a time of the animation boom when people still clapped at the end of Disney 2D films. But at the end of Prince of Egypt, people's responses in the theaters were more muted - it's so different a reaction from previous Disney films that it was notable at the time. They have be "satisfied" with the film, but it won't win an Oscar like that.

[Phantasm]

This movie is simply marvelous. I was watching it last night, and once again lost myself within the smooth transitions of one masterpiece of a scene to the next. It is so well done a movie that I don't know which aspect of it to begin praising first. The script is as earthshattering as the story is, and should be. The animation sequences are stunning. Particularly each and every song throughout the film is on par, and sometimes even surpass such sequences from Disney films.When you Believe is a personal favorite and it is amazing the revolutionally feel evoked during that part of the film which always grips me. And the 'Let my people go' part is so beautifully rendered, with the dazzling blelnd of visuals and dramatic music, that I am at loss of words to describe my appreciation for it.

I like the way they handled such a touchy hisorical aspect of the three basic religions and made something worth watching by EVERYONE regardless of their faith. The Splitting of the Red Sea was so amazing!

[youkai chris]

The movie was nice, I caught the 2nd half of it.

The animated is great, the did scenes well.

[SirLemming]

I almost didn't remember just how great this movie is. Pretty much everything about it is awe-inspiring: the animation, the drama, and especially the music. I always get hit pretty hard by the reprise of the "All I've Ever Wanted" song during the plague sequence. Scenes like that really brought a new dimension to the story by highlighting the fact that Moses was Pharaoh's close childhood friend. I'd heard the story so many times before seeing the movie, but until then I never stopped to think of how the Israelites were being led by someone who used to be one of their oppressors, and how Moses had to go up against his own brother.

[Phantasm]

Sorta out of topic but:sweat:

Rameses the Second was actually of a pretty short stature.Not anywhere near as well built as rendered in The Prince of Egypt. I was actually sorta disapointed to see his mummified corpse lying in a freezing glass box in the Egyptian Mueseum Cairo. His skin was all black and stuck to his bones.But amazingly a few strands of his auburn hair remaind on his chin.Pretty interesting, though it was a terrifying experience.:eek:

[SirLemming]

Rameses the Second was actually of a pretty short stature.Not anywhere near as well built as rendered in The Prince of Egypt.Moses was also probably a lot older-looking at the time (he was at least 80 years old, and even if it worked a little different back then I don't think he'd look that young), and he probably had a speech impediment. But of course, for the sake of musical drama it's best that they did it the way they did. Imagine some of those intense exchanges happening between a stubby Pharaoh and a stuttering Moses... It'd seem like South Park or something. "Let my p... p... p... p-people go, Pharaoh!" "No way, you stupid Jew! Respect my authori-tah!"

[Glenn Leider]

There are other problems too. While the generally accepted date for the Exodus is c. 1250 BCE - meaning Rameses II's ascension to the throne, believed to be 1290 BCE, occurred shortly after Moses killed an Egyptian taskmaster and fled to Midian - not everyone accepts this late date. Ussher, for example, in the well-known King James Bible margin, assigns a date of 1571 BCE for Moses' birth, 1531 for his flight to Midian, and 1491 for the Exodus - some 240 years earlier. The Watchtower Society assigns the dates 1593, 1553 and 1513 BCE respectively. (This last date would mean that the night of the Exodus began with the full moon rising in the midst of the total lunar eclipse of April 13th, a bad omen for the Egyptians.)

The most serious problem came in the movie's next to the last scene, which showed "Rameses," who supposedly ruled until 1224 BCE, screaming Moses' name from the western shore of the Red Sea. The Bible says that Pharaoh led his forces across the seabed; God "brought Israel through the midst of it... but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea," thus killing the monarch. - Psalm 136:14,15, NIV.

Still, I liked the movie. I especially noticed the accurate depiction of three-month-old Moses' siblings: four-year-old Aaron and eight-year-old Miriam. She slyly arranged for Pharaoh's daughter to pay their mother to nurse Moses, whom the princess named because she "drew him out of the water." - Exodus 2:1-10, NIV.

[SirLemming]

The most serious problem came in the movie's next to the last scene, which showed "Rameses," who supposedly ruled until 1224 BCE, screaming Moses' name from the western shore of the Red Sea. The Bible says that Pharaoh led his forces across the seabed; God "brought Israel through the midst of it... but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea," thus killing the monarch. - Psalm 136:14,15, NIV.Well, I don't know. Does that necessarily mean all of them died?

Either way, I guess I don't care. It was dramatic.

[ktoriyama]

There are other problems too. While the generally accepted date for the Exodus is c. 1250 BCE - meaning Rameses II's ascension to the throne, believed to be 1290 BCE, occurred shortly after Moses killed an Egyptian taskmaster and fled to Midian - not everyone accepts this late date. Ussher, for example, in the well-known King James Bible margin, assigns a date of 1571 BCE for Moses' birth, 1531 for his flight to Midian, and 1491 for the Exodus - some 240 years earlier. The Watchtower Society assigns the dates 1593, 1553 and 1513 BCE respectively. (This last date would mean that the night of the Exodus began with the full moon rising in the midst of the total lunar eclipse of April 13th, a bad omen for the Egyptians.)

The most serious problem came in the movie's next to the last scene, which showed "Rameses," who supposedly ruled until 1224 BCE, screaming Moses' name from the western shore of the Red Sea. The Bible says that Pharaoh led his forces across the seabed; God "brought Israel through the midst of it... but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea," thus killing the monarch. - Psalm 136:14,15, NIV.

Still, I liked the movie. I especially noticed the accurate depiction of three-month-old Moses' siblings: four-year-old Aaron and eight-year-old Miriam. She slyly arranged for Pharaoh's daughter to pay their mother to nurse Moses, whom the princess named because she "drew him out of the water." - Exodus 2:1-10, NIV.
I am sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't trust the WatchTower on dates. They have been wrong in predicting the end of the world several times since WW2 I think. Don't think about it too hard. The ending was suppose to be dramatic and it was. It was suppose to focus on the bond between them, and the conflict.

[Glenn Leider]

I have no problem with the bond between Pharaoh (whether he was Rameses II or another Egyptian ruler) and his adopted brother Moses. This may explain why Pharaoh was permitted to survive all of the Ten Plagues that devastated Egypt. (Exodus 9:16,17). Still, he just couldn't leave well enough alone after sending Moses and the other Israelites away. He just *had* to chase them into the Red Sea, showing that, in the end, Moses' love for him wasn't reciprocated. I can imagine part of the final exchange between them:

Pharaoh: My son! You may have been his uncle, but you and your god killed him!

Moses: Well, had you splattered lamb's blood on your door the Angel of Death would not have taken his life. You have only yourself to blame, my brother.

Pharaoh: Bah! You and your people, go before I change my mind for the umpteenth time!

Okay, I've taken a little poetic licence here. Still, Pharaoh must have blamed Moses for his son's death. And sure enough, after the Israelites departed, he did indeed "change (his) mind for the umpteenth time." Again, he had only himself to blame for the result. And ironically, about a year later "The Prince of Egypt" would be accused of, according to some translations, "playing the prince over" the rebellious Israelites. - Numbers 16:13.