Year:
1998
Studio:
DreamWorks SKG
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
4/5
Teaser
At a time when Egypt ruled and the Hebrews were merely slaves, Pharaoh
Seti (voice of Patrick Stewart) ordered all babies killed in an effort
to curtail the Hebrew population, which was threatening to greatly
outnumber the Egyptians. A young mother secretly made her way to the
Nile River, where she put her baby son in a basket which miraculously
made its way downriver and was found by the Queen (voice of Helen
Mirren). This baby was brought up alongside his new brother Rameses
(voice of Ralph Fiennes) and grew up to be a strongwilled and
mischevious youth named Moses (voice of Val Kilmer).
Movie
"The Prince of Egypt" tells the biblical story of Exodus, wherein Moses
leads the beleaguered Jewish people to the promised land. Actually
that's the last third or so of the movie. Most of the movie is setting
up the characters. Rameses and Moses are youthful brothers. Rameses is
not a bad person, he just has the weight of his kingly responsibilities
and he doesn't want to be known as "the weak link". Moses on the other
hand doesn't join the Jewish cause until he finds out his Hebrew
heritage. Then he sees what is being done to the slaves in a different
light and that changes him.
The graphics are pretty good. When you hear the people talking about it
on the commentary track you get a sense of how difficult it was and
what new animation techniques they employed. But it's not as if most
people would consciously notice these details. It does come out as a
good looking movie though.
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The only real
problem with the movie is it rushes through the ending.
All the characterization and angst are the first 2/3rds of the movie
and with 20-30 minutes to go they finally leave Egypt and start making
their trek. Part the Red Sea, flee the Egyptian troops, wash the troops
away, and then the movie ends. Probably that's the story they wanted to
tell but it does feel as if it ended rather abruptly.
Actors
One of the most star-studded casts in an animated movie. Val Kilmer
voicing Moses, Ralph Fiennes voicing Rameses, Michelle Pfeiffer voicing
Tzipporah (Moses wife, though hard to tell it was Michelle), Sandra
Bullock voicing Moses' sister Miriam (once again, her voice isn't
distinctive enough to tell that was Sandra Bullock), Jeff Goldblum as
Moses' brother Aaron. Danny Glover and Patrick Stewart and Helen Mirren
and Steve Martin and Martin Short round out the voices.
DVD
Directors Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner and Simon Wells provide a
fairly good commentary. There are also five featurettes: "The Making of
The Prince of Egypt" (26 minutes), "When You Believe" song as a
multi-language presentation (6 minutes), "The Basics of Animation: The
Chariot Race" (9 minutes), "Focus on Technical Effects" (6 minutes),
and "Art Gallery" (7 minutes). Rounding out the package are two
theatrical trailers, cast and crew bios, and production notes.
Recommendations
This is an excellent DVD. The movie itself is fairly good and worth
watching. The numerous extras make this a good value for your money. I
forgot to mention the musical numbers, which unfortunately are enough
to be annoying yet not enough to make this a musical (which would then
make the songs ok). But I'd still watch the movie.
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