The Prince of Egypt - Ray's Review
The Prince of Egypt (1998)99 min
Directed by:
Brenda Chapman
Steve Hickner
Simon Wells
Written by:
Too many to mention!
Starring the voices of:
Val Kilmer as Moses/God
Ralph Fiennes as Rameses
Michelle Pfeiffer as Tzipporah
Sandra Bullock as Miriam
Jeff Goldblum as Aaron
Danny Glover as Jethro
Patrick Stewart as Pharaoh Seti I
Helen Mirren as The Queen
Steve Martin as Hotep
Martin Short as Huy
Plot Summary from Amazon.com:
"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 he flees to the desert, where he heeds God's calling to free the slaves from Egypt."
Intro:
For those who don't know, Jeffrey Katzenberg - who executive produced The Prince of Egypt - has an interesting background. In 1984 Katzenberg become the studio head of Disney's motion picture division and was responsible for turning the studio around by creating some of the most memorable box-office successes ever with films like: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. He also signed the deal, forging the lucrative partnership between Pixar and Disney.
When Katzenberg didn't get the promotion he deserved for making Disney bucketloads of cash, he pushed the issue too far and was fired... big mistake for Disney (he later filed a lawsuit against Disney and got an out of court settlement for an estimated $100 - $250 million). If you look back Disney hasn't really recovered since he left. Sure, their Pixar films have gone extremely well, but all their traditionally animated films have gone poorly; think back to Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Lilo and Stitch and the more recent Home on the Range... these films are simply not in the same league as when Katzenberg was on board at Disney (in box office terms The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King made close to 1.5 billion in combined worldwide grosses at the cinema. Atlantis, Treasure Planet, The Emperor's New Groove, Lilo and Stitch and Home on the Range combined made about half that much).
In 1994 Katzenberg co-founded Dreamworks SKG (with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen) and is CEO of the Dreamworks animation department. Katzenberg was ambitious and wanted to make something epic, he discussed this with Spielberg, and Spielberg said "Why not make The Ten Commandments?". After recovering from shock, Katzenberg dived into this massive project (which took 4 years to complete) and in 1998 The Prince of Egypt was released - a spectacular animated film with no cute sidekicks, that carries a serious biblical theme.
Ray's Opinion:
The first words that leap into one's mind regarding The Prince of Egypt are: Huge, Epic, Ambitious, Vast, Grand... you get the idea. TPOE is an incredibly attractive David Lean (Laurence of Arabia) type film that affected me on a completely different level to other animated films. I wasn't so much entertained, as enthralled.
TPOE starts with a bang with the song 'Deliver Us' setting the scene perfectly. Unfortunately no other song is as strong and often they felt too 'on the nose'. I can understand the importance of songs being in service of plot, however there is a limit to how far you take it. Yet the songs added to the dramatic quality of the film, so they didn't bother me too much (apart from the song that Moses sings "All I Ever Wanted", that was utterly pompous).
Visually speaking, I was blown away. The stand-out scene is when Moses parts the Red Sea - it looks incredible and is suitably impressive. There are smaller scenes that are inspired too, such as Moses's hieroglyphic dream sequence. Like most recent animated films there is massive amounts of CG elements - which at times doesn't mix entirely well with traditional animation- but it's all in service of making scenes as dynamic as possible, so the trade-off is worth it (I think I've made the same point in all my animated film reviews).
The characters reminded me a little of the style found in Roger Rabbit, with their shaded sides - making them look semi-3D. They also feature slightly embossed edges giving them a subtle hieroglyphic style. Unfortunately the DVD image is average and because large blocks of single colours are frequently used, you can clearly see compression issues, particularly in their skin. I had heard the DVD quality was exceptional, so this was somewhat of a unpleasant surprise (when things are moving fast, the compression looks fine). Thankfully the sound quality is top notch.
TPOE is a strange beast of an animated film. It's not really a kids film, yet people associate animation with children so of course many, many children saw this film. I would like to watch it with a kid to see how they find it, because there's little humour, no cute sidekicks and besides the chariot race, there is basically no action. Not to mention that we have some pretty bleak stuff here, such as: Dead children. A man falling to his death. Drowned guards. Human slaughter and a plague! It's all done as tastefully as possible, but it will definitely evoke a few more questions from children than most animated films.
Regarding the religious aspects of the film, I think Dreamworks did an excellent juggling act in telling a religious story accurately, while avoiding putting off non-religious folks like myself. Cleverly, the film ends with Moses simply carrying The Ten Commandments slab in his arms, we never actually hear them. Also God is seen as a general life-force - a sort of swirling energy, that surrounds a small tree- far preferable to the cliche 'bearded man in the clouds' image.
Overall I was very impressed. The animation style still seems fresh and inventive - and in places, jaw dropingly cool. The voice-work - while not perfect - suits most the characters and is never distracting. For pure entertainment I would be inclined to watch The Road to El Dorado, but for pure spectacle The Prince of Egypt wins hands down.
8/10
posted by Ray_Tango at 10:00 am
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