THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (DreamWorks) Voices: Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Stewart, Steve Martin, Martin Short. Screenplay: Philip LaZebnik. Producers: Penny Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabins. Directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner and Simon Wells. MPAA Rating: PG (adult themes) Running Time: 97 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
There's precaution, and then there's what DreamWorks has done to insure that THE PRINCE OF EGYPT would not become a lightning rod for controversy. Religious leaders were consulted on early drafts of the script; word went forth that this would be a serious, respectful dramatic film with no Disney-style animals for comic relief. The film-makers even attached an opening disclaimer about "artistic license" taken with the story, which also referred viewers to the Book of Exodus for the Biblical story of Moses. The public relations message has been strong and consistent: befitting its subject matter, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT would be a different sort of animated film.
In some very important ways, that message was completely accurate. THE PRINCE OF EGYPT is a visually spectacular and impressively faithful account of the first 14 chapters of Exodus, beginning with Moses' mother placing him in a basket on the Nile to save him from Pharaoh's order to slay Hebrew newborns. The basket reaches the palace of the Pharaoh, where Moses is found by the Queen (Helen Mirren) and raised as a brother to Rameses, heir apparent to the Pharaoh Seti (Patrick Stewart). As adults, Moses (Val Kilmer) and Rameses (Ralph Fiennes) are close companions, little concerned with the plight of Hebrew slaves. That's before a chance encounter with his birth sister Miriam (Sandra Bullock) informs Moses of his true lineage, and sends him on a course which will set him against Rameses as liberator of his people.
Some viewers may be troubled by the fact that the key relationship in THE PRINCE OF EGYPT is that between Moses and Rameses, not that between God and His chosen people. While God is certainly present in the film, the religious elements have been subsumed to the human elements. The result is still an extremely strong story of two men both troubled by their destinies. Moses laments when he realizes that his calling must take him from his luxurious life as a prince, while Rameses struggles with the mantle of leadership. Rameses' character actually ends up the more compelling of the two, with Ralph Fiennes giving expressive voice to the ruler tormented by the fact that the only friend he has known has become his only enemy. It's a tricky element to introduce -- that we should care about a personal tragedy in this tale of God's commitment to the Hebrews -- but it works to give the film the feel of a mature drama rather than just another animated fairy tale.
With such a strong foundation, it becomes distracting when THE PRINCE OF EGYPT adopts the rhythms and songs of a typical animated musical. Stephen Schwartz's tunes are generally solid, but it becomes too easy to think of the film as nothing special when the structure ventures into such familiar territory. There's no need for a Biblical epic to turn into "Les Miserables," or the Old Testament equivalent of "Jesus Christ Superstar", particularly when the images unaccompanied by music are so compelling. The slaying of the Egyptians' newborns unfolds with a chilly silence; the trek across the floor of the Red Sea is set against brief lightning-strike illuminations of whale silhouettes behind walls of water. There's enough story to this story, and enough vision to the animation, not to require a tune every 10 minutes.
In a way, the inclusion of musical numbers could have been an attempt to make THE PRINCE OF EGYPT a transitional form of feature animation. It was no surprise to find a screening audience filled with children; it was, however, something of a surprise to notice them so engaged in such a somber, challenging story. Perhaps the songs, and the occasional flashes of humor, served to ease younger viewers into something not so far removed from the videos that line their parents' shelves. DreamWorks tackled an incredibly challenging task in THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the task of turning scripture into family entertainment. It's about as successful a conclusion to that task as I can imagine, one which combines tradition and imagination into a powerful animated experience.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 Pharaoh assessments: 8.
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