Review of Prince of Egypt, The

Introduction

The story of Moses is one of the best known and popular stories in the Bible. The Children of Israel enslaved by the Egyptians, slaughter of the firstborn, Moses floating down the Nile in a basket, Moses being raised by the Pharaoh, Moses being charged with freeing God’s people, burning bushes, plagues, crossing the Red Sea. You probably know the gist of the story. It’s a big, epic story and, it has messages that transcend any specific faith (the freedom of the oppressed, being true to your heritage, etc).

Given this, and the fact that it is not specifically a children’s story, it seemed like a good choice for the first DreamWorks (Spielberg, Katzenberg, Geffen) animated feature. Released in the cinemas in 1998, it garnered some critical acclaim but didn’t really challenge Disney in the family animation stakes.

Video

Visually, “The Prince Of Egypt” is (almost) extraordinarily beautiful. The imagery is variously inspired by ancient hieroglyphics, the Impressionists and “Lawrence of Arabia”, and is lush, detailed and suitably spectacular. CGI and traditional animation techniques are seamlessly blended and result in one of the most fluid animation experiences I have seen. The dynamism of the chariot race is a case in point with the camera viewpoint zooming around the protagonists. Likewise, any scene with water, be it a pond, the Nile or the Red Sea, is impressively, ahem, fluid.

But, to my mind, the visual excellence is undermined by the facial representations. I guess the animators were trying to follow the style of hieroglyphics further (and you expect stylised faces in an animated feature) but it just doesn’t work. At best the faces are bland. At worst, like baby Moses, they are unformed blobs.. This is a shame because everything else is so good.

The 16:9 anamorphic transfer is appropriately almost extraordinarily good. Everything is as you would expect from a modern animated feature. Colours are rich and vibrant and, at times, the deserts and skies almost seem to glow with light. There’s only one downside and that is that the image is a little soft. This may be quite intentional and faithful to the original (I haven’t seen this in the cinema) but, taking Tarzan as a reference, I would have expected the image to look sharper. Not a major problem and this is borderline reference material.

Audio

The film is voiced by some of the biggest names in movies: Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Stewart, Steve Martin, Jeff Goldblum, Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, etc. And they are all very good. The downside is that once Dreamworks paid for all the spectacular animation and the voice talents, they didn’t seem to have much money left over for sound effects.

This is an animated feature and consequently, I would have expected the sound designers to be allowed to give free rein to their imaginations. This is Biblical stuff: voice of God, plagues, the babble of Egyptian city life. It’s all underwhelming. No detail, no dynamics. I mean, we’ve got one of the most spectacular episodes in the Bible to work with – the parting of the Red Sea – and you would expect tumultuous waves, gushing water and eerie echoes as the children of Israel walk through the sea. Not to mention the chaos as the Egyptians get swallowed by the waves moments later. But, no. It’s all a bit disappointing.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not terrible by any means, and the DD 5.1 audio is as crisp and detailed as you could expect, I just consider it a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Features

From a features perspective, this is a quite attractive package. In addition to the expected trailers, you get a fine commentary, a multi-language presentation of one of the big vocal numbers, a couple of short features on the animation and technical processes and a 30 minute “Making of” documentary.

So, good quantity and the quality is, thankfully, high also. Best of the bunch is the short presentation on how the spectacular chariot race was animated and how animation was blended with CGI. Good stuff. The remainder is pretty good too, although the commentary is, maybe, just a bit dull. And, if you don’t like big musical numbers, I’d avoid the multi-language presentation of “When You Believe”.

Overall, though, a DVD that can hold its head high.

Conclusion

Let’s get one thing straight up front. This is not a children’s film. Sure, it’s an animated feature but there’s no funny talking animals or child friendly songs. It is intended as family entertainment but I suspect that the main audience will be adults. Frankly, I suspect that “Prince Of Egypt” would bore the pants of some children and leave them more confused than entertained.

The first problem is encountered in the opening seconds – a scene of the Israelite slaves working and being flogged by their Egyptian masters. If you’re not familiar with the story of Moses, you’re not given any context and you may wonder who these people are and why they are being flogged. A young child mightn’t have a clue what is going on here. Also, throughout the film the story is abbreviated which works fine if you know what’s happening but, maybe, not so well if you don’t. The plagues are a case in point. If all you have to go on is the film then the frogs, locusts, etc appear without any warning and disappear almost immediately. It works if you have the context of the story, but ...

However, not being particularly child friendly isn’t necessarily a problem. I think the goal of the film-makers (the usual large animation committee) was to make a film that adults could admire and enjoy. They certainly got the admiration bit right. It looks striking and, despite what I said above, scores points for not talking down to its audience. It is a mature retelling of a extraordinary story. Much of the film works very well.

While the story may be abbreviated, it hasn’t been simplified. The expected big issues of freedom, faith, family, responsibility, good and evil are tackled head on. Notable is the fact that Moses’ adoptive father the Pharaoh and his son Rameses aren’t portrayed as evil, even though they may do evil deeds. The Pharaoh is a loving father who has the weight of an empire on his shoulders. Rameses is, first and foremost, Moses’ brother and even during their bitter conflict it is obvious that they both love each other.

Script and direction obviously are important here but much of the credit for the mature presentation must go to the voice cast. Val Kilmer (Moses) and Ralph Fiennes (Rameses) are particularly good. They (especially Fiennes) bring a humanity to their parts that is often lacking in animation.

However, the voice talent, is also one the film’s major problems. They are just too famous and their voices too distinctive. And this distracts you from the film. For example, Patrick Stewart is Pharaoh. But, every time he speaks, you just think of Stewart. (“Shall I execute the first born, sir? Make it so.”) Similarly Jeff Goldblum as Aaron just does his old rapid-fire mumbling shtick. Ironically, this is probably more obvious because you don’t see them. All the performances are good; it’s just that some are distracting.

The other major problem is in the songs. Gah. Why does there have to be musical numbers in animated features? In other respects, this is a restrained retelling of a classic story. The big musical numbers are unnecessary and trite.

With technically excellent animation and some superb spectacles, this is one animated feature that is maybe destined to be more admired than enjoyed. When you get down to it, worthy as the story and presentation is, it’s just not much fun. Of course, given the material there isn’t much to laugh about but it sometimes seems a bit too serious. You wonder what Disney would have done. A few singing camels, perhaps?