The Prince of Egypt (1998) – Review

After kicking off their animated division with Antz, a blatant cash-in of Pixar/Disney’s animated flick A Bug’s Life, DreamWorks decided to boldly venture into territory rarely explored by family-friend animated films, that of the Bible story. Aside from such straight-to-video offerings like the Veggie Tales religion and cartoons seldom mixed and when Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to produce an animated adaptation of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments two big questions had to be answered “Can you tell the story that took Cecil B. DeMille three hours to pull off in just ninety-minutes and how are you going to handle the darker aspects of the Book of Exodus in a film that is aimed mainly at younger viewers?”

Adapting a story from the Bible is certainly tricky business because no matter how good a job you do you’re definitely going to offend somebody – this film was banned in Malaysia, the Maldives and Egypt – and to mitigate this issue as much as possible the film opens with a text disclaimer stating “While artistic and historical license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide” which is a good way to say “Hey, cut us some slack this is the best we could do in the time allowed” and as this is more a remake of the Cecil B. DeMille than it is a “true” adaptation of The Book of Exodus I think that was a fair attitude to take. What is to be respected is that Katzenberg and his team of directors didn’t shy away from some of the story’s darker elements and did their best to remain as faithful as possible.

Question: The Pharaoh ordering that the newborn Hebrew babies be tossed into the Nile to prevent a possible future rebellion is one thing but would such an act be something you’d want to commemorate in a giant mosaic?

The most interesting aspect of this retelling of the story of Exodus is the relationship between Moses (Val Kilmer) and Rameses (Ralph Fiennes) who in this version are depicted as fun and mischievous brothers who truly care for each other, with Moses being adopted by the Pharaoh’s wife instead of his daughter in this version, but what makes this take on the story great is the dynamic relationship between the two. Unlike the DeMille version, these two are not rivals for the love of a woman, or for the throne of Egypt for that matter, and we are first introduced to them as they carelessly race chariots through the city, destroying a temple in the process and thus making this pair fun and relatable. The tension is formed due to the fear that Rameses has that he will be the “weak link” and that will bring down the dynasty, a fear that is born into him by his stern father, Pharaoh Seti (Patrick Stewart), who does not find these childlike antics amusing.

Personally, I think chariot races are a lot more progressive than mass infanticide.

The story kicks into gear when Moses runs into Hebrew slaves Miriam (Sandra Bullock) and Aaron (Jeff Goldblum) who spills the beans that he is their brother and is destined to deliver them from slavery – it should be noted that the prophesized deliverer is really downplayed in this movie and it almost seems like God chose Moses simply because he was convenient – but when he confronts the Pharaoh and the truth is confirmed his world is shattered, which to be fair, finding out your loving father is a monster would certainly skew one’s reality. This key element really changes things from previous versions of the story as the emotional resonance of Moses turning his back on his brother to go off and find “his people” is the real center of the story, and sure, plagues and all that “Wrath of God” stuff is cool but it’s Ramesses and his feelings of betrayal that are the heart of this film and though this may be an animated movie Ralph Fiennes is not playing a cartoon villain and you can understand the pain and conflict raging in his heart, and when his brother returns and simply states “Let my people go” his being hurt is completely understandable. What’s even better is that Moses himself is also broken up about how their relationship has now been torn asunder and it’s clear that he finds no joy in unleashing the plagues upon his brother and the people of Egypt.

Stray Observations:

• A big deal is made about Moses accidentally killing the cruel Egyptian overseer, which the priests insist is a death penalty level crime against the gods, but I’m betting a Prince of Egypt could kill a dozen Egyptian overseers without much consequence.
• Without the character of Nefretiri, who loved Moses but ended up with Rameses in DeMille’s The Ten Commandments we are left wondering who is the mother of Rameses’ child because we see neither hide nor hair of his queen in this movie.
• Being that the love triangle between Ramesses, Moses and Nefretiri is missing from this version we get more screen time with the wife of Moses, who he now meets as a slave girl in Egypt instead of in the desert home of Jethro and she is also a more spunky character than in previous incarnations.
• The character of Dathan is also missing so we don’t have Edward G. Robinson questioning “Where’s your messiah now?” instead, the part of the Hebrew doubter falls to Aaron, which is odd considering that in the Bible it was Aaron who was actually the one to use Moses’s staff to perform all the miracles of God.
• In fact, the Hebrews in this movie are a lot less fickle than the ones depicted in both the Bible and the DeMille movie as once the plagues start hitting they are behind Moses one hundred percent and the movie wisely ends without Moses finding his people throwing an orgy and worshipping a golden calf.

Seriously, would you ever again doubt a dude who could part the Red Sea?

Sadly, the film does have a couple of missteps that stops this from being a true gem, for instance, we get Steven Martin and Martin Short as two Egyptian priests whose comedy antics would be more at home in Disney’s Aladdin than in a story about the Book of Exodus and the abbreviated running time makes some character beats come right out of the blue. As pointed out, in this movie we don’t have a Nefretiri analog and thus there is no one to spur Ramesses into action against Moses; one minute Ramesses is grieving over the body of his dead son and telling Moses “You and your people have my permission to go” and the very next he’s leading a chariot charge to kill them all. What caused him to change his mind? The movie clearly needed a final scene to illustrate Ramesses’ inner feelings and his boiling rage against what he considers a personal betrayal but the film is too busy racing to the big parting of the Red Sea moment and thus Ramesses gets a little short-changed at the end.

“I’d go back to my wife but the movie forgot to give me one.”

Overall, with The Prince of Egypt, the people at DreamWorks Animation proved they could take on the House of Mouse without copying their fairy tale motifs and striking out with their own truly visual masterpiece in an entry that included one of the best voice casts ever to grace an animated film with such other notable actors as Michelle Pfeiffer, Helen Mirren and Danny Glover, all giving amazing performances in a re-telling of a story that had all the scope one could hope for in a Biblical epic. Directors Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Hickner did a spectacular job in not only telling such a tough tale for a younger demographic but the blend of traditional animated and computer animation would change the industry forever, so if you somehow missed this excellent DreamWorks outing do yourself a favour and track it down, it’s certainly a less stuffy and more heartfelt version than the one starring Charlton Heston.