Directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells
Writer: Philip LaZebnik
Studio: Dreamworks Animation
Watched on: 01/08/2024
Writer: Philip LaZebnik
Studio: Dreamworks Animation
Watched on: 01/08/2024
Review contains ***SPOILERS*** for The Prince of Egypt
Ratings:
First things first, there isn't much point discussing the plot of the movie in huge detail. The Bible did all the heavy lifting (ooh, dark pun) but that's the story Dreamworks/LaZebnik picked up and brought to life, so they get some heat for it. To keep it brief though, the story features several apparently very powerful gods, with Moses's god being powerful enough to bring down plagues and part seas; however this god lets their people be enslaved for decades (at least in the span of the movie) rather than have a magical revelation or intervention, electing instead to kill a bunch of first born children, the exact same as the pharoah, to free them. No story that calls that a 'miracle' could ever be given a positive nor even neutral score.
As for the bits that were more in the control of the creative team, some things worked really well. For example, giving Ramses a relatable desire and motivation for his actions and building a genuine, loving bond between him and Moses as brothers, which made Moses's departure an emotional and impactful moment. The film also had to depict with some really dark and horrific moments, like opening up with a sequence showing the brutality of slavery right off the bat. I'd also say they did an excellent job of treating the slavery and mistreatment as a given - something that quietly happens in the background - whilst the brothers focus on their own personal stories. This meant that the audience could stop and really think about how empires are built at the same moment as Moses is made to realise, because we're focused on the pretty pictures in the frame, thinking that us watching the film doesn't do anything to change the fate of the enslaved people.
I previously mentioned the killing of the first borns. I have to single that scene out as being executed incredibly well. They don't duck the responsibility of showing the brutality of this biblical story. There was a lot of great storytelling throughout this film and this was one example, where the shift to almost completely black and near silence to contrast warm colours and orchestral swells up to that point and with the appearance of this ethereal, spectral aura that comes and claims the lives of these children emphatically underlines the reality of what's taking place. There's a sequence of 2 or 3 very clever shots that show you - in decreasing levels of symbolism and ambiguity - that these children are being killed. One shot shows the lamp in one child's window go out as the wisps leave. I'd have absolutely forgiven them for wanting to end the sequence there but they take it further - twice. The next shot shows another child step through a doorframe and out of sight, followed by his arm extending back out across the frame, completely limp after he falls to the ground. The first sound you then hear when it's all over is the wailing and sobbing of the parents. It's genuinely awful, and they get credit for sticking to their task diligently*.
The second time they take it further is their depiction of Ramses carrying the body of his son to his resting place and covering him with a thin veil. That is one of dozens of incredibly powerful shots throughout this movie. That's the element I'd praise the film for the most, by far; its storytelling and cinematography. Shots are dramatic, they're symbolic, they help keep the story moving forward and - something that's easy to get wrong - they really provide a sense of the palace, the land and empire being absolutely massive. They achieve their goal of making it feel physically massive, which of course helps the other goal of making the weight of Ramses's responsibility even heavier. And a lot of the background paintings are just gorgeous as well. They also clearly made a point of having lots of evening/twilight scenes or torch-lit corridors so that they could have high contrast and loads of dramatic lighting, which they nailed.
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| A selection of some of the absolutely stunning, cinematic shots throughout the film. |
Last couple points on storytelling: I loved Moses's dream sequence. In a lot of movies, they use animation to gain a level of abstraction from the 'reality' of the rest of the film. So in this film, an already animated movie, set in ancient Egypt, they have the dream come to him in moving hieroglyphics. I thought that was brilliant. They also made the hieroglyphics super dynamic, including Moses's mother sneaking past the guards by the drawing shifting around a pillar in 3D space. Very clever, great use of the medium. Only knock I could give the storytelling is the pacing of the story. Again, it's adapted from Exodus but even still, the story covers Moses's complete story from birth to face turn in about 40 minutes but then the freeing of the slaves basically takes the rest of the film. Plus there are odd things, like the multiple plagues being glossed over through one song and the Eyptians following the Hebrews to the Red Sea after we've been given the big finale for freedom. It's a bit jerky.
The animation, sadly, wasn't anything that really stood out. The artwork is beautiful, including the charactor work, but the animation itself is pretty standard hand-drawn dreamworks stuff. There wasn't any particularly brilliant character acting and no intricate nor dynamic scenes (can't knock it for not having action sequences but those are really where great animation can shine). There was one single 'turnaround' shot of Moses in the river mouth/bathing room place, which was cool but that was about it for motion shots. What I will say, though, is that the CG elements never felt out of place. The final plague, the burning bush (which was admittedly very cool), the basket etc. All of them blended well enough with the rest of the shots they were in that it was never more of a cost than a benefit. Overall decent animation but not incredible.
Lastly, characters are kinda 'meh' all round. Ramses is interesting but the Pharoah is super flat (and we don't even see him die). Of course, all the women in the story are just there to create the path for the main men characters. That's the bible story, sure, but it's still a feature film and should be treated like one. The creators had choices (as they themselves point out in the prologue) and I think they made some bad ones. Like Moses having 2 mothers, with only 1 just managing to have her name mentioned in the script. The other mother, presumably the Queen, is never named but even worse, to me it seemed she was intentionally depicted as being much younger than the Pharoah. That's probably just being true to the source material, doesn't mean it wasn't gross (without the same intentionality of how the slavery and murder was gross). Tzippora is another typical 90s/2000s cool girl, who seems feisty at first but ultimately says and does nothing other than become a wife to sifgnify Moses's journey. She is a lengy though. Also, I would have liked to see a lot more of the two royal hand/sidekick guys. Their song was pretty disappointing and even if they didn't have any story significance, they could definitely have been given a bit more dramatic flair.
Overall, the movie is a great experience to watch but that is with me intentionally blocking out the religious elements (because things like "god has told me to do this" don't make for a very strong narrative). It definitely starts stronger than it ends. The songs were powerful but didn't really stick with me at all. I think that this film's status as a bit of a niche 'sub-classic' is pretty fair. Narritively not amazing but has some clear strengths.
*Because of the morbidity of some of these scenes, I would even consider classifying this as an adult film, rather than a family film. I actually wouldn't recommend this film for young kids, honestyl. It's too brutal.