The Prince of Egypt Review- By Michael Carlisle

 Title: The Prince of Egypt
Year: 1998
Country: U.S
Language: English

Move over DeMille! The Prince of Egypt has arrived! Based on the same scripture as The Ten Commandments  and made 48 years after DeMille’s epic, The Prince of Egypt is ultimately a more free film, based on the story in Exodus, that takes imagination to new heights. This film is limitless, far from the bondage of reality.  Animation really helps this film soar, if DeMille had seen it he probably would’ve dropped to his knees in awe. Prince of Egypt is the best film that will ever come out of DreamWorks Studios.

The Prince of Egypt has a unique way of deploying its computer animation. Instead of the film being completely computer generated,  the style aids  the traditional hand drawn technique. The two techniques/styles blend together perfectly to show the incredible beauty of the desert and the people who dwell within it. In most animated films the animation lends itself mere entertainment for children, however the animation in this film is quite mature and helps to draw in complexity and seriousness. As a child I saw The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahauntus and many other animated films, yes they did have their morals, but Prince of Egypt shook me in a way that few would expect an animated film to.

Though both Red Sea partings are pretty cool

A noticeable difference between Prince of Egypt and every other film about the book of Exodus is the emphasized relationship of Moses and Ramses (Ralph Fiennes), the son of the mighty Pharaoh.  They do everything together, including getting into trouble. When Ramses is given power, he shows his love by giving Moses some power. However, Moses soon realizes that he is not an Egyptian and searches for some meaning in his life. In the desert he meets God in the form of a burning bush, who says “I am that I am, the God of your fathers.”  Moses tells his best friend Ramses about everything he experiences, not only does he Ramses disagree in anger but he makes the slaves work harder. God then unleashes his fury. Fire pours from the sky, locusts come swarming and all the first borns are killed, the second borns feel rather lucky. Everything eventually leads to the epic parting of the red seas, which looks much more spectacular than in Demille’s The Ten Commandments.

The exodus story is an important story of rebellion. It is about standing up for yourself and your people even if this can result in death. To stop tyranny you must fight tyranny.  If you know something is wrong, then something must done about this. What would happen if we just allowed Hitler and the Third Reich to take over the World? What would happen if we didn’t help the Jewish people be freed from the concentration camps? Perhaps rebellion may cause great disruption and chaos but the chaos is necessary, to be free from evil is an important and necessary thing. We should not look up to evil rulers but to the people who fight against them, this is why Gandhi and Che Guevera are very important figures in history. They fought a fight that many people would be too cowardly to do,  great courage produces great results.

In conclusion, while there is some comic relief in Prince of Egypt, I believe this film is one of the first animated films to transcend the genre from a children to adult for Americans.  I am astounded by how well made this film was, usually this is on the bottom of people’s lists when they think of good films about the Exodus, however I feel that it should be at the very top. While it is based on a biblical story, I do not believe you have to be religious to enjoy it. Prince of Egypt is  a soaring piece of imagination, vision and skill. Charlton Heston must have peed himself after he saw this. 4/5