The Prince of Egypt Review
by "Ricardo A Lafaurie Jr." (rlafaurie AT sprynet DOT com)December 30th, 1998
This is my first review that I post to this newsgroup, and I kind of feel like I have to say something negative about this film. No one else seems to care that it takes certain liberties that should not be taken with a historical story. However, even if one thinks of it as fiction, "The Prince of Egypt" remains shallow. But I'll begin from the beginning. The biggest difference between the original, Biblical story and this version is that Moses has some semblance of divinity in the Bible, whereas the animated version gives the impression of a reluctant hero. Maybe it's just me, but if I knew I had God on my side, I'd have a little bit more confidence. There are other differences as well, such as a lack of important female characters and the passing over of the original Pharoah's death like it's nothing but a thing. Most of all, though, the story's focus has shifted. Rather than being a story about father-son, man-ethnicity, man-God, "The Prince of Egypt" is almost solely about the brother-brother relationship between Rameses and Moses. I was originally excited about this story element until I saw the movie, where it came off as maudlin. Rameses and Moses squabble like children and then, in the interests of peace, Moses saves Rameses' butt, even though Moses was the one who started it... *yawn* I didn't care anymore by the time Moses ran off for murdering an overseer (which, of course, never happened in the original story - Moses was exiled). But enough about the differences. Let's talk about the movie itself. It features a Moses who, in the interests of making the character more human, lacks any divinity whatsoever, which isn't convincing at all to anyone who knows who God is. It features a cookie-cutter "I-wanna-please-dada" Rameses, who at least is given dignity by the voicework of Ralph Fiennes (from Schindler's List, among other things). The film also features an extremely annoying character by way of the "new-improved" Miriam, voiced by the ever-antsy Sandra Bullock, even though the most irritating thing about her is her tendency to burst into song for no apparent reason (here Bullock is replaced by a singing voice). Speaking of which, it contains *very* annoying music. It contains shallow writing. It features extraordinary animation, which is one good thing I can say about this film. Most of all, it contains an attempt to commercialize, homogenize, and mass-market a story about a Manifestation of God. I am not Christian, but I got the impression of blasphemy. The writers and producers took a butcher knife and chop-chopped into the story.
Dasrik's Rating is 3 Stars out of 10.
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