The Prince of Egypt (1998)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Brenda Chapman
Steve Hickner

Writers:

Philip LaZebnik (screenplay)
Nicholas Meyer (additional screenplay material)

Release Date:

18 December 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Drama | Family | Musical

Tagline:

Two brothers united by friendship divided by destiny

Plot:

An Egyptian prince learns of his identity as a Hebrew and, later his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people.

Plot Keywords:

Moses | Hebrew | Pharaoh | Ancient Egypt | Prophet

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Val Kilmer	...	Moses (voice)
Ralph Fiennes	...	Rameses (voice)
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Tzipporah (voice)
Sandra Bullock	...	Miriam (voice)
Jeff Goldblum	...	Aaron (voice)
Danny Glover	...	Jethro (voice)
Patrick Stewart	...	Seti (voice)
Helen Mirren	...	The Queen (voice)
Steve Martin	...	Hotep (voice)
Martin Short	...	Huy (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Avery	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Aria Noelle Curzon	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Ofra Haza	...	Yocheved (voice)
Bobby Motown	...	Rameses Son (voice)
Eden Riegel	...	Young Miriam (voice)
Shira Roth	...	Hebrew Child (singing voice)
Stephanie Sawyer	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Francesca Smith	...	Additional Voices (voice)

MPAA:

Rated PG for intense depiction of thematic elements.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Philippines:G | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Brazil:Livre | Chile:TE | Finland:K-8/5 | France:U | Germany:6 | Italy:T | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:G | Norway:7 | Peru:PT | Portugal:M/6 | Singapore:G | South Korea:All | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | USA:PG | Egypt:(Banned) | Malaysia:(Banned)

Company:

DreamWorks SKG

Trivia:

Val Kilmer provides a voice for both Moses and God. Charlton Heston also played both parts in The Ten Commandments (1956).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Moses is dragged by the camel, his arm is looped through a brown bag filled with water. Just before his head hits the well, his arm is looped through a red strap.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Overseers: [chanting] Mud... Sand... Water... Straw. Faster! Mud... and lift... sand... and pull... water... and raise up! Straw... Faster!
Hebrews: [singing] With the sting of the whip on my shoulder, with the salt of my sweat on my brow... Elohim, God on high, can you hear your people cry? Help us now, this dark hour... Deliver us, hear our call, deliver us, Lord of all! Remember us, here in this burning sand! Deliver us, there's a land you promised us! Deliver us to the promised land!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Flushed Away (2006)

Soundtrack:

When You Believe

A triumph of graphic excellence

As the author of THE WORLD OF ANIMATION, an Eastman Kodak book which won three international book festival awards and as an animation writer-director, I have for many years longed for the U.S. animation industry to remember that Walt Disney, nor any of the pioneers of animation limited their art to children's audiences.

With THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the DreamWorks animation team has finally taken us full circle and helped the United States join the rest of the world in offering us the first U.S. animated feature since, perhaps, FANTASIA, created for mature audiences while remaining child-friendly. If you aspire to art in any form, and/or specifically love line art and graphics as I do, you must not miss seeing this film on the big screen. I applaud DreamWorks for this triumph in graphic excellence.

Two brief critiques: First, the choice of story. The story is based on Exodus from the Old Testament (and other Scripture) which is scanty, to say the least. Although the studio made an effort to flesh out the story with the Ramses/Moses relationship there is simply not enough meat to go around. This opinion is debatable, a very minor aspect and only my view as a story teller. At the bottom line the overall work is so extraordinary any possible lack in literacy is more than made up for in the visual mounting and production of the film, something which is nothing less than inspiring.

The other criticism is in the highly questionable use of "name" voices for casting, a puzzling development since there is no meaningful box office data supporting it. This practice is known to conflict the viewer psychologically as the drawn images begin to do battle with the ones in the audience memory with the cerebral bridge of highly recognizable photo images of known voices. Walt Disney knew this quite well and avoided it. Indeed, he used the voice of a complete unknown for Snow White, Adriana Caselotti, (who passed away in 1997). Disney was careful to avoid the existing Hollywood queens of song of the period, Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin, the latter, whose prodigious vocal talent actually saved Universal Pictures from going belly up a short time later.

However, at the bottom line, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT will become a true classic and has taken the art of animation up to a new threshold, a model to which future animators will aspire.

Raul daSilva, New Haven, CT, USA