Review of The Prince of Egypt (1998) by Zee D — 23 Nov 2010

This is a truly underrated piece of film, and in my opinion, one of Dreamworks' best, if not their best, piece of work. Some have compared it to the far earlier movie The Ten Commandments, and in some senses, yeah it's true. But, Prince of Egypt is not telling the exact same story as Ten Commandments, so it's not a straight-up unabashed remake of Ten Commandments.

I absolutely love everything done in this movie, I love how it's so visual, and even the songs aren't bad. They keep things going nicely and they help with the story, as opposed to some musicals where the songs are just pointless and drag the story down with them. The story of Moses, which I am not terribly familiar with, is told very well both visually and with the dialogue.

I also really loved how it focused on the relationship between the brothers and how it made Ralph Fiennes' Ramses seem much more human. Val Kilmer's Moses is well done too, and it has fewer characters than Ten Commandments, so it has more time to develop them. I have not seen the Ten Commandments, so anything I say about the movie in this review is what my friend, who has quite the knowledge of biblical epics, told me.

The animation is absolutely stunning. It's kind of strange that Dreamworks has done so many great CGI features and that their best movie was one of their few hand-drawn ones. A brief note on the burning bush in this movie: I liked how the burning bush seemed otherworldly, like you knew it was fire, but you somehow find it soothing, like something not of this world. I also thought it was quite clever to have the voice of Moses be the voice of God.

I am completely unfamiliar with the story of Moses, seeing as I never went to Sunday school or even went to church as a child, but this movie has helped increase my knowledge and made me more open to watching movies of this nature. If you haven't seen this movie, you should definitely watch it. In my opinion, one of the best non disney animated movies ever made and very underrated.