Review of The Prince of Egypt (1998) by Stephen S — 13 Mar 2015

During the same year that Disney's MULAN was released, two rival animation studios premiered their newest productions. The first, Warner Brothers' QUEST FOR CAMELOT tried too hard to imitate Disney's formula, and was quickly ignored and forgotten.

However, Dreamworks' PRINCE OF EGYPT got lucky. It's a well-executed musical about the famous Biblical story of Moses, with top-notch animation effects and lovely musical numbers from Stephen Schwartz (who also contributed to another Disney picture, the underrated HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME).

The voice acting, too, is very well done, with solid turns from Val Kilmer, Patrick Stewart, and Ralph Fiennes. At the risk of drawing comparisons with MULAN (I really feel that there is no need to, both MULAN and this are excellent movies in their own way and can stand alongside each other), I'd say that PRINCE OF EGYPT is the more daring of the two in its willingness to go one step forward and depict a truly horrific and potentially genocidal act (the scene where the youths of Egypt are killed by a plague) with no impulse to throw in another comic moment.

For that, this is quite a commendable achievement for an "adult" animated effort. While their subsequent traditional animated features declined into mediocrity, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT remains Dreamworks' magnum opus, proving that other animation studios could exist alongside Disney.

The film has aged surprisingly well over the years and, while perhaps nowhere nearly as memorable as the Disney classics, it's nonetheless refreshing to see an animated film from the West tackle a risky subject and do so seriously.