Review of The Prince of Egypt (1998) by Nate W — 09 Jul 2010

One can only admire the audacity of a newly-founded Dreamworks studio for deciding to adapt "The Ten Commandments" as their first animated feature, but they pulled it off winningly, spinning the old testament tale into an entertaining film that retains its religious essence without talking down to its younger audience.

One of the keys to the movie's success is in the care the writers took to not paint its antagonist Ramses as a cut-and-dry villain, but as a complex, tragic human being with reasons behind his actions.

Ralph Feinnes does the character justice with an outstanding vocal performance. Another crucial element is the music. Obviously, Stephen Schwartz gets the lion's share of the attention for his great songs, but it's Hans Zimmer who makes the most affecting contribution, delivering one of the very best yet most undervalued instrumental scores of his career.

The final 20 minutes of this epic drama are a thing of majesty: Starting with the eerie "death of the first born" scene, tactfully executed with no more than images and sound, we segue into the moving musical number "When You Believe".

The song begins slowly and gradually swells to a hair-raising apex, before proceeding to the awe-inspiring "parting of the Red Sea" sequence, brought to the screen with such astounding effects animation that it makes the 1956 Charlton Heston version pale in comparison.