"My
son, I have nothing I can give you but
this chance that you might live", says a desperate
mother to her infant as she sets him adrift in a
river, hoping only that he might be spared from an
untimely death.
The Prince of Egypt is the title of a movie put out by
Dreamworks in
1998 which tells the story of
Moses and his
people, and how exactly it was he led them to "
freedom". It doesn't stray far from the
original source, and thus it's quite
biblical and
preach'y, among other things, but it's still an amazing movie, my favourite
animated classic, in fact. I think
Dreamworks beat any
Disney flick I've ever seen with this one, the animation is absolutely
beautiful.
There were
a few little things that I found
disturbing about the movie, but those can be traced back to
the story of Moses and not the people who actually created this film. I just don't think it was quite
fair of the almighty lord to
smite the children of the "evil" Egyptian emperor and those under his rule, who wouldn't "
let his people go". I mean, sure, maybe dropping an anvil on the person behind all of it, but killing off his
child? It didn't work any way, he was still pissed, and still tried to
kill them all. This is actually the movie that prompted "
my god parted the sea, what can yours do?". I don't want a god that I have to
fear for any reason.
Overall, though, if you
ignore the blatant religious stupidities, it's truly one of the greatest films I've ever seen. Better yet was the fact that they didn't try to
sell anything but
music from this movie.. I mean, there were no little
McDonald's toys, and it seemed almost as if the religious sect was being amazingly
non-hypocritical. (
Either that, or I just missed it.)
Like many a
bible tale, there is a lot to be learned from the
story, it is
inspiring, but also like many a bible tale, it might inspire
laughter, or intense brain seizures
due to things that just don't make any sense. Regardless, it's well worth watching, even though it's a little longer than standard kid movie length, that only seems right considering it's
a lot more than just a movie for kids.
They put together a really nifty website: http://www.princeofegypt.com/. It's pretty graphic intensive but still one of the best I've seen for any animated film.