Josh's Media Reviews: Prince of Egypt Review

The Prince of Egypt Review

For Passover/Easter, here's my review of The Prince of Egypt, one of my favorite films from Dreamworks. The film is basically a remake of the Ten Commandments, but it's more about Moses and Ramses, who grew up as brothers who loved each other, but circumstances change after Moses learns he's Hebrew. This film has excellent animation and superb storytelling, and the musical numbers are fantastic in this film, like Look at Your Life, Playing with the Big Boys Now, When You Believe, and the Plague song. This film made a lot of money because, let's face it, Christians all over the world wanted to see it because it brings faith in god like all bible films do.

The cast does a great job voicing characters like the late Val Kilmer as Moses, Michelle Willims as Zipporah, Ralph Fiense as Ramses, Patrick Stewart, Jeff Goldblum, Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

Now, one thing I love about this movie is the relationship between Moses and Ramses. They grew up together and were brothers. It's a tragic story of these two brothers as they want things to go back to normal, but Moses had to fight to free his people from him, and Ramses wouldn't as he felt pressured by their father to be Pharaoh and not the weak link. It breaks their hearts as they grew up together but are now on opposite ends. Despite Moses freeing his people, the ending is sad because we see Moses look out at sea and say, "Goodbye, Brother." Showing he still loved his brother despite Ramses now hating him for all the plagues and the death of his own son. It's a bittersweet ending for these two characters.

The rest of the film is visually stunning, and the other characters in the film are great. Moses's wife, Zipporah, is a great character who at first doesn't like Moses until she grows to love him and marry him. Moses's real brother and sister are good characters, too. It's funny that Jeff Goldblum voices Moses's brother, and it's funny casting. Sandra Bullock was also great as Moses's sister, and she's a forgiving character, which I like. Also, the high priests, voiced by Steve Martin and Martin Short, are a funny duo, but there is not much about them. They aren't like Dathan was in the movie The Ten Commandments. Overall, I love this film, and it would be nice if Dreamworks did another 2D animated film, but I don't see that happening because Dreamworks has done a fantastic job with 3D animation, and Disney needs to go back to basics.