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Description
Lets continue our DreamWorks marathon with the story of a man who was raised by royalty only to become a prophet who would lead his people to a new and better life.

In Ancient Egypt, the enslaved Hebrew people pray to God for deliverance. Pharaoh Seti, fearing that the growing numbers of Hebrew slaves could lead to rebellion, orders a mass infanticide of all newborn Hebrew boys. Fearing for her newborn son's safety, Yocheved and her other two children, Miriam and Aaron, rush to the Nile River, where she places the infant in a basket on the water, after bidding him farewell with a final lullaby. Miriam follows the basket as it sails to the Pharaoh's palace and witnesses her baby brother safely adopted by Seti's wife, Queen Tuya, who names him Moses. Before leaving, Miriam prays that Moses will come back to them and set their people free. Years later, Moses and his adoptive brother Rameses, heir to the throne of Egypt, are scolded by Seti for accidentally destroying a temple during a chariot race. At Moses's suggestion to give Rameses the opportunity to prove his responsibility, Seti names Rameses Prince Regent and gives him authority over Egypt's temples. As a tribute, high priests Hotep and Huy offer Rameses a beautiful young Midianite woman, Tzipporah. Rameses gives Tzipporah to Moses and appoints him Royal Chief Architect. Later that night, Moses follows Tzipporah as she escapes from the palace, and runs into the now-adult Miriam and Aaron, whom he does not recognize. Miriam then sings their mother's lullaby, triggering Moses's memory. He flees in denial, but learns the truth of Seti's genocide from a nightmare, then from Seti himself, who disturbs Moses by claiming the Hebrews were "only slaves". The next day, Moses tries to stop an Egyptian slave driver from whipping an elderly Hebrew slave, accidentally pushing the guard to his death. Horrified and ashamed, Moses flees into the desert in exile, despite Rameses's pleas that he stay. Arriving at an oasis, Moses defends three young girls from brigands, only to find out their older sister is Tzipporah. Moses is welcomed by Jethro, Tzipporah's father and the high priest of Midian. Over time, Moses becomes a shepherd, falls in love with Tzipporah, and marries her. One day, while chasing a stray lamb, Moses discovers a burning bush, through which God tells him to return to Egypt and guide the Hebrews to freedom. God bestows Moses's shepherding staff with his power and promises that he will tell Moses what to say. Arriving in Egypt, Moses is happily greeted by Rameses, who is now Pharaoh with a wife and son. Moses requests the Hebrews' release and transforms his staff into a snake to demonstrate God's power. Hotep and Huy deceptively recreate this transformation, only to have their snakes eaten by Moses's. Not wanting to have his actions cause the empire's collapse, Rameses hardens and doubles the Hebrews' workload. The Hebrews, including Aaron, blame Moses for their increased workload, disheartening Moses. However, Miriam inspires Moses to persevere. Moses casts the first of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, turning the water of the Nile into blood, but Rameses remains unmoved. Moses inflicts eight more plagues onto Egypt, but still Rameses refuses to relent, vowing never to release the Hebrews. Disheartened, Moses prepares the Hebrews for the tenth plague, instructing them to sacrifice a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. That night, the final plague kills all the firstborn children of Egypt, including Rameses's son, while sparing those of the Hebrews. Grief-stricken, Rameses gives the Hebrews permission to leave. The following morning, the Hebrews, led by Moses, Miriam, Aaron and Tzipporah, leave Egypt. At the Red Sea, they discover that a vengeful Rameses is pursuing them with his army, intent on killing them. Will Moses and the Hebrews be able to escape Rameses' wrath and reach their promised land?

Pros:
1. Moses is a great and well developed protagonist.
2. Rameses is an amazing and tragic villain.
3. Miriam, Aaron, and Tzipporah are all great support.
4. Great minor yet also major characters like Hotep, Huy, Jethro, Seti, and Tuya.
5. Very well handled drama.
6. Very intense, dramatic, and powerful moments.
7. Spectacular voice acting from a very strong all-star cast.
8. Hans Zimmer provides an excellent and memorable score.
9. Spectacular songs like "Deliver Us", "All I Ever Wanted", "Through Heaven's Eyes", "Playing With the Big Boys", "The Plagues", and the Oscar-winning "When You Believe".
10. Absolutely stupendous and beautiful animation that mixes both hand-drawn and CGI. Just about on par with other animated films that do this like The Iron Giant.
11. Amazing chemistry between the characters, especially Moses and Rameses.
12. A very well balanced light/dark tone.
13. An amazingly well written story that focuses on the brotherhood between Moses and Rameses, and while it may have taken creative liberties with the Book of Exodus, those aspects are still very well done.

Cons:
1. The comedy is honestly the weakest aspect of the film.

Overall:
This is a severely underrated animated marvel that truly captures the spirit of the original story, and is hands down the best biblical animated feature. Honestly even better than the more famous The Ten Commandments. It's not just one of my favorite DreamWorks films, but also one of my favorite animated films, and one of my favorite films period.

Rating:
10/10 (Perfect)

Production Notes and Trivia:
1. Former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg had always wanted to do an animated adaptation of The Ten Commandments. While working for The Walt Disney Company, Katzenberg suggested this idea to Michael Eisner, but he refused. The idea for the film was brought back at the formation of DreamWorks Pictures in 1994, when Katzenberg's partners, Amblin Entertainment founder Steven Spielberg, and music producer David Geffen, were meeting in Spielberg's living room. Katzenberg recalls that Spielberg looked at him during the meeting and said, "You ought to do The Ten Commandments."
2. The Prince of Egypt was "written" throughout the story process. Beginning with a starting outline, Story Supervisors Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook led a team of fourteen storyboard artists and writers as they sketched out the entire film — sequence by sequence. Once the storyboards were approved, they were put into the Avid Media Composer digital editing system by editor Nick Fletcher to create a "story reel" or animatic. The story reel allowed the filmmakers to view and edit the entire film in continuity before production began, and also helped the layout and animation departments understand what is happening in each sequence of the film. After casting of the voice talent concluded, dialogue recording sessions began. For the film, the actors record individually in a studio under guidance by one of the three directors. The voice tracks were to become the primary aspect as to which the animators built their performances. Because DreamWorks was concerned about theological accuracy, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to call in Biblical scholars, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theologians, and Arab American leaders to help his film be more accurate and faithful to the original story. After previewing the developing film, all these leaders noted that the studio executives listened and responded to their ideas, and praised the studio for reaching out for comment from outside sources.
3. Art directors Kathy Altieri and Richard Chavez and production designer Darek Gogol led a team of nine visual development artists in setting a visual style for the film that was representative of the time, the scale and the architectural style of Ancient Egypt. Part of the process also included the research and collection of artwork from various artists, as well as taking part in trips such as a two-week journey across Egypt by the filmmakers before the film's production began.
4. Character designers Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel and Nico Marlet worked on setting the design and overall look of the characters. Drawing on various inspirations for the widely known characters, the team of character designers worked on designs that had a more realistic feel than the usual animated characters up to that time. Both character design and art direction worked to set a definite distinction between the symmetrical, more angular look of the Egyptians versus the more organic, natural look of the Hebrews and their related environments. The backgrounds department, headed by supervisors Paul Lasaine and Ron Lukas, oversaw a team of artists who were responsible for painting the sets/backdrops from the layouts. Within the film, approximately 934 hand-painted backgrounds were created.
5. The animation team for The Prince of Egypt, including 350 artists from 34 different nations, was primarily recruited both from Walt Disney Feature Animation, which had fallen under Katzenberg's auspices while at The Walt Disney Company, and from Amblimation, a defunct division of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. As at Disney's, character animators were grouped into teams by character: for example, Kristof Serrand, as the supervising animator of Older Moses, set the acting style of the character and assigned scenes to his team. Consideration was given to depicting the ethnicities of the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, and Nubians properly.
6. There are 1,192 scenes in the film, and 1,180 contain work done by the special effects department, which animates everything in an animated scene which is not a character: blowing wind, dust, rainwater, shadows, etc. A blend of traditional animation and computer-generated imagery was used in the depictions of the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. The characters were animated with the digital paint software Animo by Cambridge Animation (now merged with Toon Boom Technologies), and the compositing of the 2D and 3D elements was done using the "Exposure Tool", a digital solution developed for Alias Research by Silicon Graphics. Additional animation was outsourced to Fox Animation Studios and Heart of Texas Productions.
7. The task of creating God's voice was given to Lon Bender and the team working with the film's music composer, Hans Zimmer. "The challenge with that voice was to try to evolve it into something that had not been heard before," says Bender. "We did a lot of research into the voices that had been used for past Hollywood movies as well as for radio shows, and we were trying to create something that had never been previously heard not only from a casting standpoint but from a voice manipulation standpoint as well. The solution was to use the voice of actor Val Kilmer to suggest the kind of voice we hear inside our own heads in our everyday lives, as opposed to the larger than life tones with which God has been endowed in prior cinematic incarnations."
8. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz began working on writing songs for the film from the beginning of its production. As the story evolved, he continued to write songs that would serve both to entertain and help move the story along like he did with his works at Disney like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Description
Lets continue our DreamWorks marathon with the story of a man who was raised by royalty only to become a prophet who would lead his people to a new and better life.

In Ancient Egypt, the enslaved Hebrew people pray to God for deliverance. Pharaoh Seti, fearing that the growing numbers of Hebrew slaves could lead to rebellion, orders a mass infanticide of all newborn Hebrew boys. Fearing for her newborn son's safety, Yocheved and her other two children, Miriam and Aaron, rush to the Nile River, where she places the infant in a basket on the water, after bidding him farewell with a final lullaby. Miriam follows the basket as it sails to the Pharaoh's palace and witnesses her baby brother safely adopted by Seti's wife, Queen Tuya, who names him Moses. Before leaving, Miriam prays that Moses will come back to them and set their people free. Years later, Moses and his adoptive brother Rameses, heir to the throne of Egypt, are scolded by Seti for accidentally destroying a temple during a chariot race. At Moses's suggestion to give Rameses the opportunity to prove his responsibility, Seti names Rameses Prince Regent and gives him authority over Egypt's temples. As a tribute, high priests Hotep and Huy offer Rameses a beautiful young Midianite woman, Tzipporah. Rameses gives Tzipporah to Moses and appoints him Royal Chief Architect. Later that night, Moses follows Tzipporah as she escapes from the palace, and runs into the now-adult Miriam and Aaron, whom he does not recognize. Miriam then sings their mother's lullaby, triggering Moses's memory. He flees in denial, but learns the truth of Seti's genocide from a nightmare, then from Seti himself, who disturbs Moses by claiming the Hebrews were "only slaves". The next day, Moses tries to stop an Egyptian slave driver from whipping an elderly Hebrew slave, accidentally pushing the guard to his death. Horrified and ashamed, Moses flees into the desert in exile, despite Rameses's pleas that he stay. Arriving at an oasis, Moses defends three young girls from brigands, only to find out their older sister is Tzipporah. Moses is welcomed by Jethro, Tzipporah's father and the high priest of Midian. Over time, Moses becomes a shepherd, falls in love with Tzipporah, and marries her. One day, while chasing a stray lamb, Moses discovers a burning bush, through which God tells him to return to Egypt and guide the Hebrews to freedom. God bestows Moses's shepherding staff with his power and promises that he will tell Moses what to say. Arriving in Egypt, Moses is happily greeted by Rameses, who is now Pharaoh with a wife and son. Moses requests the Hebrews' release and transforms his staff into a snake to demonstrate God's power. Hotep and Huy deceptively recreate this transformation, only to have their snakes eaten by Moses's. Not wanting to have his actions cause the empire's collapse, Rameses hardens and doubles the Hebrews' workload. The Hebrews, including Aaron, blame Moses for their increased workload, disheartening Moses. However, Miriam inspires Moses to persevere. Moses casts the first of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, turning the water of the Nile into blood, but Rameses remains unmoved. Moses inflicts eight more plagues onto Egypt, but still Rameses refuses to relent, vowing never to release the Hebrews. Disheartened, Moses prepares the Hebrews for the tenth plague, instructing them to sacrifice a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. That night, the final plague kills all the firstborn children of Egypt, including Rameses's son, while sparing those of the Hebrews. Grief-stricken, Rameses gives the Hebrews permission to leave. The following morning, the Hebrews, led by Moses, Miriam, Aaron and Tzipporah, leave Egypt. At the Red Sea, they discover that a vengeful Rameses is pursuing them with his army, intent on killing them. Will Moses and the Hebrews be able to escape Rameses' wrath and reach their promised land?

Pros:
1. Moses is a great and well developed protagonist.
2. Rameses is an amazing and tragic villain.
3. Miriam, Aaron, and Tzipporah are all great support.
4. Great minor yet also major characters like Hotep, Huy, Jethro, Seti, and Tuya.
5. Very well handled drama.
6. Very intense, dramatic, and powerful moments.
7. Spectacular voice acting from a very strong all-star cast.
8. Hans Zimmer provides an excellent and memorable score.
9. Spectacular songs like "Deliver Us", "All I Ever Wanted", "Through Heaven's Eyes", "Playing With the Big Boys", "The Plagues", and the Oscar-winning "When You Believe".
10. Absolutely stupendous and beautiful animation that mixes both hand-drawn and CGI. Just about on par with other animated films that do this like The Iron Giant.
11. Amazing chemistry between the characters, especially Moses and Rameses.
12. A very well balanced light/dark tone.
13. An amazingly well written story that focuses on the brotherhood between Moses and Rameses, and while it may have taken creative liberties with the Book of Exodus, those aspects are still very well done.

Cons:
1. The comedy is honestly the weakest aspect of the film.

Overall:
This is a severely underrated animated marvel that truly captures the spirit of the original story, and is hands down the best biblical animated feature. Honestly even better than the more famous The Ten Commandments. It's not just one of my favorite DreamWorks films, but also one of my favorite animated films, and one of my favorite films period.

Rating:
10/10 (Perfect)

Production Notes and Trivia:
1. Former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg had always wanted to do an animated adaptation of The Ten Commandments. While working for The Walt Disney Company, Katzenberg suggested this idea to Michael Eisner, but he refused. The idea for the film was brought back at the formation of DreamWorks Pictures in 1994, when Katzenberg's partners, Amblin Entertainment founder Steven Spielberg, and music producer David Geffen, were meeting in Spielberg's living room. Katzenberg recalls that Spielberg looked at him during the meeting and said, "You ought to do The Ten Commandments."
2. The Prince of Egypt was "written" throughout the story process. Beginning with a starting outline, Story Supervisors Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook led a team of fourteen storyboard artists and writers as they sketched out the entire film — sequence by sequence. Once the storyboards were approved, they were put into the Avid Media Composer digital editing system by editor Nick Fletcher to create a "story reel" or animatic. The story reel allowed the filmmakers to view and edit the entire film in continuity before production began, and also helped the layout and animation departments understand what is happening in each sequence of the film. After casting of the voice talent concluded, dialogue recording sessions began. For the film, the actors record individually in a studio under guidance by one of the three directors. The voice tracks were to become the primary aspect as to which the animators built their performances. Because DreamWorks was concerned about theological accuracy, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to call in Biblical scholars, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theologians, and Arab American leaders to help his film be more accurate and faithful to the original story. After previewing the developing film, all these leaders noted that the studio executives listened and responded to their ideas, and praised the studio for reaching out for comment from outside sources.
3. Art directors Kathy Altieri and Richard Chavez and production designer Darek Gogol led a team of nine visual development artists in setting a visual style for the film that was representative of the time, the scale and the architectural style of Ancient Egypt. Part of the process also included the research and collection of artwork from various artists, as well as taking part in trips such as a two-week journey across Egypt by the filmmakers before the film's production began.
4. Character designers Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel and Nico Marlet worked on setting the design and overall look of the characters. Drawing on various inspirations for the widely known characters, the team of character designers worked on designs that had a more realistic feel than the usual animated characters up to that time. Both character design and art direction worked to set a definite distinction between the symmetrical, more angular look of the Egyptians versus the more organic, natural look of the Hebrews and their related environments. The backgrounds department, headed by supervisors Paul Lasaine and Ron Lukas, oversaw a team of artists who were responsible for painting the sets/backdrops from the layouts. Within the film, approximately 934 hand-painted backgrounds were created.
5. The animation team for The Prince of Egypt, including 350 artists from 34 different nations, was primarily recruited both from Walt Disney Feature Animation, which had fallen under Katzenberg's auspices while at The Walt Disney Company, and from Amblimation, a defunct division of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. As at Disney's, character animators were grouped into teams by character: for example, Kristof Serrand, as the supervising animator of Older Moses, set the acting style of the character and assigned scenes to his team. Consideration was given to depicting the ethnicities of the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, and Nubians properly.
6. There are 1,192 scenes in the film, and 1,180 contain work done by the special effects department, which animates everything in an animated scene which is not a character: blowing wind, dust, rainwater, shadows, etc. A blend of traditional animation and computer-generated imagery was used in the depictions of the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. The characters were animated with the digital paint software Animo by Cambridge Animation (now merged with Toon Boom Technologies), and the compositing of the 2D and 3D elements was done using the "Exposure Tool", a digital solution developed for Alias Research by Silicon Graphics. Additional animation was outsourced to Fox Animation Studios and Heart of Texas Productions.
7. The task of creating God's voice was given to Lon Bender and the team working with the film's music composer, Hans Zimmer. "The challenge with that voice was to try to evolve it into something that had not been heard before," says Bender. "We did a lot of research into the voices that had been used for past Hollywood movies as well as for radio shows, and we were trying to create something that had never been previously heard not only from a casting standpoint but from a voice manipulation standpoint as well. The solution was to use the voice of actor Val Kilmer to suggest the kind of voice we hear inside our own heads in our everyday lives, as opposed to the larger than life tones with which God has been endowed in prior cinematic incarnations."
8. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz began working on writing songs for the film from the beginning of its production. As the story evolved, he continued to write songs that would serve both to entertain and help move the story along like he did with his works at Disney like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.