Blu-ray + Digital HD

The Prince of Egypt Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman, July 18, 2019

The Motion Picture you are about to see is an adaptation of the Exodus story. While artistic and historical license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide. The biblical story of Moses can be found in the book of Exodus.



Parting the way.

begins with this text:It's difficult to rank the Bible's stories or characters (with the exception of Jesus) in orders of importance, narrative appeal, or widespread knowledge outside of the Christian faith, but there's no denying that the story of Moses, the man chosen by God to lead the effort to free Hebrew slaves in Egypt, is one of the Bible's most prolific and important in all of Christianity. The story has been told several times on film, most notably in Director Cecil B. DeMille's epic masterpiece The Ten Commandments , released in 1956 and starring the late Charlton Heston. That film is much more involved than, which is a solidly constructed animated telling of the tale and which would be the first of two Bible-based DreamWorks animations, the other being 2000's Joseph: King of Dreams Hebrew slaves, toiling in Egypt, yearn to be freed, delivered to the Promised Land as has long been foretold to them. But their situation seems hopeless. They have been in bondage for generations and are only worked harder and for less and less each year. Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I (voiced by Patrick Stewart) fears Hebrew rebellion and is ordering young men killed. Young mother Yocheved, fearing for her infant son's life, places him into a basket and into the river; he is soon found by Pharaoh's wife (voiced by Helen Mirren) who names him Moses. Moses (voiced by Val Kilmer) grows into young man alongside his stepbrother Rameses (voiced by Ralph Fiennes). They are often reckless, frequently upsetting their father, but the two form an unbreakable bond of friendship that seemingly nothing could destroy.Years later, however, Moses begins to understand the cost of Egypt's greatness. When he runs into his older siblings, Aaron (voiced by Jeff Goldblum) and Miriam (voiced by Sandra Bullock), his feelings of shame and desire to see the slaves freed only increases. When Moses accidentally kills an Egyptian guard while trying to protect a Hebrew slave, he flees from the land, even as Rameses promises to forgive him of the crime. Moses settles with a tribe of Midianites, marries the beautiful young Tzipporah (voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer), and begins what he hopes to be a life of comfort, friends, and family away from the horrors playing out in Egypt. One day, Moses encounters God (also voiced by Kilmer) taking the shape of a burning bush. God promises to "smite Egypt with all My wonders" and charges Moses with returning to the land, confronting Rameses, and ordering him to set Hebrew slaves free.The film features an all-star voice cast that, on paper, must be ranked as one of the finest ever assembled for an animated film. In the booth, the cast seems a little more uneven, perhaps assembled more for the names behind the microphone rather than the vocal cadence with which the actors voice the characters. That is not to say the performances are poor -- each finds an appropriate range and depth for their characters -- but that is to say that the vocal cadences and tones don't necessarily jive with the material. The movie doesn't necessarilyfor it but one can imagine a superior product with voices more befitting the characters, more regional even if still spoken in English.The filmmakers do rise to the challenge of taking relatively dark material -- which involves widespread slavery, various plagues savaging the land, sorcery in Pharaoh's court, the killing of firstborn sons, and mass death by drowning -- and translating it all to a generally family friendly affair, intermixed with song but not toning down the details, either. It's fairly true to the Biblical account, if not a bit tightened for runtime and lacking the greater character depth and vision of the DeMille film, but it's a well-rounded accomplishment that will leave audiences yearning for more similarly crafted animated Bible films.