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Okay, so I was and still am a Disney
fan, but I just had to see this debut animated feature by Dreamworks
Animation!
It was shorter than I expected!
Running at almost one and a half hours, it is worth the $7 that you pay!
From the opening scene where the Hebrew slaves are forced to build the
pyramidal structures of a new Egyptian city to the amazing chariot race
between Moses and Ramses, the whole movie grips you with the beautiful
animation techniques employed by the artists.
The harshness of the live action movie
The Ten Commandments (of which this
is also loosely based upon, apart from the biblical book of the Exodus) is
played down greatly. Most significantly, the hatred Ramses had for his
brother - Moses. In The Prince Of Egypt, the two are portrayed as two very
close brothers who are always out for some fun at the expense of
others-mostly the two idiotic Egyptian priests.
The high point of the movie must be when Moses parts the Red Sea. Stunning
as it may be, the part when the water comes down is more realistic than
the part when it was being parted!
And the film's version of the song When You Believe sounds better than the
duet by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey!
The movie ends with Moses lifting up the Ten Commandments of God, without
all that chaos from the good vs. evil earth-splitting scene we saw in the
live-action movie.
Ok, now for the bad things about this movie!
Contrary to what the animators say about this being very different from
Disney cartoons and what with being a cartoon for adults, I feel that it
is still very suitable for kids.
I was expecting something very dark, like Disney's
The Hunchback Of Notre
Dame, but it turned out to be more like
The Land Before Time.
Even Snow White is darker than The Prince Of Egypt.
So, Dreamworks - here's my word of advise: Cut the crap about being
different from Disney. Most of the artists who worked on this film were
poached from Disney. In fact, one of Dreamworks' 3 CEOs-Mr Jeffrey
Katzenberg, was formerly from Disney as well. It is suitable for kids, so
roll out the merchandising and toys!
And if you want to be like Disney and have "cute" (read: ugly
and unadorable!) characters like the two priests, stick with animals!
Something from the likes of the characters from
Antz would have worked
better than the two priests from The Prince Of Egypt! |
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