The Prince of Egypt

Post Reply New Topic

Does anyone remember this Dreamworks animated movie? This was made back in the time when Dreamworks did 2D animation instead of the silly CGI comedies they churn out today. In my opinion it and The Road to El Dorado are the best Dreamworks movies I've ever seen. I don't care for the religious message very much, but I admire the animation and painted backgrounds (the latter capture the splendor of ancient Egypt wonderfully) and enjoy listening to the music on my iPhone even to this day.

I especially appreciate how the movie is one of very few Biblical films to depict the ancient Hebrews as Middle Eastern people of color, which is refreshingly accurate compared to more traditional Eurocentric portrayals such as DeMille's The Ten Commandments (the one with Charlton Heston as Moses ). The Hebrew characters in Prince of Egypt look exactly how I imagine the real Israelites to have looked.



Unfortunately I am less satisfied with the Egyptian characters' appearance. As seen in the above image, they seem to be the same skin color as the Hebrews, but in real life the ancient Egyptians were significantly darker-skinned. Most Egyptians would have been a chocolate/dark mahogany brown:

(The Egyptians are the chocolate-colored people in white loincloths)

That said, The Prince of Egypt as previously said is a significant improvement over most Bible movies and is my favorite Bible movie for that reason.

Yes, I remember that movie. I went to a Christian elementary school, and they only let us watch movies like this there. Even though I'm not religious, I still liked it.

I remember both of those movies. And didn't they make the Atlantis movie, Treasure Planet and Titan AE? If so, all 3 were great movies.

Titan AE was by FOX and the other two were Disney.

Personally I think Dreamworks should return to 2D animation at least for a while. I've grown sick of their CGI comedies.

I agree, they ruined shrek after the second one :/

It's been a long time since I've watched or heard of this movie. I guess it wasn't bad, I mean the animation was nice and it had a deep plot and solid character development. It's just that I didn't really get into the religous theme of the story. I know it's silly but I'm pretty anti-religion these days and any kind of religous overtone in a movie can keep me from appreciating the quality of the film.

But I totally agree about the potrayel of the Eygptians. Why is it that I have yet to see a movie that potrays Eygptians realistically? At least it's better than The Mummy films.

Part of the problem is that the ancient Egyptians were dark-skinned Northeast Africans, and Northeast African countries these days generally don't produce a lot of dark-skinned actors. Of course Hollywood could go with African-American actors, but most African-Americans are of West African descent and hence have markedly different facial features from Northeast Africans. Then of course there's the widespread prejudice against the idea of darker-skinned people being the architects of one of ancient history's most celebrated and influential civilizations.

Well it's more than just the skin color. I don't really know how to explain it, but I've watched a few documentaries on Egyptian culture and I've never seen a movie that tries to potray the culture realistically. It always seems like they either make up stuff about the ancient culture or parody it with American humor.

I love that movie and El Dorado. Good old 2D...

I too am sick of CGI and 3D

I don't think all CGI films are that bad, at least the ones that came out in the 90's and early 2000. It's the newer ones that are crap.

Wow...I totally forgot about this movie! I used to love this when I was a kid...I totally need to look for it on DVD (I had the VHS).

I remember another animated movie around the time, that I think may have been made by Dreamworks, but I don't remember the name...it was something to do with a sword, and it had two comedy dragons in it...any ideas?

I think you're talking about Quest for Camelot. I don't think it was made by Dreamworks, I think it was made by Warner Brothers.

I love this movie.

I agree that the Egyptian culture is misrepresented in many different ways in Hollywood. I guess hiring Egyptological consultants is considered an unworthy expense by filmmakers. It also doesn't help that since the Egyptians lived so long ago our knowledge about them is limited compared to, say, Victorian England, so the filmmakers have to make up some details.

The thing that irks me about Hollywood portrayals of ancient Egypt (besides the aforementioned skin color issue and other historical inaccuracies) is that they tend to fall into three categories: Biblical movies, supernatural horror stuff featuring mummies and curses, and romances starring Cleopatra. Surely more kinds of movies can be set in Egypt than those three!

Being a Christian and having been raised in a Christian home, I saw this movie when I was younger. I don't remember a lot about the film, but I remember thinking that the animation was gorgeous.

I agree, there's more types of movies they could make about Egypt without relying on those three categories. They should make a serious Egyptian movie that shows what life was really like back then for that country, and it doesn't have to be in the style of a boring documentary. I wouldn't even mind it having a supernatural element just as long as it's handled realistically and not completely made up.