The Prince of Egypt

This article is about the film. For the soundtrack, see The Prince of Egypt (soundtrack).

The Prince of Egypt
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Simon Wells Brenda Chapman Steve Hickner
Screenplay by	Philip LaZebnik Nicholas Meyer
Produced by	Penney Finkelman Cox Sandra Rabins Jeffrey Katzenberg (executive producer)
Edited by	Nick Fletcher
Music by	Stephen Schwartz (musical songs) Hans Zimmer (score)
Production company	DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures
Release date	December 18, 1998 (1998-12-18)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$70 million
Box office	$218,613,188

The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated musical film and the first traditionally animated film produced and released by DreamWorks Animation. The film is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. The film was directed by Brenda Chapman, Simon Wells and Steve Hickner. The film featured songs written by Stephen Schwartz and a score composed by Hans Zimmer. The voice cast featured a number of major Hollywood actors in the speaking roles, while professional singers replaced them for the songs. The exceptions were Michelle Pfeiffer, Ralph Fiennes, Ofra Haza, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, who sang their own parts.

The film was nominated for best Original Music Score and won for Best Original Song at the 1999 Academy Awards for "When You Believe". The pop version of the song was performed at the ceremony by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. The song, co-written by Stephen Schwartz, Hans Zimmer and with additional production by Babyface, was nominated for Best Original Song (in a Motion Picture) at the 1999 Golden Globes, and was also nominated for Outstanding Performance of a Song for a Feature Film at the ALMA Awards.

The film was released in theaters on December 18, 1998, and on home video on September 14, 1999. The film went on to gross $218,613,188 worldwide in theaters, making it the second traditionally animated feature not released by Disney to gross over $100 million in the U.S. after The Rugrats Movie. Prince of Egypt became the top grossing non-Disney animated film until 2000 when it was out-grossed by the stop motion film Chicken Run. The film also remained the highest grossing non-Disney traditionally animated film until 2007, when it was out-grossed by The Simpsons Movie.

Plot

In Ancient Egypt, Yocheved (Ofra Haza), a Hebrew slave, and her children, Miriam and Aaron, see baby sons being taken away from their mothers by egyptian soldiers, as ordered by Pharaoh Seti I (Patrick Stewart). Yocheved thus places her own son in a basket and sets it afloat on the Nile to be preserved by fate. Miriam, follows the basket and witnesses her baby brother being taken in by The Queen (Queen Tuya voiced by Helen Mirren) and names him Moses.

Decades later, Moses (Val Kilmer) and his foster-brother, Rameses (Ralph Fiennes), are lectured by their father after they destroy a temple. Rameses is blamed for their misdeeds though Moses tries to take the blame, but Moses later remarks that Rameses wants the approval of his father, but lacks the opportunity. Later, Rameses is named Prince Regent and is given authority over all of Egypt's Temples. In thanks, Rameses appoints Moses as Royal Chief Architect. As a tribute to Rameses, the high priests Hotep (Steve Martin) and Huy (Martin Short) offer him Tzipporah (Michelle Pfeiffer), a Midian girl they kidnapped (along with her camel), as a concubine. Rameses is initially interested, but rejects the offer after Tzipporah nearly bites him. He gives the girl to Moses, who attempts to restrain her gently despite her insults and struggling but ultimately trips her into a fountain to diffuse the tense scene. She eventually escapes, with Moses' help, and while following her Moses is reunited with Miriam (Sandra Bullock) and Aaron (Jeff Goldblum). Miriam tells Moses the truth about his past and that both she and Aaron are his siblings. Moses at first is in denial, but a nightmare and conversations with his adoptive parents help him realize the truth. Upon asking Seti of the murder of the Hebrew babies, Seti tries to comfort him, but this fails. The next day, Moses accidentally kills an Egyptian guard who was abusing an old slave by pushing him of the construction tower. Ashamed, Moses decides to run away in exile. Rameses, feeling sorry for Moses, attempts to convince him not to run off in exile, saying that he can make look like the crime never happened. Eventually, Moses refuses and runs off anyway, having been consumed of regret and confusion.

After Moses saves Tzipporah's sisters from bandits, he is welcomed warmly by their father Jethro (Danny Glover), the High Priest of Midian. After months of blending into his true culture, Moses becomes a shepherd and gradually earns Tzipporah's respect and love, culminating in their marriage. One day, Moses comes into contact with God through a burning bush while chasing his lamb. God (also voiced by Val Kilmer) instructs Moses to free the slaves from Egypt and empowers Moses' shepherding staff with the ability to do great wonders, the greatest being to shepherd his people to freedom.

Moses returns to Egypt with Tzipporah, entering the temple in the midst of a large celebration. He is happily greeted by Rameses, now Pharaoh and the father of a young boy. Moses tells Rameses to let his people go, demonstrating the power behind him by changing his shepherding staff into a snake. Hotep and Huy boastfully repeat this transformation, conjuring many of Egypt's Gods in the process. However, Moses' snake eats both of their snakes. Rather than being persuaded, Rameses is hardened and orders the slaves' work to be doubled.

Later, Moses again confronts Rameses passing on his boat in the Nile. Rameses orders his guards to bring Moses to him, but they turn back when Moses turns the river into blood with his staff. The Priests turn some water to blood themselves. As the days pass, nine of the Plagues of Egypt occur. Moses feels tortured inside feeling as if he is betraying Rameses and leaving Egypt in ruins. Despite all the pain and devestation caused by the plauges, Ramses refuses to relent, and in anger, states that a great cry will fall over Egypt, unknowing that he is calling upon the final plague himself. Moses then instructs the Hebrews to paint lamb's blood above their doors for the coming night of Passover. That night, the final plague (the angel of death) spills over the city, killing all the firstborn children of Egypt, including Rameses' son. Moses once more visits the grief-stricken Rameses, who is standing over the dead body of his son, despondent, and with a mixture of sadness at the horror that has happened and fury at Moses, who he once called brother, tells him to take the Hebrews and leave Egypt. Moses leaves and breaks down in tears outside, his spirit broken after causing his brother and all of Egypt so much pain.

The following morning, the Hebrews happily leave their enslavement and eventually find their way to the Red Sea, but discover that Rameses has changed his mind and is pursuing them with his army to kill them all. Moses parts the sea, while behind him a pillar of fire writhes before the Egyptian army, blocking their way. The Hebrews cross on the sea bottom; when the pillar of fire disappears and the army gives chase, the water closes over the Egyptian soldiers to their watery deaths, and the Hebrews are freed. However, Rameses is spared, as he is hurled back to the shore by the collapsing waves, screaming in agony over his death of his soldiers and crying out to Moses in despair and heartbreak because of all that has been done. Feeling sorry over Rameses's loss, Moses makes one final farewell to him, and leads the Hebrew people to Mount Sinai, where he is given the Ten Commandments to deliver to them.

Cast

• Val Kilmer as Moses, a Hebrew who was adopted by Pharaoh Seti. After learning of his true heritage, he would take on a mission ordered by God to free the Hebrews from Egypt. He serves as the protagonist of the film.
  • Val Kilmer also provides the voice of God, the Creator of the Universe.
  • Amick Byram provides the singing voice for Moses.
• Ralph Fiennes as Rameses II, Moses's foster brother and eventual successor to his father, Seti. He serves initially as a minor protagonist on the first half of the film, but later on becomes the primary antagonist.
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Tzipporah, Jethro's oldest daughter and Moses' wife. She was initially digusted towards Moses, but later warms up to him after he saves her sisters from thieves and goes on to help him in his mission.
• Sandra Bullock as Miriam, Moses and Aaron's biological sister. She believes in Moses and supports his mission.
  • Sally Dworsky provides the singing voice of Miriam.
  • Eden Riegel provides both the speaking and singing voice of a younger Miriam.
• Jeff Goldblum as Aaron, Moses and Miriam's biological brother. He is initially scornful and skeptical of Moses's mission, but later warms up to him.
• Patrick Stewart as Pharaoh Seti I, Rameses's father and the first Pharaoh. He is responsible for the murder of the male Hebrew babies at the outset of the film, out of fear of an imminent rebellion by the Hebrews. Despite his uncaring attitude towards the Hebrew slaves, he is shown to treat Moses and Rameses with good care and love. He is the secondary antagonist of the film.
• Danny Glover as Jethro, Tzipporah's father and the high priest of Midian.
  • Brian Stokes Mitchell provides the singing voice of Jethro.
• Helen Mirren as Queen Tuya, Seti's consort wife and Rameses's mother. She is the one to have found Moses near the bank of the Nile and convinced Seti to raise him as their adopted son.
  • Linda Dee Shayne provides the singing voice of Queen Tuya.
• Steve Martin as Hotep, the chubbiest of the High Priests, and one of the minor antagonists of the film.
• Martin Short as Huy, the tallest of the High Priests, and one of the minor antagonists of the film.
• Ofra Haza as Yocheved, the biological mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. She sent the infant Moses away to prevent him from being murdered by Egyptian soldiers ordered by Seti, who would later raise Moses as his adopted son.

Director Brenda Chapman briefly voices Miriam when she sings the lullaby to Moses. The vocal had been recorded for a scratch audio track, which was intended to be replaced later by Sally Dworsky. The track turned out so well that it remained in the film.

Production

The idea for the film came about at the formation of DreamWorks, when the three partners, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and 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."

Story development

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 14 storyboard artists and writers as they sketched out the entire movie - 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 movie 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 historical and theological accuracy, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to call in Bible scholars, Christian, Jewish and Muslim theologians, and Arab American leaders to help his movie 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.

Art and visual design

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 movie 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 travel across Egypt by the filmmakers before the production of the film began.

There are 1192 scenes in film, and 1180 of them have special effects in them. These special effects were elements such as wind blowing or environmental features such as dust or rainwater. There were also effects design in terms of lighting, as it casts its shadows and images into a given scene. In the end, these effects helped the animators graphically illustrate scenes such as the 10 plagues and the parting of the Red Sea.

Character and background design

Character Designers Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel and Nicolas 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.

Music and sound

The task of creating the voice of Yahweh 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."

Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz began working on writing songs for the film from the very beginning of the film's production. As the story evolved, he continued to write songs that would serve to both entertain and help move the story along. Composer Hans Zimmer arranged and produced the songs and then eventually wrote the score for the film. The film's score was recorded entirely in London, England.

Soundtrack

Main article: The Prince of Egypt (soundtrack)

Three soundtracks were released simultaneously for The Prince of Egypt, each of them aimed towards a different target audience. While the other two accompanying records, the country-themed "Nashville" soundtrack and the gospel-based "Inspirational" soundtrack, functioned as movie tributes, the official Prince of Egypt soundtrack contained the actual songs from the film. This album combines elements from the score composed by Hans Zimmer, and movie songs by Stephen Schwartz. The songs were either voiced over by professional singers (such as Salisbury Cathedral Choir), or sung by the movie's voice actors, such as Michelle Pfeiffer and Ofra Haza. Various tracks by contemporary artists such as K-Ci & Jo-Jo and Boyz II Men were added, including the Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston duet "When You Believe", a Babyface rewrite of the original Schwartz composition, sung by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky in the movie. Amy Grant also sings a version of "River Lullaby". Also, a rare complete score was released for promotional purposes.

Ofra Haza, who voiced Yocheved, sang the opening song "Deliver Us" in 17 of the 28 languages in which the film was released, among them her native Hebrew language.

Musical numbers

1. "Deliver Us" - Slaves
2. "River Lullaby" - Yocheved & Young Miriam
3. "All I Ever Wanted" - Moses
4. "All I Ever Wanted (Reprise)" - Queen Tuya
5. "Through Heaven's Eyes" - Jethro & Ensemble
6. "Playing With The Big Boys" - Hotep & Huy
7. "The Plagues" - Moses, Ramses, & Ensemble
8. "When You Believe" -Miriam, Tzipporah, Moses, Aaron, & Company
9. "Finale" - Ensemble

Reception

Box office performance

On its opening weekend, the film grossed $14,524,321 for a $4,658 average from 3,118 theaters, earning second place at the box office, behind You've Got Mail. Due to the holiday season, the film gained 4% in its second weekend, earning $15,119,107 and finishing in fourth place. It had a $4,698 average from 3,218 theaters. It would hold well in its third weekend, with only a 25% drop to $11,244,612 for a $3,511 average from 3,202 theaters and once again finishing in fourth place. The film closed on May 27, 1999 after earning a domestic total gross of $101,413,188 and an additional $117,200,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $218.6 million. It was a box office success, since it covered the $70 million production budget.

The Prince of Egypt box office revenue

Source	Gross (USD)	% Total	All Time Rank (Unadjusted)
United States & Canada	$101,413,188	46.4%	398
Foreign	$117,200,000	53.6%	–
Worldwide	$218,613,188	100.0%	319

Reviews

The Prince of Egypt received generally positive reviews from critics and at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 80 reviews collected, the film has an overall approval rating of 79%, with a weighted average score of 7/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes's Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 75 percent. By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized 0–100 rating to reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 64 from the 26 reviews it collected.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film in his review saying, "The Prince of Egypt is one of the best-looking animated films ever made. It employs computer-generated animation as an aid to traditional techniques, rather than as a substitute for them, and we sense the touch of human artists in the vision behind the Egyptian monuments, the lonely desert vistas, the thrill of the chariot race, the personalities of the characters. This is a film that shows animation growing up and embracing more complex themes, instead of chaining itself in the category of children's entertainment." Richard Corliss of Time magazine gave a negative review of the film saying, "The film lacks creative exuberance, any side pockets of joy." Stephen Hunter from The Washington Post praised the film saying, "The movie's proudest accomplishment is that it revises our version of Moses toward something more immediate and believable, more humanly knowable." Lisa Alspector from the Chicago Reader praised the film and wrote, "The blend of animation techniques somehow demonstrates mastery modestly, while the special effects are nothing short of magnificent." Houston Chronicle's Jeff Millar reviewed by saying, "The handsomely animated Prince of Egypt is an amalgam of Hollywood biblical epic, Broadway supermusical and nice Sunday school lesson." James Berardinelli from Reelviews highly praised the film saying, "The animation in The Prince of Egypt is truly top-notch, and is easily a match for anything Disney has turned out in the last decade", and also wrote "this impressive achievement uncovers yet another chink in Disney's once-impregnable animation armor." Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail gave a somewhat negative review and wrote, "Prince of Egypt is spectacular but takes itself too seriously."

Awards

Award	Category	Recipient	Result
Academy Awards	Best Original Musical or Comedy Score		Nominated
	Best Original Song	"When You Believe"	Won
Annie Awards	Best Animated Feature		Nominated
	Individual Achievement in Directing	Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells	Nominated
	Individual Achievement in Storyboarding	Lorna Cook (Story supervisor)	Nominated
	Individual Achievement in Effects Animation	Jamie Lloyd (Effects Lead - Burning Bush/Angel of Death)	Nominated
	Individual Achievement in Voice Acting	Ralph Fiennes ("Rameses")	Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	Best Original Score		Nominated
	Best Original Song	"When You Believe"	Nominated

Controversy

The Maldives was the first of two Muslim countries to ban the film. The country's Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs stated, "all prophets and messengers of God are revered in Islam, and therefore cannot be portrayed". Following this ruling, the censor board banned the film in January 1999. In the same month, the Film Censorship Board in Malaysia banned the film, but did not provide a specific explanation. The board's secretary said that the censor body ruled the film was "insensitive for religious and moral reasons". However, the film is now openly available on DVD in retail stores in both countries.

The film was banned in Egypt, a predominantly Muslim country, as the depiction of Islamic prophets is forbidden in Islam. There was also discontent concerning the reference to Rameses (or Ramses in Egypt) as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Rameses II is highly regarded in Egypt, and is widely believed by the people to have been deceased prior to the events of the Hebrew enslavement and Exodus.

Prequel

Main article: Joseph: King of Dreams

In November 2000, DreamWorks Animation released Joseph: King of Dreams, a direct-to-video prequel based on the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis.

See also

• Joseph: King of Dreams
• The Ten Commandments

References

External links

• Template:Bcdb title
• The Prince of Egypt at IMDb
• Template:Allmovie title
• The Prince of Egypt at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Prince of Egypt at Box Office Mojo
• A comparison of 'The Prince of Egypt' with 'The Ten Commandments' movie, the biblical story and the Jewish Midrash