Prince of Egypt

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The word is DeMillennialism. Part of the current 90's craze of creating new ersatz words through combination of others, DeMillennialism is a hybrid of that new age psychobabble term Millennialism, i.e. extraordinary or bizarre behavior due to the end of not only our century but the millennium, and the works of Cecil B. DeMille, that infamous director of blockbuster-budgeted cinematic epics. That means Prince of Egypt sits right comfortably with the likes of Titanic, Armageddon and whatever other movie you've recently seen with a bigger budget than most third world countries.

Prince of Egypt is a spectacle, much like the life-sized and anatomically correct bronze statue of an elephant that now graces the front of the U.N. Like the elephant, the massive size of the darn thing--or specific parts of the thing--are going to catch your attention whether you like it or not. The financial aspect can also block your appreciation of the work.

When I mentioned this term to a friend of mine, he looked me squarely in the eye and said, "'Scuse me while I get my gun. I gotta put some people out of their misery." Fortunately, he was talking about the suits in Hollywood, not me.

This has nothing to do with the critical question as to whether the film is good or not. On the other hand, it does flavor the question, doesn't it? ...and this is one critic who's usually more irritated than pleased to see another blockbuster budget making the theatrical circuit.

The critical points are: First, and most important, is I will NOT fault the powers-that-be at Dreamworks for their ambitions. The idea that Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg in particular are making a concerted effort to produce cartoons for us big kids is a noble effort. Then again, so did Bill Plympton, with a humongously smaller budget.

Second, like any true blockbuster, the money is clearly seen on the screen. Once you get past the opening credits, you can't avoid it. While what's up there is truly worth taking a gander at, its unavoidability makes it part of the review along with the storytelling. On the other hand, I have to say that visually Prince of Egypt has some very tasty eye candy.

Finally, while I won't go and say that Prince of Egypt is like Van Sant's Psycho' -- i.e. a frame-for-frame recreation of a classic film -- you know this film was influenced by the late DeMille's The Ten Commandments. Moses and the Exodus can only be told in so many ways.

There are times where the sheer gaudiness of the picture gets in the way of the story. A good example is when Moses' mother, in order to save her child from being killed by Egyptian soldiers, hides the baby prophet in a basket and sends him down the Nile. Once we get to the Nile, every aspect of this sequence is in classic pen-ink-pencil animation with the sole exception of the basket itself. For some reason, the supervising directors thought it would be a great idea to have the basket rendered through CGI. Doesn't matter that baby Moses is hand drawn, as are all the rest of the characters the mid-range and even the backgrounds. Sitting in the middle of it like a sore thumb is the darn computer-generated basket.

It's like dropping a velvet Elvis in the middle of the Whitney Museum. It destroys some darn good animating, editing and storytelling. There are other scenes just like that and it begs the darn question why?

Another critical point. I realize this is an animated epic, but there are scenes that are just plain trite. One sequence in particular (Moses learning his true origins) is a particularly glaring example.

The sequence is set with the now young Prince of Egypt running through the street chasing his eventual bride-to-be. In the process, he bumps into his blood siblings, Aaron and Miriam, who are getting water from a well. Miriam's blathering trigger long-buried memories in the poor boy of his origins and his heritage.

Now, you know the flashback sequence is going to come. The thing is Prince of Egypt does it in dream imagery resembling ancient Egyptian hieroglyph- ics, all very flat and two-dimensional. Close the sequence with Moses confronting his stepfather, the Pharaoh, with the revelation and getting some very unwanted answers.

Plainly speaking, if the CGI basket is a sore thumb, the hieroglyphic dream sequence is a sledgehammer on your big toe. It actually hurts to watch. Personally, I think the sequence would have been better with the set confrontations of first Aaron and Miriam, and then move straight to the Pharaoh. In fact, I would state it would probably have been incredibly more dramatic.

You see, there's some darn good ACTING in Prince of Egypt. I was incredibly impressed by the performances rendered out of Moses (voiced by Val Kilmer and animated by Kristoff Serrand) and his step-brother, the future Pharaoh Rameses (Ralph Fiennes, David Brewster). While the characters are very stylized, they are still display an incredible amount of emotion throughout the film. This is what you dream of when you want an animated film aimed at the adult market. Throwing in scenes like the basket and the dream come off as gaudy gimmickry and breaks one's appreciation of the good stuff going on around you.

Speaking of gaudy gimmickry, while I applaud Dreamworks stating that this is an adult film and therefore there won't be any Prince of Egypt toys coming with future McDonald Happy Meals, I also have to say who the heck are you fooling? This film is still being grossly merchandised, particularly where the music is concerned.

I mean c'mon, the only reason Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston are thrown into a musical number with Ofra Haza is to sell CD soundtrack. For you stone cold ignorant of world music, Haza is one of the biggest singers in the world as well as the voice of Moses' mother Yocheved. When the woman sets her youngest off on his journey down the Nile, you know there's going to be a musical number. Haza can hold her own very well in the number, she's got mega-chops in the vocal department. Adding Carey and Houston in the mix--sharing Haza's leads no less--is purely a commercial move. I did notice that when it was Danny Glover's turn at singing--he being Moses' future father-in-law Jethro--he got to sing his entire number without the likes of Luther Vandross or Keith Sweat chiming in.

So, cut me a break. Dreamworks again ruins the film with this and other similar mass merchandising stunts you know are coming (art books, not one but three CD soundtracks and high-priced limited run serigraph cels are certainly on the way). Why the hell else would they reduce eight of the many plagues Moses brings to Egypt to a musical number?

You see, besides some very stellar acting, there are some equally incredible sequences running through this movie. The last plague, the first Passover, is so tastefully executed I was actually sitting up in my seat in total admiration. The parting of the Red Sea sequence is not only magnificently dramatic, but a true eye-popping sequence where you could appreciate all that money Dreamworks spent on the film. Without that kind of money, the Red Sea sequence would not have had anywhere near the same impact it does in its final form.

This all leads me to some very interesting conclusions about Dreamworks animation. First and foremost, they ain't Disney...and have a ways to go before they achieve that lofty height. If anything, Paramount and Fox Animation are much closer to achieving the goal of being a true Disney rival, at least artistically.

On the other hand, I'm not counting Dreamworks out just yet. So far both their animated feature films (let's not forget Antz) displayed seriously irritating flaws but also a lot of ambition. The animation field is one of the most difficult ones to master, and Dreamworks--as an entity, not as a collective of its various workers--is still a rookie studio. If they can get rid of those flaws, Dreamworks will become the second Disney; i.e. the second truly major player in the area of theatrical feature films. Until then, I would put Paramount and Fox before them.

While I'm sure if Jeffrey Katzenberg were to read this review he'd get on the phone just to bitch at me about those last comments, I will assert the following: You can take the boy out of Disney, but that doesn't mean the Disney has gotten out of the boy. At their core, Antz was a swipe at trying to steal Disney's thunder with A Bug's Life. Prince of Egypt is an attempt to crimp and one-up Disney's trademark animated musical spectaculars. Both ended up flawed and I would bet it was Katzenberg's ambition of showing off to his former bosses was part of it.

The real tests will be coming in 1999, when Dreamworks readies its next series of animated feature films, The Road To El Dorado (classic animation) and Shrek! (CGI). Let's see if these movies learn from the errors of the past. Then Dreamworks will be a truly top-notch animation studio.

-#-

So how do the animated feature films of 1998 stack up? Wait until next column when I run the top ten films of the year.

Yes...there were a whopping TEN animated feature films this year. I'll leave you with that to think about for starters. See you next week.

previous animated shorts

Animated Shorts, Dec. 11, 1998	The Bill Kopp interview
Animated Shorts, Dec. 4, 1998
Animated Shorts, Nov. 27, 1998
Animated Shorts, Nov. 20, 1998	The Annual Annie Awards!
Animated Shorts, Nov. 13, 1998	The RUGRATS movie takes the series' quirky charm to the big screen.