The Prince of Egypt
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The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated film, the first traditionally animated film produced and released by DreamWorks. The story follows the life of Moses from his birth, through his childhood as a prince of Egypt, and finally to his ultimate destiny to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, which is based on the Biblical story of Exodus.
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, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, who sang their own parts.
The film was nominated for best 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 ceremonies by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. The song, co-written by Stephen Schwartz, Hans Zimmer and with additional production by Babyface, was nominated for the Best Original Song (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 went on to gross $218,613,188 worldwide, making it the third traditionally animated feature not released by Disney to gross over $100 million in the US, barely outgrossing The Rugrats Movie. The Prince of Egypt remained the highest grossing traditionally animated non-Disney film until 2007 when it was outgrossed by The Simpsons Movie.
Taglines:
Two brothers. United by friendship, divided by destiny.
The power is real. The story is forever. The time is now.
Plot summary
Although based on the Biblical story of Exodus, the film takes considerable liberties with the Biblical story. It opens with a textual disclaimer stating that artistic license has been taken. Some differences are listed below:
In the Bible, Moses is brought up by his biological mother and is aware of being a Hebrew. (Ex 2:5-11) In the film, Moses grows up believing himself to be Egyptian.
In the Bible, there is no indication that Moses lived in opulence in a palace in Egypt as the film portrays.
In the Bible, Moses kills an Egyptian guard and buries his body, whereas in the film Moses flees after knocking the guard off a large scaffolding.
In the Bible, no confrontation between Moses and his brother, Aaron, is mentioned.
In the film, Moses turned his staff into a snake when he first saw Pharaoh. In the Bible, he performed it during his second encounter. (This was possibly changed due to time constraints)
There is no indication that the Pharaoh which Moses antagonizes is his adoptive brother; this was embellished to provide for a dramatized plot.
In the Bible, Moses is "slow of tongue", and Aaron speaks for him. In this film, as is often the case with dramatic adaptations of this passage, Moses alone speaks for God to Pharaoh.
The Bible indicates that Moses, Aaron and Miriam were all over 80 years of age at the time of the Exodus; the film portrays them all as being much younger.
The first song ("Deliver Us") shows Hebrew slaves labor away while Jochebed (also spelt Yocheved), seeing her fellow mothers' baby sons being taken away from them, builds a basket for her own son and sets it afloat on the Nile to be preserved by fate, singing her final lullaby ("River Lullaby", A recurring motif in the film) to the baby. Her daughter, Miriam, follows the basket and witnesses her baby brother being taken in by the Queen of Egypt and named Moses.
The story cuts to (presumably) 18-20 years later (biblically 40 years), to show a grown Moses and his foster-brother, Rameses, racing their chariots through the Egyptian temples, destroying many statues. When they are lectured by their father, Seti, later on for their misdeeds, Rameses is offended. Moses later remarks that Rameses wants the approval of his father, but lacks the opportunity. Moses goes to cheer his brother up, making joking predictions ("Statues crumbling and toppling, the Nile drying up; you will singlehandedly bring the greatest kingdom on Earth to ruins!"). They then stumble in late to a banquet given by Seti, discovering that he has named Rameses as Prince Regent. In thanks, Rameses appoints Moses as Royal Chief Architect. As a tribute to Moses, the high priests Hotep and Huy offer Zipporah, a Midianite girl they kidnapped, as a concubine for him. She eventually escapes, with Moses' help. Moses is led to a small spot in Goshen where he is reunited with Miriam and Aaron, his siblings. There, Miriam tells him the truth about his past. Moses at first is in denial ("All I Ever Wanted"), but a nightmare and talks with his adoptive parents help him realize the truth. Moses eventually kills an Egyptian guard, who was abusing an old slave, and runs away in despair.
Moses finds his way to Midian, where he saves Zipporah's sisters from bandits. He is welcomed warmly by Zipporah's father, Jethro. Moses becomes a shepherd and marries Zipporah ("Through Heaven's Eyes). Moses soon comes into contact with the burning bush while chasing a stray lamb and is instructed by the Hebrew God to free the slaves from Egypt. Zipporah returns with him to find the slaves in even worse condition than before. He discovers that Rameses is now Pharaoh and has a wife and a young son. Moses tells Rameses to let his people go, demonstrating the power behind him by changing his shepherding staff into a cobra. Hotep and Huy boastfully repeat this transformation ("Playing with the Big Boys Now"), invoking all of Egypt's gods in the process; behind their backs, the snake created by Moses eats both of their snakes. Rather than being persuaded, Rameses is hardened and orders the slaves' work to be doubled.
Out in the workfield, Moses is struck down by an elder Hebrew into a muddy pit, and then is confronted by Aaron, who blames him for the excess workload. Moses, with Miriam's help, tells the Hebrews to believe that freedom will come. He confronts Rameses, who is 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. After nine of the 10 plagues occur ("The Plagues"), leaving Egypt in ruins, Moses returns to Rameses to warn him about the final plague. After an almost-tender moment between the ex-brothers, Moses is told never to come to Rameses again. Moses then instructs the Hebrews to paint lamb's blood above their doors for the coming night of Passover. After the Angel of Death comes through, killing Rameses' own son and all the other firstborn children of Egypt, grief-stricken Rameses reluctantly lets the Hebrews go.
The Hebrews find their way happily to the Red Sea ("When You Believe"), but turn around to find out Rameses has changed his mind and is pursuing them with his army. Moses parts the Red Sea, while behind him a pillar of fire writhes before the Egyptians, blocking their way. The Hebrews cross on the sea bottom; when the army gives chase, the water closes over the Egyptians, and the Hebrews are freed. Rameses, who has been hurled back to the shore by the collapsing waves, is left yelling in disgrace. The last scene of the film shows Moses delivering the Ten Commandments to his people as Jochebed's voice echoes in the background.
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 it remained in the film.
Soundtrack
Main article: The Prince of Egypt (OST)
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 merely as movie tributes, the official Prince of Egypt soundtrack was the only album to contain tracks from the movie. 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.
Ofra Haza, who voiced Yocheved, sang the opening song "Deliver Us" in seventeen of the 21 languages the film was released in, besides her native Hebrew. (Czech - "Tak vyveď nás", Dutch - "Verlos ons Heer", English - "Deliver Us", Finnish - "Johdata", Flemish - "Bevrijd ons Heer", French - "Délivre nous", German - "Erlöse uns", Greek - "Eleftheri", Hebrew - "Hoshiana", Hungarian - "Szabadíts", Italian - "Ascoltaci", Norwegian - "Befri Oss", Polish - "Uwolnij Nas", Portuguese - "Liberte Nos", Spanish - "Libéranos", Swedish - "Befria Oss")
References
Retrived from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_of_Egypt
