The Prince of Egypt is a classic animated film from a while back. It’s always great to see a Bible adaption like this actually come out as a mainstream film for everyone to watch. They did a great job with this one as well. There are definitely quite a number of creative liberties but the film still gets the core messages across which is the important thing. So long as the adaption doesn’t lose the spirit of the original, I’m definitely fine with some changes in order to deliver the adventure. The animation budget and everything feels really high here as well. No expense was spared.

The movie starts off with establishing that Moses was placed in a cradle and sent out at sea so that he might live through the tragedy of every baby being hunted down by order of the king. He ends up being raised as royalty, one of the princes to the kingdom. Ramses will be the one to become king but in the meantime Moses still enjoys every benefit of being at the top. He is a bit of a rebel figure who is always having fun and getting Ramses into trouble but the two are very close and have a good dynamic. One day Moses finds out that he is actually Hebrew and can no longer turn a blind eye to the suffering they are going through. He escapes the country and then God appears to him and instructs Moses to free them. To do this he will have to endure a lot of emotional hardships as the Hebrews doubt him and he has to completely severe his bond with Ramses. Still Moses is willing to do what he must here.

One thing I did appreciate here is the extra time given to developing Moses and Ramses when the two were together at the kingdom. These two were brothers who really got along exceptionally well. There were a few moments where I was waiting for Ramses to suddenly turn super evil or something but the movie never went down that route. Ultimately he is a villain and the film doesn’t hide that but he’s very much the same guy we met in the first half of the film. Moses is just now seeing the side of him that he wouldn’t have noticed or card about back in the day.

Even once Moses returns, Ramses is initially ready to forget everything that happened between them and make him a prince again. The movie plays up the tragic angle of how they are on completely different sides now. It’s definitely not an easy spot to be in. Moses meanwhile does well to not falter or let these feelings get the best of him. He’s got a job to do and so he does it. The movie is fairly short so we have to fast blast through some of the different trials and plagues that Egypt is put through but the final one destroying all of the kids is definitely depicted in a really frightening way.

The silence of the scene outside of the heavy breeze is definitely intense. It’s a true moment of helplessness for those on the Egyptian side who can only watch as these things occur. The animation here is excellent and so you are really able to convey all of the wonders really well like the river parting and the cane turning into a serpent. Even the villains get a whole lot of fanfare as they make their copycat snakes and use shadow magic on their end. I can see some thinking the scene is a little too fantastical as it’s dragged out quite a bit to show all of the magic off but ultimately I would say that it worked pretty well. It was the most memorable song in the film to be sure and again the animation was really super. It’s rare to see an American animated film that looks so smooth even nowadays.

Naturally I would give the soundtrack a big thumbs up as well. It all looked really good and of course the writing was on point as well. This is a film that is balanced extremely well and the pacing is great as well. This is the kind of title that I feel can definitely help to spread the gospel well. People just have to look past the spectacle and then hopefully read the Bible to read on and really join the faith. If the movie could reach even just a few people then of course it would have all been worth it.

It’s definitely about time that I check this one out. I forgot about this one for a while there but it’s the kind of title where are soon as you hear the title then you remember that this was a really big film. It would be nice to see more adaptions in the future since the Bible is full of tons of moments that could be turned into really great films and each one can always be used as a learning opportunity in addition to just being great viewing.

Overall, this is a movie I would definitely recommend. It’s got enough action and thrilling moments to get casual fans interested and still touches on enough of the important themes for biblical scholars to appreciate as well. I do think the movie was careful about the changes and so the whole thing was a really good faith effort. For any adaption you want to make sure that it can stand on its own as well and this one certainly does. It just hits all of the right notes and has a good amount of replay value. The film is even able to get a little dark which is fairly necessary in this adventure due to the background of what was going on. The dramatic shading, the sound effects, yeah the movie held nothing back.