The Prince of Egypt (G)

Reviewed by Russell Baillie

Cast: the voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum

Director: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells

It all begins with an explanation, an apology really, that the makers have taken historical and artistic licence with the original story, better known as the second book of that perennial best-seller, the Bible.

After all, it's an animated version of the adventures of Moses - God's Old Testament right-hand man, saviour of his people, founding father of the Israeli-Arab conflict, Red Sea manipulator and the first recorded instance of the Jewish self-identity crisis upon which many modern comedians have based their careers.

It's also represents the Stephen Spielberg/Jeffrey Katzenberg/David Geffen-headed DreamWorks empire taking a run at Disney's traditional monopoly.

But deep down it's a cartoon right? Some of this should be fun, shouldn't it?

Well, if that rider hints at not-to-be-taken-as-gospel irreverence, what follows is often so solemn, portentous, and lacking a point of view, it gives this all the impact of an Exodus pop-up book.

That's also an impression left by the old-fashioned hand-drawn animation which only reinforces the two-dimensional presence of many characters. Though when the computer-generated stuff kicks in on the parting of the Red Sea, the plagues and the other big God-special-effects numbers, it certainly gets impressive visually. But the chance to humanise and make this familiar tale engage anew gets lost somewhere. It has the feel of being constructed by a hand-wringing committee.

However, there are songs, two of which are reasonably memorable, though the various attempts at blending traditional Middle Eastern/Hebrew colours into overwrought show tunes helps only to render this an animated Les Mosesrables.

And it sure does move along at a fair clip. Straight after baby Moses' basket has done a hazardous white-water rafting bounce down the Nile, next we see a youthful, goatee bearded and buffed teen Moses and his man-who-will-be-Pharaoh brother Rameses out chariot racing (er, wasn't that a different ancient civilisation Charlton Heston movie?).

So it's not long before he's having that identity crisis (with an inspired hieroglyphically-rendered nightmare sequence) and is heading out into the desert to marry a nice Jewish girl he once met in town, join her family's shepherding business and then find his true calling by means of the burning bush and the man upstairs.

As for God - whoever did his voice isn't credited - we're reminded the Old Testament Almighty was rather one-eyed, cruel, murderous and bit of a show-off. Though for that he can really only blame his original ghostwriter.

As for the other voices, Ralph Fiennes gives Rameses some character, though it's an unfortunate bit of further anti-Semitic casting after his Schindler's List camp commandant. Kilmer voices Moses with a weighty delivery verging on the leaden. While the likes of Bullock, Goldblum, and Steve Martin and Martin Short, who provide slight light relief as Egyptian high priests, at least try to have some fun.

Prince of Egypt ends as Moses comes down the mountain with the new rule book to his waiting people. After the stern, laboured storytelling which had got the Israelites to this point, you can't help but think: boy you guys are in trouble now ...

As an animated Biblical musical epic that plays it straight, Prince of Egypt is quite a concept. But on screen it's a very mixed blessing and, unfortunately, just not much of a movie.
* * *
-- Russell Baillie, Weekend TimeOut