NEWS FEATURE: Hailing a hero: Animated”Prince of Egypt”a faithful telling of Exodus story

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Moses is the Hebrew Bible’s supreme superhero. And the Book of Exodus, which tells how God called Moses to deliver his people from bondage in Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land, is one of the world’s most moving and central stories for the world’s three major […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Moses is the Hebrew Bible’s supreme superhero. And the Book of Exodus, which tells how God called Moses to deliver his people from bondage in Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land, is one of the world’s most moving and central stories for the world’s three major monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Now,”The Prince of Egypt,”a moving and visually stunning animated feature film which opens throughout much of the world on December 18, hopes to turn Moses into a box-office superstar, a role he hasn’t held in America since 1956, when Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epic,”The Ten Commandments,”showed a bearded, glowing Charlton Heston dividing the Red Sea with his simple shepherd’s staff _ a cinematic feat which helped earn the film an Oscar for special effects.


With its timeless themes of faith and freedom, and its made-for-movies backdrops settings, it was just a matter of time before someone revisited the Exodus story.

Jeffrey Katzenberg says he and partners Steven Spielberg and David Geffen enthusiastically decided to tackle the story at a 1994 meeting the three held before forming their DreamWorks entertainment company. The three partners also agreed to make a film that was faithful to the biblical story and accurate about the details of ancient Middle Eastern culture.

And the near-unanimous consensus of the hundreds of religious leaders who have viewed portions of the film over the past three years, along with dozens of religious journalists who have screened the finished project, is that”The Prince of Egypt”succeeds with flying colors.

Billy Graham, for example, gave the film two thumbs up, expressing special appreciation for what he called its accurate portrayal of the miracle of the Passover, which shows God protecting the lives of the Jewish infants.

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Mark Pattison, media editor for the Catholic News Service, said,”Catholics will probably consider `Prince of Egypt’ to be a spiritually uplifting film.” Dave Koch, editor of Wireless Age, a magazine covering Christian media, praised the film’s biblical accuracy, and said he can’t wait to take his eight-year-old son Jeffrey to see it (although kids under five may be disturbed by some violent scenes). And Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, is urging people of faith to flock to the film during its first week in theaters.”We can do more in Hollywood by commending the good than we can by condemning the bad,”he said.

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Exodus is a challenging book to film. Aside from its monuments, miracles, and migrating masses _ all of which the film renders with a fascinating combination of hand-drawn and computer-assisted animation _ there is the troubling problem of Moses’ so-called missing years.

Born during the fourth century of the Jews’ enslavement in Egypt, the three-month-old infant Moses is placed by his mother in a papyrus basket and prayerfully set afloat upon the Nile, which carries him safely to Pharaoh’s daughter.


Then, the next thing we know, an adult Moses grows enraged at the Egyptians’ mistreatment of the Hebrews, and kills a soldier who is beating one of the Jewish slaves. Next, he flees to the desert, marries a shepherd woman, and receives his call from God at the burning bush.

The Ten Commandments filled this vacuum with fanciful tales of palace romance and an intense rivalry between Moses and his”brother,”Ramses. The”Prince of Egypt,”though, portrays Moses and Ramses as beloved friends, which only intensifies the tension when Moses demands that the Egyptian ruler let the Hebrew people go.”When you cover 80 years of a man’s life in 90 minutes, you have to make adjustments to the story,”Katzenberg said during a recent Pasadena press conference for religious journalists,”but we didn’t change the story’s values, or the essence of their meaning.” In fact,”The Prince of Egypt”treats the biblical story, complete with its divinely-inspired miracles, with an almost reverential respect.”We do full-blown miracles,”says Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug, who has worked for the past three years as DreamWorks’ liaison to religious leaders.

But unlike”The Ten Commandments,”which portrayed Moses as a stiff and remote religious icon,”Prince’s”Moses is a reluctant human hero who struggles to fulfill God’s call on his life.”You’ve chosen the wrong messenger,”he tells God at the burning bush.”I shall be with you, Moses,”God responds. Moses concludes,”I must do the task that God has given me.” Katzenberg, who spent a decade at Disney before helping form DreamWorks, said he felt a deep sense of obligation to properly present this powerful saga.”There was a real sense of respect and responsibility we all felt in taking on this story,”he said.

That’s why everyone involved in the movie listened to the advice of the project’s scholar-consultants as well as the religious leaders who previewed portions of the film. For example, Graham and others were uncomfortable with a line in the Passover section that said the Jews should put a”mark”on their doors. The more precise”blood”was substituted.

Likewise, the movie’s theme song,”When You Believe,”originally contained the line,”You can work miracles when you believe.”But to some, this sounded like positive thinking, not biblical faith. So the line,”There can be miracles”was substituted.

Some involved in the film and its related music and book projects believe the whole process has itself been divinely ordained.”I think the film is touched by God,”said James Stroud, producer of the”Prince of Egypt”recording.


Katzenberg refuses to predict how the movie will fare, but DreamWorks has orchestrated the most ambitious religious public relations campaign in Hollywood history, and the studio is already working on a direct-to-video release about the life of Joseph. “What I have learned in this process is that not everyone believes in miracles,”he says,”but there isn’t anybody who wouldn’t like to believe in miracles.” DEA END RABEY

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