Ok, just dropping this off on the forward curve of Front Street here, but I'm not the biggest fan of DreamWorks Films. Unlike most Pixar films, where there is a serious attempt to tell entertaining tales with characters that have some depth and reason to the way they are, to put in recognizable layers to their tales that those watching can call life, most DreamWorks films seem to be a pastiche of pop culture references/clichés and maudlin sentiment attempting to dress up as emotional depth. There are exception to the rule, however, and they are a pleasant surprise when they pop up.
Now, this was both an interesting and bold choice, to make a musical animated feature based on a high profile story out of a book of holy text that is held in high regard by more than one major world faith. But that is what they did and that gets points for brass right off the bat. Surprisingly, only two countries banned it outright, Malaysia and the Maldives. Other than that blip, no real controversy surrounding it.
The story is the one you know. Egypt's Pharoh (voiced by Patrick Stewart), orders the deaths of all the infants in the Hebrew slave population due to advice given him by his court. His mother sets baby Moses afloat on the Nile and he is found by the the Egyptian queen and raised as one of the royal family of Egypt. And that's where it starts. The story here humanizes the characters a bit more, showing more familial and friendship relations than what were spelled out in the book of Exodus. He grows up with Ramses, the prince regent as a brother, and the movie depicts them engaging in brotherly hijinks. Later, during one caper, Moses runs into Miriam and Aaron, his Hebrew brother and sister, voiced respectively by Sandra Bullock and Jeff Goldblum, who inform him of his real heritage. Moses in conflicted, but when he finds an Egyptian guard abusing a slave, he intervenes and accidentally kills the man. Running from a murder charge, he retreats into the desert.
Eventually, he will embrace his Hebrew heritage, and with a charge from God, will seek to free his people from Egyptian bondage, running up against his adopted brother, Ramses.
I LOVED this story. Not only is it a more human connected tale of Exodus, showing not only familial and friendship connections between the characters, but the Pharoah had more depth, he just wasn't a moustache twirling villain. The depiction of God and the supernatural elements was more sublime and cosmic, but though an animated feature, it was less "cartoony" than The Ten Commandments, though I would have made different choices in choosing God's voicing in the burning bush scene, though what they did was effective.
This is a great movie which received awards. It deserved them.
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