The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Did you love The Ten Commandments but wished it had songs? Then The Prince of Egypt is probably your favorite cartoon. I did like the animation, as it blended classic Egyptian drawings with the modern style, and I’ll sit through anything to hear Brian Stokes Mitchell sing, but overall, the cartoon left me wanting. It had enormous potential, just like the 1956 real-people version, but I had the same complaints. Somehow, with a guaranteed box office story draw, the movie managed to be a tad boring. In 1956, with an all-white cast, you could almost forgive Hollywood because of the time period, but in 1998, there was no excuse for using exclusively white actor. Yes, they threw Danny Glover in for a few minutes and dubbed everyone in with more authentic sounding singers, but it seemed ridiculous. Val Kilmer playing Moses? Ralph Fiennes as Rameses, a villain foretold by his English accent? Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, Steve Martin, Jeff Goldblum, and Martin Short?
If you don’t have a problem with the casting, you might like this cartoon. The animation is fun, even though the songs are bland and unmemorable. Maybe I’m being too hard on this particular cartoon, since other cartoons have fallen into the same trap of teaching children that American accents are the “good guys” and people with funny voices are either villains or comic reliefs. Look at one of my favorites, Anastasia; Meg Ryan and John Cusack don’t even try to sound Russian!
More Danny Glover movies here!
More Steve Martin movies here!
If you don’t have a problem with the casting, you might like this cartoon. The animation is fun, even though the songs are bland and unmemorable. Maybe I’m being too hard on this particular cartoon, since other cartoons have fallen into the same trap of teaching children that American accents are the “good guys” and people with funny voices are either villains or comic reliefs. Look at one of my favorites, Anastasia; Meg Ryan and John Cusack don’t even try to sound Russian!
More Danny Glover movies here!
More Steve Martin movies here!