Prince of Egypt

reviewed by Vivian Rose, age 14, from US

When does a movie reach the over-hyped, "I'm sick of it and it hasn't even opened yet" point? "The Prince of Egypt" reached that point about three weeks before it opened. By that time I had received a total of seven "Prince of Egypt" CD's, and seven accompanying press kits. They sent me all three soundtracks - yes, this movie actually had to have THREE soundtracks - plus their snippet versions, and a compilation from the first three albums.

Also, I've seen countless previews and commercials for products related to the movie. "Prince of Egypt" is by far the most overly publicized film of the year - perhaps the decade!

But quantity of marketing does not equal quality of the film. Although "Prince of Egypt" wasn't quite as dull as I'd feared, I was still bored. It tells the story of Moses, who spent most of his life as a prince of Egypt. As a young man, however, he learns he was really a Hebrew, adopted as an infant by the Pharoah. So, he wanders off into the desert, where he sees the burning bush and realizes that it is his duty to deliver his people from slavery. He returns to the Pharaoh and asks that the Hebrews be freed.

In one of my numerous press kits, I found a quote from Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the filmmakers from "Prince of Egypt". He states, "I hope... that today's animation can be something more than movies for children." If he is implying that "Prince of Egypt" should be interesting for people of all ages, maybe he'd better watch this movie again. On the other hand, a movie theatre employee that I spoke with said she thought that little kids would be "bored silly" in this film because it's so serious. In that case, everyone who watches "Prince of Egypt" loses.

1 star

Rating : PG (for intense depiction of thematic elements)

Discuss "Prince of Egypt" or Vivian's review in Cyberkids Connection.