I’m going to state right now: I’m not very religious. I don’t observe kosher. I don’t go to the synagogue. I wouldn’t even call myself Jewish most of the time. However, one holiday my family and I have always celebrated together was the Passover Seder. I have memories of my dad reading from the Haggadah and my sister and I following along. My dad would skip around so that it didn’t last until midnight (not an exaggeration), but without exception we read the story of how Moses freed the slaves from Egypt.
I’ve always considered the story of Moses to be a sort-of origin story for the Hebrews. According to the Torah, the Hebrew people have been around for much longer, however, this is the story where the Hebrews band together as a group, the ten commandments are introduced, the promise of the Promised Land is fulfilled, and God does the most for the Hebrews out of any holiday tale. (God isn’t even really around in Purim.) Needless to say, the story of Moses and Passover in general is a Big Deal in the Jewish community. Which is why it’s so important to many Jews (including me) that “The Prince of Egypt” got it right.
First, and most important, “The Prince of Egypt” is respectful to the source material. Like in any adaptation, there are differences. The original story was in many ways bare bones. The movie fleshed out the relationships and characterizations from the Torah. They also don’t censor anything. Slavery is slavery. Death is death. There’s no attempt to take it out or minimize the impact it has. The movie, from what I’ve read, is also fairly accurate about Ancient Egypt. The creators took a trip to Egypt and researched Ancient Egyptian archaeology and hieroglyphs. While many aspects of Ancient Egypt in the movie are exaggerated or altered slightly to set a tone and narrative, all of the artwork is sourced from the research the creators did. Not only does the effort show that the creators cared about making the movie right, but it also means that a lot of experts in both Judaism and Egyptology don’t have many issues with how the subject of their livelihoods is portrayed.
Second, it’s a good movie. The artwork is beautiful. It was some of the last hand-drawn artwork in an animated movie, and the effort paid off. I especially love the use of color and shading. The narrative is also gripping in a way that (forgive me God) the original wasn’t. As I mentioned, most of the relationships are much more fleshed out than they are in the Torah. Moses’s Pharaoh brother wasn’t even named in the original. The movie instead puts their relationship at the forefront. It’s two brothers who love each other but are irreparably separated through duty. For Moses, it’s also a story about reclaiming an identity that was taken from him and reckoning with what his adopted family did to his people. All of the main characters are emotionally complex and go through character development throughout the movie. The songs are great too. They are both entertaining, set the tone, and give context to plot points in the story.
Jewish families don’t have a lot of movies they can watch during the holidays. Having this one movie that not only surpassed the stigma of being a religious movie, but is also widely accepted as one of the best adaptations of the genre is truly a miracle. This movie gracefully represents an entire community’s hope for good Jewish films. Still, if movie studios wanted to start making other top-notch Jewish movies, I wouldn’t be opposed.
