Usually, I would review a new season of The Chosen since they made the genius idea of putting out the new season in your local theaters. Sadly, I couldn’t watch the first part of season five of the Chosen because they just released each part every week and I didn't realize this until it was too late. So, hopefully next year I'll have back-to-back reviews of seasons five and six of The Chosen. But for now, I have a movie that's been quite a long time since I watched this amazing film. Moreover, it reminds me of the legendary actor, Val Kilmer's passing two weeks ago. The Prince of Egypt is an amazing animated Biblical movie released in 1998, but more importantly launched DreamWorks Animation in an all-out rivalry with Disney Animations. For the time being, in my Monthly recommendation of April when I talked about what makes a good or great catholic movie or show in acquiring great actors. The Prince of Egypt is another great example of that.
An Animated retelling of the Book of Exodus adopted Prince Moses (Val Kilmer), upon discovering his roots as a Jewish slave, embarks on a quest to free his people from bondage. When his plea is denied by his brother Ramses (Ralph Fiennes), the new Pharoah, a series of horrific plagues strike Egypt.
It's always kind of a strange ironic twists on life that certain broadcasters and even actors played a huge impact on your childhood, and of all actors in the world the late great Val Kilmer was a big part of it I mean I remember watching Batman: Forever and he was my sort of very first Batman movie experience, and then three years later he provides his voice in what may be the most iconic biblical movies of all time. Moreover even into my teenage years, I begin to watch the movie Heat, and Val Kilmer provides supporting role for legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro so, I all retrospect Val Kilmer was a big part of my childhood in movies, almost the same way Joe Buck was a big part of my childhood when it comes to sports, with the exception of Monday Night Football because that technically doesn't count. The great thing about this movie and this is an important fact, is Kilmer doesn't just play Moses but he also provides the voice of God, as great of a voices he provides for Moses, he does an outstanding job in providing the voice for God because once you hear his voice in the burning bush scene it's just so great as well as so powerful, that you get chills hearing it on your TV screen, and even the creators made a decision that Kilmer would provide the voice for God moreover they made the best decision ever. To make a brief history on the development of the Prince of Egypt, former Walt Disney Studio's chairman Jeffery Katznberg had always wanted to produce a film adaption of the life of Moses. Unfortunately, the turn of events happened during his final years with Disney that forced him to resign, and so Katznberg came in to form DreamWorks Pictures, with Amblin Entertainment and Steven Spielberg. So, Katznberg talks about wanting to tackle bigger-than-life-stories like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Terminator as well as Lawrence of Arabia and of all people to pitch the greatest ideas, Spielberg told Katznberg face to face and told him that he should do The Ten Commandments, and rest became animation history. I've said before when making a great and memorable Christian or Biblical story, is to assemble a cast of talented actors, even if you can't afford a certain actor or any actor you always have to find any talented actor that can fit the mold in telling the story like the Prince of Egypt, and you have a great ensemble group of actors supporting Val Kilmer and Ralph Fiennes like Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren long before she won in Oscar for the Queen and even the surprising greats in Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny Glover along with Steve Martin and Martin Short, I mean that's what I call assembling a great list of actors in this one animated biblical movie. Though the supporting list of actors is great, the best one that stands out among the supporting group was Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock who plays Moses’s sister Miriam. Now granted there some of Sandra Bullock's films that I'm not a huge fan of but when it comes to this film she really does a tremendous job being the soul and support to Moses, not matter if he wanted to believe it at first but listens even when he has doubt and Bullock does a great job playing that part in the film. And even with religion involved, the production team including Jeffery Katznberg conferred with roughly 600 religious experts to make this movie accurate and faithful to the original story as possible. After previewing the developing movie, all the religious scholars, experts, and leaders associated in making in the making of this movie noted that the studio executives listened and responded to their ideas and praised the studio for reaching out for comment from outside sources so, talk about late nineties listening for once unlike today. There many Christian and Biblical movies out there that are classics from start to finish (moreover they don't make them anymore in terms of movies), but Prince of Egypt stands the test of time being one of the all-time greats in animations, as well as biblical genre and for certain whenever your celebrating Passover or Easter with your family, I would highly recommend watching the Ten Commandments. But no question whenever it's Passover or Easter season I would highly recommend watching the Prince of Egypt because there's something about Hans Zimmer's music as well as the songs and more importantly the cast of great actors. And even if your kids can't be patient with the Ten Commandments, the youngsters of today would for certain enjoy The Prince of Egypt until the final frame goes to black.
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