The Prince of Egypt, released in 1998, stands as a landmark achievement in animated film history. Directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells, this DreamWorks Animation production brought the Book of Exodus to life with groundbreaking visuals, memorable music, and a compelling narrative. Let's delve into the intricate details of its creation, music, and reception.
The Genesis of an Animated Epic
The journey of The Prince of Egypt began with Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had long envisioned an animated adaptation of The Ten Commandments.
While working for The Walt Disney Company, Katzenberg suggested this idea to Michael Eisner, but he refused.
The idea for the film was brought back at the formation of DreamWorks SKG in 1994, when Katzenberg's partners, Amblin Entertainment founder Steven Spielberg, and music producer David Geffen, were meeting in Spielberg's living room.
Katzenberg had wanted to tackle "bigger-than-life stories", like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Terminator (both 1984) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
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This vision took shape after Katzenberg left Disney and co-founded DreamWorks Pictures in 1994.
Crafting the Story
The Prince of Egypt was "written" throughout the story process.
Beginning with a starting outline, Story Supervisors Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook led a team of fourteen storyboard artists and writers as they sketched out the entire film - sequence by sequence.
Once the storyboards were approved, they were put into the Avid Media Composer digital editing system by editor Nick Fletcher to create a "story reel" or animatic.
The story reel allowed the filmmakers to view and edit the entire film in continuity before production began and also helped the layout and animation departments understand what was happening in each sequence of the film.
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Voice Acting and Theological Accuracy
After casting of the voice talent concluded, dialogue recording sessions began.
For the film, the actors recorded individually in a studio under guidance by one of the three directors.
The voice tracks were to become the primary aspect as to which the animators built their performances.
Because DreamWorks was concerned about theological accuracy, Katzenberg decided to call in Biblical scholars, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theologians, and Arab American leaders to help his film be more accurate and faithful to the original story.
Visual and Character Design
Art directors Kathy Altieri and Richard Chavez and Production Designer Derek Gogol led a team of nine visual development artists in setting a visual style for the film that was representative of the time, the scale, and the architectural style of Ancient Egypt.
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Character Designers Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel, and Nicolas Marlet worked on setting the design and overall look of the characters.
Drawing on various inspirations for the widely known characters, the team of character designers worked on designs that had a more realistic feel than the usual animated characters up to that time.
Both character design and art direction worked to set a definite distinction between the symmetrical, more angular look of the Egyptians versus the more organic, natural look of the Hebrews and their related environments.
Animation and Special Effects
The Backgrounds department, headed by supervisors Paul Lasaine and Ron Lukas, oversaw a team of artists who were responsible for painting the sets/backdrops from the layouts.
The animation team for The Prince of Egypt, including 350 artists from 34 different nations, was primarily recruited both from Walt Disney Feature Animation, which had fallen under Katzenberg's auspices while at The Walt Disney Company, and from Amblimation, a defunct division of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.
As at Disney's, character animators were grouped into teams by character: for example, Kristof Serrand, as the supervising animator of Older Moses, set the acting style of the character and assigned scenes to his team.
There are 1,192 scenes in the film, and 1,180 of them have special effects in them.
These special effects were elements such as wind blowing or environmental features such as dust or rainwater.
These were also effects designed in terms of lightning, as it casts its shadows and images into a given scene.
In the end, these effects helped the animators graphically illustrate scenes such as the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.
The Music of The Prince of Egypt
The task of creating God's voice was given to Lon Bender and the team working with the film's music composer, Hans Zimmer.
"The challenge with that voice was to try to evolve it into something that had not been heard before," says Bender.
"We did a lot of research into the voices that had been used for past Hollywood movies as well as for radio shows, and we were trying to create something that had never been previously heard not only from a casting standpoint but from a voice manipulation standpoint as well".
Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz began working on writing songs for the film from the beginning of its production.
As the story evolved, he continued to write songs that would entertain and help move the story along.
Composer Hans Zimmer arranged and produced the songs and eventually wrote the film's score.
Three soundtrack albums were released simultaneously for The Prince of Egypt, each of them aimed towards a different target audience.
While the other two accompanying records, the country-themed "Nashville" soundtrack and the gospel-based "Inspirational" soundtrack, functioned as film tributes, the official The Prince of Egypt soundtrack contained the actual songs from the film.
This album combines elements from the score composed by Hans Zimmer and film songs by Stephen Schwartz.
The songs were either voiced over by professional singers (such as Salisbury Cathedral Choir) or sung by the film's voice actors, such as Michelle Pfeiffer and Ofra Haza.
Various tracks by contemporary artists such as K-Ci & JoJo and Boyz II Men were added, including the Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston duet "When You Believe", a Babyface rewrite of the original Stephen Schwartz composition, sung by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky in the film.
The official soundtrack for The Prince of Egypt was released on November 17, 1998.
It features songs and scoring from the film, as well as songs not used in the film.
The album peaked at No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Top Contemporary Christian chart, and No.
The album also spawned a pair of hit singles.
In addition to this album, tie-in albums were also released; a collector's edition, a country edition, and an inspirational edition.
Here's a look at the soundtrack's performance:
| Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Top Contemporary Christian | 1 |
| Other Charts | *Data not fully provided in the original text* |
Notable Songs and Their Creation
The lullaby portion of "Deliver Us" was performed by Israeli singer Ofra Haza (the first verses in Hebrew across all dubbed versions) and Disney actress Eden Riegel, with music composed by Hans Zimmer.
Christopher Coleman explained that "'Deliver Us' features the powerful vocals I was hoping for... This track concludes with an abruptness which is very similar to the opening track of Zimmer's Oscar-winning score for The Lion King".
Stephen Schwartz explained his use of the word "Elohim" in the song: "I wanted an authentic sounding Hebrew reference to God to help set the time and place.
My first choice was "Adonai", but I was told by the religious consultants on the film that it would have been sacrilegious to use that term in that way in those days.
"All I Ever Wanted" is sung by Amick Byram as Moses, after Moses discovers he is adopted, which results in him questioning his Egyptian identity and his Jewish heritage.
It is reprised shortly after by Linda Dee Shayne playing the role of Queen of Egypt, who reassures Moses of his place in their family.
The song was written by Stephen Schwartz, who visited an Egyptian temple for inspiration: "There was something about walking through those beautiful white columns reflected in the moonlight and seeing the hieroglyphs that triggered the tune which became, 'All I Ever Wanted'".
Filmtracks wrote that "the uplifting and buoyant 'All I Ever Wanted' is the closest Schwartz comes to emulating the hero's song of aspiration that Alan Menken made famous throughout the decade.
"Through Heaven's Eyes" is performed in the film by Brian Stokes Mitchell, while the pop single version is performed by R&B duo K-Ci & JoJo.
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