The Prince of Egypt: A Detailed Plot Summary and Its Enduring Appeal

Dec 06, 2025 0

The Prince of Egypt, released in 1998, is an American animated musical drama film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It stands as the second feature film from DreamWorks and the first to be traditionally animated. The film is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus, tracing the life of Moses from his days as a prince of Egypt to his divine calling as a prophet, tasked with leading the Hebrews out of slavery.

Film poster "The Prince of Egypt"

The film was directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells. It features songs written by Stephen Schwartz and a score composed by Hans Zimmer.

Production Origins and Development

The film was a passion project for executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who brought the project to the newly-formed DreamWorks Pictures. Former Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg had always wanted to produce a film adaptation of the life of Moses. Katzenberg once stated, "It was the project I was pushing for us to make, because it's so different for an animated feature. This is an idea I had to do while I was still working for Disney."

The Prince of Egypt - The Making Of (Part 1 of 3)

The idea for The Prince of Egypt was discussed at the formation of DreamWorks Pictures on October 12, 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 and Lawrence of Arabia.

Storyboarding and Writing

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.

Casting and Voice Acting

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.

The voice acting is also quite incredible, and the voice work is especially good. Val Kilmer is fine as Moses, and Pharaoh, voiced by Ralph Fiennes, positively seethes with arrogance and hubris.

Theological Accuracy and Consultation

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 Darek 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.

Read also: "When You Believe" analysis

Ancient Egyptian art style influenced the film's design

Character designers Carter Goodrich, Carlos Grangel and Nico 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 animation team for The Prince of Egypt, including 350 artists from 34 different nations, was primarily recruited both from Walt Disney Feature Animation, and from Amblimation, a defunct division of 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 contain work done by the special effects department, which animates everything in an animated scene which is not a character: blowing wind, dust, rainwater, shadows, etc.

A blend of traditional animation and computer-generated imagery was used in the depictions of the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.

Music and Soundtrack

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 serve both to entertain and help move the story along. Composer Hans Zimmer arranged and produced the songs and then eventually wrote the film's score.

DreamWorks Records released three soundtrack albums 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.

The music is Broadway quality, uplifting, powerful, singable, memorable, enjoyable, and relevant. The soundtracks of this film make the spectator live in old Egypt which is a very genius innovation by the composer.

Plot Summary

The film opens in Ancient Egypt, where the enslaved Hebrew people pray to God for deliverance. Pharaoh Seti, fearing that the growing numbers of Hebrews could lead to rebellion, orders a mass infanticide of all newborn Hebrew boys. Yocheved and her children, Miriam and Aaron, rush to the Nile River, where she places her newborn son in a basket on the water, bidding him farewell with a final lullaby.

Baby Moses in the basket

Miriam follows the basket as it floats to Seti's palace and witnesses her brother safely adopted by Seti's wife, Queen Tuya, who names him Moses. Years later, Moses and his adoptive brother Rameses, heir to the throne of Egypt, are scolded by Seti for accidentally destroying a temple. After Moses suggests that Rameses be given the opportunity to prove his responsibility, Seti names Rameses prince regent.

High priests Hotep and Huy offer Rameses a beautiful but rebellious young Midianite woman, Tzipporah. Moses humiliates Tzipporah by letting her fall into a pond after she refuses to submit, appeasing the crowd but disappointing Tuya. Later that night, Moses follows Tzipporah as she escapes from the palace, choosing not to stop her. He runs into the now-adult Miriam and Aaron, whom he does not recognize. He disbelieves their claims and almost has them arrested until Miriam sings their mother's lullaby, triggering Moses's memory.

He flees in denial but learns the truth of Seti's genocide from a nightmare, then from Seti himself, who disturbs Moses by claiming the Hebrews were "only slaves". The next day, Moses tries to stop an Egyptian slave driver from flogging an elderly Hebrew slave, accidentally pushing the slave driver to his death.

Distraught, he escapes into the desert where he eventually rescues three little Midianite girls from brigands. Arriving at an oasis, Moses defends three girls from brigands, only to realize their older sister is Tzipporah. Moses is welcomed by Jethro, Tzipporah's father and the high priest of Midian, who helps Moses gain a more positive outlook on life. Moses becomes a shepherd, falls in love with Tzipporah, marries her, and grows adjusted to life in Midian.

Years later, while searching for a lost sheep, Moses comes face to face with his destiny and with his God, in the burning bush. Moses discovers a burning bush, through which God tells him to return to Egypt and free the Hebrews. God bestows Moses's shepherding staff with his power and promises that he will tell Moses what to say.

Moses returns to Egypt, where he discovers that with the passing of years the Pharaoh Seti has died and Rameses has become Pharaoh. Arriving in Egypt, Moses is happily greeted by Rameses, who is now Pharaoh with a wife and son. Moses demands the Hebrews' release and transforms his staff into a snake to demonstrate God's power. Hotep and Huy deceptively recreate this transformation, only to have their snakes eaten by Moses's. The Hebrews, including Aaron, blame Moses for their increased workload, discouraging Moses, but Miriam inspires Moses to persevere.

Moses casts the first of the Ten Plagues of Egypt by changing the waters of the Nile into blood, but Rameses remains unmoved. God inflicts eight more plagues onto Egypt: frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hailfire, locusts, and prolonged darkness, but still Rameses refuses to relent, vowing never to release the Hebrews. Disheartened, Moses prepares the Hebrews for the tenth plague, instructing them to sacrifice a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood.

That night, the final plague kills all the firstborn sons of Egypt, including Rameses's young son, while passing over the Hebrews' marked homes. Grief-stricken, Rameses permits the Hebrews to leave. The following morning, Moses, Miriam, Aaron and Tzipporah lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Once at the Red Sea, a vengeful Rameses pursues them with his army, intent on killing them. However, a pillar of fire blocks the army's way, while Moses uses his staff to part the sea.

Moses parting the Red Sea

The Hebrews cross the open sea bottom; the fire vanishes and the army gives chase, but the sea closes over and drowns the Egyptian soldiers, sparing Rameses alone. Moses and the Hebrews continue to cross and safely reach the other side a free people.

Cast

Val Kilmer as Moses
Ralph Fiennes as Rameses
Michelle Pfeiffer as Tzipporah
Sandra Bullock as Miriam
Jeff Goldblum as Aaron
Danny Glover as Jethro
Patrick Stewart as Pharaoh Seti
Helen Mirren as Queen Tuya
Steve Martin as Hotep
Martin Short as Huy
Ofra Haza as Yocheved

Release and Reception

The Prince of Egypt had its premiere at UCLA's Royce Hall on December 16, 1998, with its wide release occurring two days later. Despite being the inaugural production by DreamWorks Animation, it wound up the second to get a theatrical release, as Antz was rushed to reach theatres in October. The accompanying marketing campaign was aimed to appeal to adults, usually averse to animated films.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 92 reviews and an average rating of 7.1/10. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film in his review saying that "The Prince of Egypt is one of the best-looking animated films ever made."

The film grossed $218 million worldwide in theaters, which made it the most successful non-Disney animated feature at the time.

Accolades

The song "When You Believe" became a commercially successful single in a pop version performed by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. The song won Best Original Song at the 71st Academy Awards, making The Prince of Egypt the first animated film independently outside of Disney and Pixar films, as well as the first DreamWorks Animation film, to receive Academy Awards.

Award	Category	Result
Academy Award	Best Original Song ("When You Believe")	Won
Golden Globe Award	Best Original Song ("The Prince of Egypt")	Nominated

Controversies and Censorship

The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in the Maldives stated that "all prophets and messengers of God are revered in Islam, and therefore cannot be portrayed". Following this ruling, the censor board banned the film in January 1999. In the same month, the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia banned the film "so as not to offend the country's majority Muslim population".