The murder of the Egyptian is softened with a self-defense angle, but is still closer to the biblical story. And elements altered in the DreamWorks retelling, like the feminist heightening of the roles of Tzipporah and Miriam relative to Aaron, are closer to the original text here. There are nice touches here and there, though, such as the uneasy reluctance on an Egyptian soldier’s face during the slaughter of the innocents as a Hebrew woman clutches at his leg in a vain effort to save her baby. Even the 3½‑hour DeMille version didn’t get all that in.įirst, though, it’s a long slog through material that was better told, and vastly better animated, in the DreamWorks film.
The Ten Commandments offers the rest of the story: the wandering (and grumbling) of the Hebrews in the wilderness, water from the rock, manna and quail, the giving of the law, the golden calf, the ark and the tabernacle even Moses’ death and the Hebrews’ entry into the Promised Land under Joshua. The Prince of Egypt gave us only a brief glimpse of Moses the lawgiver descending Sinai with the stone tablets under his arm. Where The Ten Commandments most clearly distinguishes itself from its predecessor is where the latter leaves off, after the parting of the Red Sea. Cut to Ramses grousing at Moses (Christian Slater) for always getting him in trouble. Cut to Pharaoh scolding his two wayward sons, particularly singling out Ramses (Alfred Molina, Spider‑Man 2, The Da Vinci Code) as the heir apparent for his lack of responsible behavior. The story proper opens with a wrestling match that ends in the toppling and breaking of some monument or other, much like the opening chariot race in The Prince of Egypt that results in the breaking of the Sphinx’s nose and a huge mess of sand in the new temple.
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(The character design of Dathan even owes something to Robinson.) Stealing from DeMille, though, seems less egregious than stealing from The Prince of Egypt, in part because DeMille is less accessible and less familiar to the young target audience than the deservedly well-known DreamWorks film.Ī title-credits sequence, animated as a series of moving tapestry embroiderings in a device directely indebted to The Prince of Egypt’s brilliant hieroglyphics dream sequence, establishes Moses’ and young Ramses’ relationship as one of fraternal competitive rivalry. Robinson in DeMille) as the ringleader in the Israelites’ doubts and grumblings, and especially in the golden calf incident. The Ten Commandments also borrows freely from the 1956 DeMille film of the same name starring Charlton Heston, such as casting a minor biblical figure named Dathan (here Lee Tockar Edward G. Although less speculative and less freely adapted than the earlier film, The Ten Commandments shamelessly rips off interpretive conceits and even specific dramatic beats from The Prince of Egypt, from the menacing of Moses’ basket by a passing croc to the foundering of Ramses’ chariot on the shores of the Red Sea, allowing him to live to see the destruction of his army and the escape of the Hebrews. The film’s problems start with the screenplay by Ed Naha ( Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), beginning with its derivative, uninspired take on the story.
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