No dancing candlesticks at the foot of the cross in this reasonable telling of
the epic story, but there was the Disney style sentimentality, the songs and
some of the characterisations were a little too Disneyesque to make it a film
that told the story as it was.It is made clear, in the opening credits, that some liberties had been taken
with both the story and the historical events but its essence was retained; it
would be fair to say that this is the case. As to what the film's tagline,
The Power Is Real. The Story Is Forever. The Time Is Now, is about; I'm
not sure.
The basic story; Moses is taken into the Egyptian Royal Household, murders an
Egyptian, flees, encounters a burning bush ( where he hears the word of God ),
returns to Egypt to free His people and leads them through the Red Sea is all
there.
The story told is well delivered, with enough action and humour to make it more
than animated religious doctrine, and the songs are appropriate and not overly
out of place.
The humour and action are not offensive and do not detract from the biblical
story; without them the film could have lost some of its appeal.
A certain clash of animation styles was apparent although it gelled, as a whole,
very well. The 2D animation flash-back of how Moses came to be in the
Egyptian Royal Household was particularly impressive with some very clever
visual tricks during its replaying.
The end credits are a testimony to the many people who put and awful lot of
effort into this prodcution.
With respect to the story itself; without a basic knowledge of The Story of
Moses the screenplay would, I think, have been a little hard to follow, and
the divergence from biblical text confuses the issues further.
Why Moses was originally abandoned was never properly explained, the treatment
of Moses as the son of Pharoah is highly debatable, there was no mention
of the role of Aaran and the compaction of plagues into an almost single
event ( without making it obvious what they each were ) added to the confusion.
If this had been a concocted screenplay, rather than based on a biblical
story, these would have been seen as serious flaws in the plot. What the
Playing With The Big Boys Now sequence is all about is a mystery without
reference to a biblical source; is it really saying that there is more than one
God ? Did the magicians of Egypt really have the powers alleged ? Even
with reference to a definitive text; the issue isn't clear.
Indeed, this is perhaps the biggest problem with the film; what is it trying to
say ?
As a rendition of a biblical story it is perhaps fair, but inaccurate, and for
those who are not familiar with, or do not readily embrace, the words of The
Bible; it raises more questions of belief than it answers.
Why God, having all the powers portrayed, never simply appeared to the Pharoah
to tell him to let his chosen people go rather than appoint Moses as a
messenger and then rain down plague after plague to get His way is a mystery.
Why a generous, and good, God would take the lives of all Egypt's first-born
is a connundrum.
Surely an all powerful God could have found a better solution to the problem;
and why was such a situation allowed to arise in the first place ?
These are the questions that the children seeing this film will ask their
parents, indeed the parents may well be asking themselves the same
questions. The only clear statements that this film makes is that the Egyptians
of the time were complete b-----ds, working slaves into the ground and that
Moses had heard the word of God.
As a work of animation; this is a great film, although it falls foul of
emulating Disney when there is no such need.
As a film with a religious, or moral, message; the message is unclear. The story
may be clearly, if inaccurately, told but whether it encourages or discourages a
belief in what The Bible says is uncertain.
In this respect it is a thought provoking film. I would suggest that those who
have any questions consult The Book and see if they find an answer to
what they ask. The biblical text itself may, however, raise more questions than
it answers ...
| Exodus 4 |
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21 And the Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that
you do before Pharoah all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I
will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 And
you shall say to Pharoah, 'Thus says the Lord, Israel is my first-born son,
23 and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me"; if you
refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son'".
24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to kill
him.
25 Then Zippo'rah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and
touched Moses' feet with it, and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to
me !" 26 So he let them alone. Then it was that she said, "You are a
bridegoom of blood", because of the cirumcision.
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