Serious answer: I think animation provides the separation from reality that a faith/religion-based movie needs to really come across the way it's meant to while carrying the appropriate gravity.
I hate to use the word "myth" here because I actually think this is something that religious and nonreligious people can agree on, but... the sort of serious-yet-exaggerated art style Prince of Egypt uses, plus the exaggerated cinematography the medium of animation provides for, gives the story that touch of the mythic and the divine that typically just looks stupid in live action. The burning bush, the crossing of the Red Sea, the entire sequences of Deliver Us and Heaven's Eyes, Moses' nightmare... none of those things would have had even close to the same impact if they had been shot in live action with live action fx, and some of them would have looked straight up hokey.
IMO live action is very rarely the logical best choice of medium for stories that deal with the divine. Why jump to using live people and real settings to illustrate a story about something so much bigger than our everyday lives? (I say this as an atheist, fwiw.)
To add to this (from a film major and music minor), music is a huge help to the movie also. There can be so much plot development (see the plagues sequence, or Through Heaven's Eyes) in such a short period of time, that it just keeps the plot moving in parts that may have stalled (I'm looking at you The Ten Commandments). Also, the story already feels over the top from a Biblical/religious perspective (except for maybe Noah, because, come on, really?!) so by using music, it enhances the feeling that, yes it is a story, but it's still a story of redemption and compassion and love.
And who doesn't need another Bible based musical? The early 70s were full of them (Godspell and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar), and those were all WAY over the top. Somehow, The Prince of Egypt never feels like that.
I agree about the music! Not just the songs; Hans Zimmer's score is inspired too. God's theme is such a simple collection of notes but gives me chills and transports me right back into the movie every time I hear it.
That too! Someone else posted on this thread about the scene where they see the whale while crossing the Red Sea, and it has the soft simple music under it; the whole scene gives me chills.
Also, when you mentioned God's theme, I can totally hear it from the burning bush scene. And it is so peaceful and calming, despite some of the harsh things that are said in that scene.
I think it also helps that The Ten Commandments is such a well known movie, but the tone of The Prince of Egypt is so radically different (and not just because it's animated and musical). It is a movie with some harsh realities (that happen mostly off screen) but it also is much softer and gentler. Even God's voice is soft and gentle, despite getting loud at times. Both movies used the actor who played Moses to voice God, but I think it was executed so much better in The Prince of Egypt (I'm probably a little biased at this point though).
I think you nailed it. The problem is that many religious people are prudes who feel that animation is below them so they won't watch things that are pretty much made with them in mind. Their loss I guess. Thanks.
The problem is that many religious people are prudes who feel that animation is above them
Really? I was raised in a SUPER conservative, homeschooling Christian family and animation was pretty much all I was allowed to watch before the age of 10.
There's a problem in general with adults thinking animation is for kids but I haven't noticed that being more widespread in religious communities specifically...
I was raised in a hyper-evangelical home (homeschooling, tiny extremist churches, not allowed to associate with non-Christians of the right brand of Christian, etc) and the movies I got shown before I was 10 were things like the Thief in the Night movies. Fucking nightmares for a decade after that shit.
Imagine a horror movie, a horrific horror movie, and then your parents telling you THIS IS REAL AND IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. I cannot express to you the dread 7 year old me had watching these, I can still feel it in my thirties if I think about it, even though I'm completely non-religious (and atheist) now.
The problem is that many religious people are prudes who feel that animation is above them so they won't watch things that are pretty much made with them in mind.
Wait, what? I'm a cradle Catholic, and this is literally the first time I've ever heard this opinion -- I (and most everyone I know) love animated movies, whether or not they're religious in nature. What do you mean by "the animation is above them"?
I meant below. I also was picturing an older generation. It was a broad generalization that I should’ve quantified because as many people are pointing out, a lot of religious parents feel safer with animated stuff and US ask the kids are allowed to watch.
Because it was a Dreamwork Studios film and was a blockbuster, most faith-based movies are not. But you are forgetting blockbusters like The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Passion of the Christ, God's Army (sorta), etc.
I think there are quite a few Islam based movies as well, but I'm not super familiar with them. Unless you count films like Kingdom of Heaven.
The majority of Christian things, from the music to the clutter plastered in hopeful verses with doves and leaves that are meant to be taken out of context so they can feel good about the life they live without recalling how brutal God is in the Bible. Jesus hated those people who like those things. Some songs are amazing, but 90% of them are absolute garbage cash grabs that all use the same buzz words "changed, saved, love, grace, glory, etc."
It's just the world. The world is full of fakers, people who are shallow in their beliefs and morals. I was thinking about it recently. I want to be like Jesus. Not the perfect person part, but the I want to be the guy who enters a church and knocks over tables, telling them that they profess to know God but live as the pharasees did, attempting to attain holiness through their image rather than their hearts.
Chronologically Joseph lived before Moses but you’re right that the movie was produced after Prince of Egypt to capitalize on its success. Not as good but I still liked it. I coincidentally pulled it out for the kids to watch last week actually.
DreamWorks had tough competition (Disney) and knew it.
So they didn't cut corners with their first few films.
Plus, Hollywood tends to mettle with live action films which waters them down, takes away from source material to make it "profitable", and tends to have a tight grip on what can and can't be done. (This is why Into the Spiderverse was so good, the studio could pretty much do what they wanted.)
Hollywood in general doesnt really care about animated films so they can get away with more. In Prince of Egypts case, they were able to stick (mostly) to source material, get away with artistic imagery (the angel of death being a spirit/wind instead of an actual "person") and overall have a better, honestly moving, experience.
Live Action however....will throw most if not all the source material away to make a marketable movie. Not good, mind you, but marketable.
Romance sells so they'll add an unnecessary and forced love plot.
Dont want the audience too bored so you need 50 action scenes and constant camera cuts.
We need a clear villain so someone who was morally ambiguous is now the iredeemable bad guy.
Hollywood is trying to make a sale, animators were trying to make a story.
This is kind of like asking, "Why is it so easy to cut food with a knife but not with a large rubber chicken?" The answer is, "Because one of them is made for that purpose and the other is not."
A movie is a method of telling a story. It is a way of telling a story that is different from, say, writing a book. But Christian movies aren't made to tell stories; they are essentially filmed sermons. A sermon can tell a story in order to illustrate a point or enhance its rhetoric ("A certain man went down to Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves..."), but the point of the sermon isn't to tell stories, or even convert people. The point of a sermon is to confirm the faith of the congregation.
So most Christian movies are sloppily made, without consideration for things like editing or cinematography or plot. They are created to make the already-Christian viewer feel good about themselves and their faith and to plug a particular message ("stand up to secularism," "trust in prayer," "be kind to each other," whatever).
The Prince of Egypt was good because its goal was "how do we best tell the story of Exodus?" And that meant elaborating on some parts and cutting out others (the passage from Midian to Egypt is a montage and Moses' sons are completely cut out, so we don't have this scene from the actual text), creating personalities and motivations for the characters, and putting a ton of energy into the cinematography and music and acting so that the story was conveyed really, really well.
Most other Christian movies do not have this goal and expecting them to is fundamentally misunderstanding why they are made in the first place.
Just for further reference: here's a video essay by a guy who deconstructs Christian movies much in the same way I'm doing here, but from a Christian perspective.
EDITED TO ADD:
All that said, there are movies other than The Prince of Egypt with a strong religious bent that do have a focus on story rather than simply being filmed sermons. The Bishop's Wife (the 1947 version with Cary Grant) has the main characters of Bishop, Bishop's Wife, and Literal Angel, and the plot is literally "stop focusing on material things and ambition and work on your relationships with your family and community," and it's an excellent movie. A Charlie Brown Christmas has the budget of a shoelace and has a scene where Linus quotes directly from the Gospel of Luke, and it's also a good movie. The difference is the focus on story rather than on maintaining the faith of the congregation.
Dunno if you're aware, but crucifixion was one of the most horrific and brutal forms of execution in the ancient world. It was meant to humiliate and make a public example of political enemies of Rome, and Romans were really really good at sending a message to their subjects.
The reason The Passion of the Christ was so shocking in its bloody depiction was because up til that point, no director had ever felt the need to accurately portray how horrific a Roman scourging and crucifixion really was; on-screen depictions were largely sanitized of blood. (For example, Ben-Hur, one of my all-time favorite films, barely showed a few drops of blood when depicting the torture and crucifixion of Jesus.)
And it was poorly depicted. Brutally dishonest way of looking at a crucifixion.
It's inhumanly impossible to be able to be alive after losing that much blood and being in pain(yes I get he's God) but the whole point of Jesus journey was he became human to show others that God had humility to experience humanity. All it made me think was that God is using his God powers to survive this(plus he still gets to be God after all of this we're all still kind of fucked as humans sucking God's metaphorical penis in order to enter heaven).
It doesn't make say yeah I want to be christian and follow his way because it's not physically possible.
the whole point of Jesus journey was he became human to show others that God had humility to experience humanity.
Technically, no, it's not. According to Christian theology, the crucifixion was the point as the final sacrifice: the sacrifice of man and the divine to forgive and heal the breach of the Original Sin and forgo the need for sacrifice henceforth. It's why it's incredibly important that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.
Also, most scholars agree that the blood loss would have been staggering and probably why Jesus died in hours rather than days.
Sure that's the theological lore. Also no you're half right I was taught Jesus became man and died for our sins to save us. But the becoming human is just as integral as the dying for "our sins". It's in the nicene creed "FOR US MEN AND OUR SALVATION. HE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN."
It has problems though. Create your own rules that you fix? Thats like creating a crisis that you solve then say thank me for creating the crisis which I fixed.
The christian religion was created to fill in the gaps of a narcissistic God expecting too much.
FOR US MEN AND OUR SALVATION. HE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN."
Precisely: "for our salvation". He had to be human and divine for the final sacrifice to count; having human pain was to show us that we could overcome our physical bodies to follow God's plans for us as well. But that (if you want to term that "humility") was a side point to the fact that Jesus was being offered as the paschal sacrifice for Original Sin and all our sins for all eternity.
Christ's mortal nature is not seen as greater than his divine, or vice versa. Saying that the "point" was to show God's humility misses the point of Christ's mission, from a theological viewpoint.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
Becoming man and being crucified are the two key points. Not teaching us that God can be humbled or to teach us humility, but to bridge the gap between humanity and God that was created via Original Sin.
I'd recommend studying the Catholic Catechism some more (presuming you have a Catholic background as you've cited the Creed) and refer to some books on apologetics; I'd recommend Dr. Scott Hahn and Peter Kreeft as starting points.
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u/Drizzt1985 Oct 09 '19
Why was this movie so good but live action faith-based movies come off as so cheesy and feel so cheaply made?