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Making Moses a brother to Rameses allowed the filmmakers to deal with another sticky problem: how to make Rameses II, considered the greatest of Pharaohs, more than a one-dimensional villain. In fact, Katzenberg says, the filmmakers returned from an early field trip to Egypt so impressed with the majesty of the pyramids that "we found ourselves not wanting to simply portray Rameses as the bad guy." Casting Rameses as a contemporary of Moses' enabled the filmmakers to show him as a loving adopted brother who wants to carry on the great legacy of his father.
The voice of God was one of the more difficult choices in the film. "Every race and color and creed has a claim to the voice of God," Katzenberg says. Using an idea of producer Cox's, the animators put together a scratch track that was an eerily effective chorus of every character in the film, with the dominant voice morphing from man to woman to child. But consultant Schwartz-Getzug vetoed that approach, saying some people would be offended if the voice of God sounded--even momentarily--like a woman's. Kilmer ended up supplying the voice.
DreamWorks flew in dozens of religious experts and clergy for repeated discussions about the film. And Katzenberg did his homework, reading up so extensively on the Bible that he began to sound more like a yeshiva student than the college dropout he is. But as Katzenberg discovered, everyone's a movie critic. An elderly Fundamentalist minister didn't like the drawings; a rabbinical scholar complained that in the Bible "God has a great line" that wasn't in the film, and also objected to the fact that Moses, who should be around 80 when he returns to confront Rameses, looks too young in the film's version of the scene.
It quickly became clear that certain elements typical of Disney-style animated films would be out of place. A talking camel was cut. Comics Steve Martin and Martin Short, cast as charlatan priests, were directed to turn in subdued performances. Lucrative tie-ins were another sensitive issue. Katzenberg says, semiseriously, "We came up with the Red Sea boogie board. We had the 40-years-in-the-desert water bottle. We had the parting-of-the-Red-Sea shower curtain." But ultimately, both DreamWorks and its partner Burger King concluded that they would be doing themselves "a terrible disservice" if they pushed any kind of merchandise that would trivialize the film. Moses action figures were out. Instead, DreamWorks came up with a Wal-Mart package containing tickets to the film, a souvenir book and a sampler CD.
The Prince of Egypt is now an effects-laden extravaganza that undoubtedly cost far more than the $75 million claimed by DreamWorks. And the film seems to have the support of a goodly portion of religious communities, from liberal Christians to conservatives Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to Rabbi Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University, and Muslim leader Maher Hathout. "Hollywood got this one right," Falwell says. Evangelist Robert Schuller has even laid hands on Katzenberg and blessed him. The executive says he will gladly accept all the help he can get. If family audiences pause from their enjoyment of Paramount's Rugrats or Disney's A Bug's Life to commune with his version of one of the greatest stories ever told, then Katzenberg's prayers will truly have been answered.