It's funny. Just early last night I was talking to Garth Franklin (DARK HORIZON) and Lincoln (COUNTDOWN) in a call sharing our mutual excitement about the Star Wars trailer. The call spanned thousands of miles, from my bedroom to Australia. Over the course of the conversation they both began asking me what I thought of PRINCE OF EGYPT. Would it work? You see that's the big question. What I have seen blew me away. And the two fellas that were with me, and my father. But ya know... according to the 'detractors' I'm on Dreamworks' payroll, by the way I'm not, but here is a spy that's been writing for some time now, and he saw the film yesterday. And he feels... strongly about it. So will it catch on? Yeah... It very well might. We'll see. It's not too far away now. It's just around the bend. Getting goosebumps yet?
There has been a lot of talk concerning movies that are possible contenders for a nomination for Best Picture. In these talks, you always here Saving Private Ryan, Truman Show, A Simple Plan, A Thin Red Line, Beloved, and Gods and Monsters. Well today, I didn't see a possible contender for a nomination. I saw one of the nominations. To put it as honestly and to the point as humanly possible - PRINCE OF EGYPT WAS ONE OF THE BEST FUCKING MOVIES THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN.
Notice that I didn't say cartoons, or animated films, I said movies. This is a movie in every sense of the word. The plot, the dialogue, the direction, the action, the editing, the music, the everything. I don't know if I have ever been so totally blown away by a movie before. I went in there thinking that I was going to see a very good version of the Lion King or Snow White. WRONG!! What I saw was an unbelievable film, that just happened to have been animated. This is a movie, that if it had been filmed would have been as costly to make as Cleopatra, Gone With the Wind, Titanic. This is a movie that ranks in my top ten for best special effects ever.
Spoilers Coming
Things were done in this film that I have never seen before in an animated film. There were tracking shots, pan shots, disolves, you name the technique that any A-List director uses and this movie had it. Some of the sequences just totally blew me away.
The opening Chariot race is really confusing. Not because it is poorly done, but because of the animals. You think that you are going to get another Mulan or something like that. Instead you get an elaborately staged chase through the streets of Egypt that includes what I found to be one of the best shots in the movie. As Moses and Ramses are racing they accidentally knock off the nose of Sphinx. As they race down the wooden trellace that spirals down, the camera follows them all the way down. I know that doesn't sound too amazing, but trust when you see it, your jaw will drop. It reminded me of the scene in Snake Eyes where we see the inside of all the adjacent hotel rooms with that overhead dolly shot.
As the movie goes on certain details as to the history of the characters is shown in the most amazing sequence in the entire movie. Moses is uncertain as to his own history, so he looks it up, literally; on this huge wall of hieroglyphics. Only the wall comes to life and we see history unfold before our eyes. The hieroglyphics come to life and depict the story of Moses life from birth up to that point. This is another one of those instances that words can't describe, but it is one of the coolest shots that I have ever seen in a movie. Just awesome.
The Red Sea was incredible. You can see that if you saw a commercial. The locust scene was a little dissapointing. I thought that I had read that it took three years to draw that scene and it was over in twenty seconds. That is the only bad thing that I can say about this movie.
It has seriously taken animation and movies for that matter to a new level. Remember when you first saw the Lion King and how that stampede scene blew you away. Well, this entire movie is on that level or better. Honest. This movie is just that good. Every aspect about it was perfect. The songs - I've been singing them all day and the images have been running through my head all night.
This movie may be seen a risky or controversial to some, but they tell you from the first second that it is a straight depiction of the Bible. They don't preach anything, they just tell history. It's amazing how educational this movie is and that it is so thourogly entertaining as well.
Lastly, the things that amazed me the most were the attention to details. Nothing was missed or overlooked. The animation is so life-like. The shimmering of the water, the sand blowing in the wind, the hiero-glyphics coming to life and appearing 3-D, how the people all the way in the background who are no more than dot are moving and serving a purpose at all times. EVERYTHING IS PERFECT!!!
I never thought that I would see the day when an animated movie would be nominated for best picture and I would agree. Well that didn't happen yet. What did happen is that I saw a movie that will probably win best picture.
Now for the rest of this scoop I have to say Agent Kushing has been telling me this for a while now. But I haven't been able to get confirmation. And I keep remembering hearing Steven say he didn't want to touch George's baby, so I won't believe this till Steven announces it himself. SO take this with a grain bin of salt...
On a completely different note: STAR WARS. Two things. I wrote this to you before and I'll write it again. I think that the trailer is going to premiere before Prince of Egypt. Not only are they friends, but I heard from a very reliable source that Steven Spielberg is taking a four month delay to start shooting Memoirs of a Geisha because he is going to direct the second Star Wars. I have no hard facts or anything in writing, but I swear to you that the person I heard this from would know. Trust me.
Keep up the great work and hopefully we will all see the trailer soon.
Agent Kushing
