History Awesome / ThePrinceOfEgypt

*** Furthermore, at the end of the Final Plague, when the Angel of Death and/or souls of the dead firstborn dissipate into the sky, the constellation we know as Orion is shown prominently in the night sky. [[GeniusBonus To ancient Egyptians, that constellation was associated with Osiris]], King of the Land of the Dead. ''That'' is [=The Hebrew God=]'s final assault on the gods of Egypt: He declares "''Even Life itself is Mine and Mine alone to give and rescind.''" An alternate way to interpret it is that Osiris ''is'' the Angel of Death, and [=The Hebrew God=]'s message to the ancient Egyptians is that ''their'' god is taking their firstborn on '''His''' behalf.

-->'''God''': ''WHO MADE MAN'S MOUTH?!'' WHO MADE THE DEAF, THE MUTE, THE SEEING, OR THE BLIND? DID NOT I?! NOW ''GO''.

** A little digging into Egyptian beliefs brings out [[GeniusBonus a new level]] to this. God isn't just using generic plagues to attack the Egyptians. He is mocking the Egyptian gods in the process, who tended to be patterned after animals, as well as the concept of Pharaoh being a god himself since this entire time he is powerless. Essentially, He is breaking the Egyptians by saying "See how your gods tremble before Me?" in addition to suffering. Their gods don't just tremble; they ''flee''. He has full authority and power, and the various Egyptian gods can't do a damn thing to stop Him. Here's a brief breakdown of how every single prodigy before the Exodus hit Egyptian beliefs and their very way of life:

*** The First Plague, transforming the Nile in a river of blood, is a mockery of a good omen: the Nile would become red ''once'' per year, filled with the fertile silt that the incoming flood would deposit on the earth. And yet, this time not only do the red waters appear at the wrong time of the year and bring no silt, but they also cause the death of all the fish of Egypt. [[FridgeBrilliance And come to think of it, silt is probably how Hotep and Huy replicated the trick on a smaller scale]].
*** The Second Plague, the frogs overrunning Egypt, continues the mockery of a good omen: the frog is a symbol of fertility and the god Hapy, a personification of the flooding of the Nile and its fertile silt, and smaller 'invasions' of frogs would come right after the flooding.

*** The Fifth Plague, the disease of the livestock, hits a soft point: The domestic ox was a sacred animal of, among other gods, Apis, who was an avatar of Ptah -- patron god of craftsmen, and the Maker of the Universe in the creation myth of Egypt's legislative capital, Memphis -- and intermediary between men and the gods, who appears on Earth as a black bull with a white triangular marking upon its forehead, a white vulture wing outline on its back, a scarab mark under its tongue, a white crescent moon shape on its right flank, and double hairs on his tail. (The Egyptians pampered these bulls, and held burials for them worthy of Pharaoh himself when they passed.) Because Moses is now the intermediary, Apis dies, and no other bull with the proper markings shall be found.

*** The Tenth Plague is linked to a specific Egyptian myth, the Eye of Ra. In that myth, humans had disrespected Ra and planned to rebel and kill him, so he sent his Eye (identified with either the war goddess Sekhmet or the [[BewareTheNiceOnes gentle Hathor]] [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending on the Version]]) to slay them as punishment for their insolence... And in one day she killed ''half of mankind'', all the guilty and many innocents, and to stop her from finishing the job, the gods had to get her drunk. The message here is: "Let My people go, for if you continue to sin, all of Egypt shall die in a heartbeat". No wonder Rameses finally relented...

[[caption-width-right:350:''"With this staff, you shall do my wonders..."'']]

*** And the worst part of it all? ''It's during the day.'' One of the most important parts of Egyptian cosmology is how Ra governs during the day, and when night falls he fights against the serpent-dragon Apep, so that he won't consume the world. This isn't even remotely subtle on God's part; he is directly saying, "''Your greatest protector is'' '''nothing''' ''compared to'' '''''Me.'''''"
*** Furthermore, at the end of the Final Plague, when the Angel of Death and/or souls of the dead firstborn dissipate into the sky, the constellation we know as Orion is shown prominently in the night sky. [[GeniusBonus To ancient Egyptians, that constellation was associated with Osiris]], King of the Land of the Dead. ''That'' is [=The Hebrew God=]'s final assault on the gods of Egypt: He declares "''Even Life itself is mine and mine alone to give and rescind.''" An alternate way to interpret it is that Osiris ''is'' the Angel of Death, and [=The Hebrew God=]'s message to the ancient Egyptians is that ''their'' god is taking their firstborn on '''His''' behalf.

* While it's pretty scary, the sequence of the first 9 plagues, along with the amazing musical number, featuring a DarkReprise of the song "''All I Ever Wanted''," is nothing more than awesome, even if it is one of the scariest things God has done since leveling Sodom and Gomorrah. The song itself is great, especially the lyrics, such as "I sent my scourge! I sent my sword! Thus saith the Lord!" [[NightmareFuel The 10th plague though...]]

* RootingForTheEmpire and DracoInLeatherPants to the nth degree? Yes. But despite being on the receiving end of ''some of the worst natural disasters ever known to man, and having his people's gods being humiliated right in front of his eyes by a far stronger God who went after him and his people directly'', and '''losing his workforce in a single day''', Rameses II went on to become the single most successful pharaoh in Egyptian history, his battles, conquests and accomplishments being usually credited to bringing the Egyptian empire to its apex. Not only does this say tons about his personal resilience, fortitude and leadership skills, but it's nothing short of a '''miracle''' that he pulled it off. [[note]] This is the very same reason most historians agree Rameses II couldn't have been the Pharaoh of Exodus, as his accomplishments would have been ''virtually impossible'' had he been on the receiving end of the plagues. [[/note]]

->''Thus saith the Lord''

* Main/RootingForTheEmpire and Main/DracoInLeatherPants to the nth degree? Yes. But despite being on the receiving end of ''some of the worst natural disasters ever known to man, and having his people's gods being humiliated right in front of his eyes by a far stronger God who went after him and his people directly'', and '''losing his workforce in a single day''', Rameses II went on to become the single most successful pharaoh in Egyptian history, his battles, conquests and accomplishments being usually credited to bringing the Egyptian empire to its apex. Not only does this say tons about his personal resilience, fortitude and leadership skills, but it's nothing short of a '''miracle''' that he pulled it off. [[note]] This is the very same reason most historians agree Rameses II couldn't have been the Pharaoh of Exodus, as his accomplishments would have been ''virtually impossible'' had he been on the receiving end of the plagues. [[/note]]

!!Meta
* Just the fact that the film is honest from the start about the liberties it takes with the source material, while simultaneously showing that they ''really'' did their research, interviewing dozens of scholars from ''all three Abrahamic religions'' in order to portray the events and characters as sensitively and accurately as possible.
** The final product is so reverent, that it is widely regarded as a better representation of the story than ''' ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments|1956}}''''', along with ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings''.
* A smaller one: While it's usually a bad idea to read [=YouTube=] comments, the ones featured on clips or songs from ''The Prince of Egypt'' are almost universally positive. Viewers of all belief systems, including atheists, openly voice their respect and love for the movie, and seem to have an unspoken agreement ''not'' to let the comments section devolve into a mess of arguments. Any movie that can tame the Internet must be doing ''something'' right.
** The fact that the movie is Chance the Rapper’s [[https://mobile.twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/987010802938007552 2nd favorite film]].
* Credit must be given to Ofra Haza (may her memory be blessed): However small her role was, she went on to voice Yocheved in ''18 languages''. Most wouldn't mind hopping over to one country for the foreign translation; she did so for ''16 other countries'', and her pronunciation was ''spot-on'' for nearly every single one.[[note]]For a few of them, she pronounced the translated lyrics phonetically.[[/note]]
* The fact that the film doesn’t portray the characters as being white or having European features, unlike certain other adaptations of the story...
* It had been ''ages'' since any studio outside Disney had made a significant profit at the box office with hand-drawn animation, especially once the Disney Renaissance began, as the Mouse House sucked the air out of the competition's sails. However, this film, along with Fox's ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', proved that success could be found with top-flight animators, a strong story, and most importantly, producers and studio brass allowing the filmmakers to see their original vision through, without ExecutiveMeddling. [[note]]Its successful run is even more impressive than ''Anastasia'''s; while the latter didn't stray too far from the stock animation tropes of the time, the fact that ''The Prince of Egypt'' found success with an unabashedly religious story spoke to the universal power of its storytelling and visuals, even for adherents to non-Abrahamic faiths. [[/note]]

* Much of the stagecraft used was highly lauded, particularly the parting of the Red Sea which ends [[spoiler:with the stage tilting up and dropping Hotep and the Egyptian Army into the orchestra pit.]]

* The parting of the Red Sea is a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for both Moses ''and'' [=DreamWorks=] Pictures. And during their journey, the shot of the whale silhouetted against the wall of water, and the Hebrew people's torches.

** The final product is so reverent, that it is widely regarded as a better representation of the story than ''' ''Film/TheTenCommandments''''', along with ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings''.

* The Plagues scene. Not only is it LaserGuidedKarma for an entire culture of [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil abusive slavers]], but God lets loose with His full power. And there is not a thing the Egyptians can do to stop Him. The climax would be the scene where God kills all of the firstborns of Egypt--including Rameses' own son, which is finally what breaks Rameses and causes him to free the Hebrews.
** A little digging into Egyptian beliefs brings out [[GeniusBonus a new level]] to this. God isn't just using generic plagues to attack the Egyptians. He is mocking the Egyptian gods in the process, who tended to be patterned after animals, as well as the concept of Pharaoh being a god himself since this entire time he is powerless. Essentially, He is breaking the Egyptians by saying "See how your gods tremble before Me?" in addition to suffering. Heck, their gods don't just tremble; they ''flee''. He has full authority and power, and the various Egyptian gods can't do a damn thing to stop Him. Here's a brief breakdown of how every single prodigy before the Exodus hit Egyptian beliefs and their very way of life:

* The entire burning bush scene, especially when God comforts Moses and says that he will ''smite Egypt with all My wonders''. The music, the effects, everything about this scene sends chills every time.

*** Take note of Moses's expression when the Pillar of Fire erupts out of the Red Sea. Even after all he's seen, from the Burning Bush to the ten plagues, his face is still full of shock, terror, and absolute awe.

* While it's pretty scary, the entire sequence of the first 9 plagues, along with the amazing musical number, featuring a DarkReprise of the song "''All I Ever Wanted''," is nothing more than awesome, even if it is one of the scariest things God has done since leveling Sodom and Gomorrah. The song itself is great, especially the lyrics, such as "I sent my scourge! I sent my sword! Thus saith the Lord!" [[NightmareFuel The 10th plague though...]]
** Pretty much every musical number doubles as this.
* The entire ''When You Believe'' piece. It starts out as a single voice, joined by another, then a small group, until finally the entire nation is singing praises to their God for liberating them from slavery.

* Speaking of the animation, there are several moments where there is [[TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects CG]] included in parts of the film, including the chariot scene, several of the plagues, and even ''the Burning Bush''. Both first-time and hardcore viewers don't notice this unless they view the [[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mTX_qo0xRFs Behind the Scenes]] for the film. Yes, [=DreamWorks=] combined both 3D and 2D animation into their film '''and successfully pulled it off'''.

* Miriam is a Hebrew slave, somebody with zero power or agency. Yet she is able to channel the only resource she has -- her faith (and not just the spiritual kind) -- and uses it not only to rise above the despair of her own situation, but she also uses it to push her brother into liberating an entire people. She constantly lifts everyone else's spirits, no matter how badly they treat her. She is Moses' first supporter, the only one who has never doubted him or his mission, and often it seems her unshakable belief in her brother is what keeps Moses from giving up. No wonder he pulled her aside and thanked her at the end of the movie.

* One for the writers: the entire character of Tzipporah, and her relationship with Moses. What could have easily been a RomanticPlotTumor is instead handled with maturity and excellent CharacterDevelopment. Tzipporah doesn't even start giving Moses a second thought until he openly declares that he's "done nothing in [his] life worth honoring." That's when she realizes he has the power to change--and the movie, unlike so many others, makes it clear that ''he'' needs to change, rather than Tzipporah needing to [[DefrostingIceQueen tone down her outspoken nature]]. She comes to love him over a period of months, if not years (we don't know how much time passes during "Through Heaven's Eyes"), and only after he's proven himself with hard work and compassion for others, two qualities he was sorely lacking before. In the end, the two have genuinely fallen in love, and the result is a strong, beautiful depiction of a fair, balanced, equal marriage.

* Main/RootingForTheEmpire and Main/DracoInLeatherPants to the nth degree? Yes. But despite being on the receiving end of ''some of the worst natural disasters ever known to man, and having his people's gods being humiliated right in front of his eyes by a far stronger God who went after him and his people directly'', not to mention '''losing his entire workforce in a single day''', Rameses II went on to become the single most successful pharaoh in Egyptian history, his battles, conquests and accomplishments being usually credited to bringing the Egyptian empire to its apex. Not only does this say tons about his personal resilience, fortitude and leadership skills, but it's nothing short of a '''miracle''' that he pulled it off. [[note]] This is the very same reason most historians agree Rameses II couldn't have been the Pharaoh of Exodus, as his accomplishments would have been ''virtually impossible'' had he been on the receiving end of the plagues. [[/note]]

* A smaller one: While it's usually a bad idea to read [=YouTube=] comments, the ones featured on clips or songs from ''The Prince of Egypt'' are almost universally positive. Viewers of all belief systems, including atheists, openly voice their respect and love for the movie, and even seem to have an unspoken agreement ''not'' to let the comments section devolve into a mess of arguments. Any movie that can tame the Internet must be doing ''something'' right.

* Much of the stagecraft used was highly lauded, particularly the parting of the Red Sea which ends [[spoiler:with the entire stage tilting up and dropping Hotep and the Egyptian Army into the orchestra pit.]]