Characters appearing in the movie Joseph: King of Dreams.
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Main Characters
Joseph
voiced by Ben Affleck, singing voice David Campbell.
The son of Jacob and Rachel and his father's favourite based on the figure in the Book of Genesis
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade, in the movie, Joseph rages against God before realizing that "you know better than I" and Joseph is portrayed as traumatized by his sale. Neither of those things are depicted in the text.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Joseph in the Book of Genesis, speaks evil of his brothers but here he is arrogant, conceited and contemptuous of his "half-brother"s though he gets better.
- Baby Of The Bunch: Is the youngest child until Benjamin is born.
- Blessed with Suck: Invoked, he claims his dreams are this at one point but later reconsiders as he rediscovers his faith.
- Cain and Abel: His older brothers seek to kill him in their jealousy, just like the Trope Namer though here it ends happily.
- The Chosen One: His being a miracle child is construed as this though it's then deconstructed as his chosenness elicits the jealousy of his brothers and assuring his sale into slavery but reconstructed as this leads him into finding the people who need him and the very attributes that made him the Chosen One lead to him becoming the hero.
- Dreaming the Truth: It's in the title of the movie.
- Forgiveness: Forgives his wrongdoers in the end.
- Rags to Riches: Goes from slave to second in command.
Judah
voiced by Mark Hamill
The eldest son of Jacob and Leah, half-brother of the titular Joseph and namesake of the Jewish people. Based on the figure of the same name in the Book of Genesis.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted: His remorse over selling Joseph into slavery is downplayed in relation to the Bible.
- The Atoner: He's driven by remorse for his mistakes.
- Big Brother Instinct: Towards Benjamin.
- Cain and Abel: Played straight with Joseph but subverted with Benjamin.
- Token Good Teammate: Played straight, Judah is the most reluctant brother to turn against Joseph and the first to offer himself as a slave to save Benjamin (though downplayed inasmuch as his brothers aren't evil).
Asenath
- Voiced by: Jodi Benson
Joseph's love interest and eventual wife based on Asenath from Genesis, tropes associated with this character include
- Adaptation Expansion: She has much more of a role here than in Genesis .
- Adaptational Personality Change: Her personality isn't described in Genesis.
- Token Good Teammate: Of all the house of Potiphar, she is the only one who is consistently kind to Joseph.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Delivers one to Joseph when he imprisons Simeon.
The Hebrews as a group
Jacob
- Voiced by: Richard Heard; Russell Buchanan (singing)
Joseph's father, the son of Isaac, also known as Israel, father of the Chosen People based on the figure of the same name in the Book of Genesis..
- Adaptational Wimp: In the Book of Genesis, Jacob lifted a heavy stone from a well with his bare hands, wrestled an Angel at Peniel and waged war against Canaanites and Amorites following the massacre of Shechem. Due to this film being set in his old age after all of that has happened and those not being referenced here, he's an adaptational wimp.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Jacob calls out Joseph's brothers for having failed to protect Joseph, he's entirely right.
- Parental Favouritism: Loves Joseph above all his children and later does the same with Benjamin.
Rachel
- Voiced by: Maureen Mc Govern
Daughter of Laban, sister of Leah, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, Jacob's only beloved wife. Based on the figure from the Book of Genesis
- Ascended Extra: Rachel is given more presence here than in the text given that in the Book of Genesis she died in childbirth of Benjamin before Joseph started to incur the resentment of his brothers.
- Death by Childbirth: Implied to have happened to her as it did in Genesis.
- Good Parents: While Jacob loves and cares about all his children he can't resist parental favouritism towards Joseph. Rachel can, even though the others aren't her flesh and blood sons.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: She spent years believing that she would never have a child before giving birth.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Subverted, she is alive when Joseph is seventeen (which she wasn't in Genesis) but she's died in childbirth of Benjamin by the time Joseph is 38.
Benjamin
- Voiced by: Matt Levin
Second-born son of Rachel and youngest son of Jacob. Based on the figure from the Book of Genesis
- The Baby of the Bunch: Benjamin is both the youngest son of Jacob and the youngest son of Rachel in addition to the youngest child.
- Spoiled Sweet: Unlike Joseph he never becomes conceited despite his upbringing.
The other brothers
- The Atoner: They all seek to atone for the sale of Joseph.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted, in the Book of Genesis they all thought that Simeon's imprisonment was God punishing them for what they did to Joseph, here that doesn't come up until later.
- Demoted to Extra: Reuben is given much less importance here than in the text of Genesis.
- Driven by Envy: Their motivation for turning against Joseph.
- Heel–Face Turn: They all go through one, indeed, it's the point of the movie.
The Egyptians
Potiphar
- Voiced by: James Eckhouse
The captain of Pharaoh's guard based on the person in the Book of Genesis.
- The Atoner: Asks Joseph his pardon for having falsely imprisoned him.
- Benevolent Boss: Is this towards Joseph, at least originally
- Berserk Button: Don't try to cheat him and definitely don't let him think you've had his way with his wife or he'll kill you.
- Honour Before Reason: He refuses ever to use a horse once owned by a thief. Deconstructed as it also means he can't admit to trusting a slave over his wife resulting in Joseph's imprisonment.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: Potiphar is traditionally identified with Asenath's father Potiphera due to their similar names, but here he's explicitly her uncle.
Zuleika
- Voiced by: Judith Light
Potiphar's wife and an antagonist of Joseph.
- Adaptational Heroism: Potiphar's wife is not portrayed as feeling remorse and seeking to avert Joseph's execution in the Book of Genesis.
- Entitled to Have You: Claims this about Joseph at one point.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When she realizes her husband is going to execute Joseph because Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil she realizes her mistake and signals Joseph's innocence to Potiphar resulting in Joseph's life being spared.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She regrets what she does to Joseph.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the Torah, she's only known as Eshet Potiphar (meaning the wife of Potiphar) here she's named Zuleika which derives from medieval Jewish tradition.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Potiphar never tells us what happened to Zuleika.
- Woman Scorned: Attempts to seduce Joseph and when he resists her affections she frames him for rape and nearly gets him executed.
Pharaoh
- Voiced by: Richard McGonagle
Pharaoh in this movie is His Majesty the King of Egypt, Pharaoh Rameses the First of that name.
- The Good King: In stark contrast to the Pharaohs of The Prince of Egypt.
- No Name Given: Though this is actually consistent with the Book of Genesis and indeed with the Book of Exodus considering that the Bible doesn't specify the name of any Pharaoh until Shishak in the Books of Kings.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Initially comes across as ill-mannered and abrasive towards Joseph but warms up to him quite quickly when he helps him save Egypt.
