Prince of Egypt

[...]

   Recently, I was asked by a friend of mine if I would recommend that she let her 5 year old daughter watch the Disney animated film, Prince of Egypt.  I have never seen the film, but from what I know of Disney films, I said, "Absolutely not."  She said she was confused because everyone said it was a good Christian film and that it was biblically accurate.  I decided to see what people think is a biblically accurate Disney film and so, tonight, I watched it.  I just finished it a few moments ago.

   I must say that I am not surprised that Hollywood had produced another biblically inaccurate film to add to the scores of others.  It does surprise me how many professing Christians actually believe the film is biblically accurate.  Very little of the film followed the Exodus account.  Even when they included accuracies, they had to simultaneously include falsehoods.  When they put Moses in the basket in the river (true) they showed it dodging a number of dangerous, near death happenings, like being hauled in by fishing nets and almost being hit by a number of ships.  They show Moses confronting Pharaoh, but it is Zipporah by his side instead of Aaron.  Zipporah, by the way, is shown to be an outspoken, rebellious woman with the ability to use a whip as a weapon, free herself from guards and is shown dressed like a prostitute.  They also play up the fiction of Moses and Ramases being best friends.  They insert ridiculous fictions and omit numerous essential aspects of the story.

   The inaccuracies, outright contradictions and inappropriate scenes are too numerous to list outside of a full critique.  I wonder if any of the Christians, who are fans of the film, have ever read one line of the book of Exodus.  Some say that Hollywood tries its best, but they just don't know any better because it's not a Christian industry.  I say Hollywood most definitely knows precisely what they are doing when they make films like this.  They are so completely off the mark that one can come to no other conclusion than that they do it to intentionally muddle God's truths.  Treat Biblical accounts the same way as comic book fiction and God is no more real than Shrek, yet a Spiderman is possible.

   Is it any wonder why The Shack has been so warmly embraced by the "Christian community?"

   

[Rebecca]

When that film first came out, I read somewhere that they used both the Biblical and Qu'ran (however it's spelled) texts, just for the core central story, then they Disney-fied it the way they do with all their stories they take from other sources and change it just enough so it's their own thing. It's just as accurate as their historical version of Pocahontas.  My advice: Don't take anything Disney makes as historically or Biblically accurate.

[HappyChristian]

It isn't only Disney. Any Holllywood make of a Bible story needs to be considered suspect. Even back as far as Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments, both of which starred Charleton Heston. Ben Hur, of course, is fiction so of course that must be taken into account. But The 10 Commandments is a mish-mash of incidents that took place, combining and messing up many of the events (for instance, Korah, Dathan, and Abijah were swallowed up by the earth as a result of the golden calf incident in the movie).

Any time a production company that is not biblical-based creates a movie about the Bible, Christians need to be leery.

[DaveW]

If people are going to be critical they should at least get the right info.

The company behind this is not Disney, but Dreamworks. 

Makes no difference in one way, but to get such a basic point wrong makes the critic look silly.

The guys behind it were of Jewish background, so it is unlikely that they would consult the koran.

It IS NOT BIBLICALLY ACCURATE, but neither does it claim to be.

The producers wanted "to capture the spirit of the story" but made changes for the sake of entertainment. (Sounds like modern version translators there.)

It is available at the major Christian bookstore here where I live, and there is no way that it should qualify as belonging in a " Christian bookshop", but that tells you what the bookshop is like.........

It is a worldly movie made by unsaved, barely religious, worldly men. It happens to based ( very loosley) on a Bible account.

 

 

[Rebecca]

21 minutes ago, DaveW said:

If people are going to be critical they should at least get the right info.

The company behind this is not Disney, but Dreamworks.

 

My apologies, you're correct.

22 minutes ago, DaveW said:

The guys behind it were of Jewish background, so it is unlikely that they would consult the koran.

I had to do a bit of digging, and although this isn't the original article I had read years back, it says similar:

"Because DreamWorks was concerned about historical and theological accuracy, Katzenberg decided to call in Bible scholars, Christian, Jewish and Muslim theologians, and Arab American leaders to help his movie be accurate as well as excellent."

https://web.archive.org/web/20030329004351/http://assistnews.net/strategic/s0000023.htm

I am just assuming that the Muslim theologians and Arab Americans weren't consulting the Bible, but the Koran. I could, of course, be wrong.

[DaveW]

Good - got you looking rather than assuming.

And I am surprised that the jewish guys behind it would look to muslims - but if you read on, each of their consultants were happy with the result - shows the caliber of the consultants, doesn't it.

[fastjav390]

7 hours ago, DaveW said:

 

 

The guys behind it were of Jewish background, so it is unlikely that they would consult the koran.

 

 

In Hollywood Jews are PC liberals first and Jews second. And when it comes to making money all bets are off. Ben Hur was produced by a Jew.

[fastjav390]

11 hours ago, Rebecca said:

When that film first came out, I read somewhere that they used both the Biblical and Qu'ran (however it's spelled) texts, just for the core central story, then they Disney-fied it the way they do with all their stories they take from other sources and change it just enough so it's their own thing. It's just as accurate as their historical version of Pocahontas.  My advice: Don't take anything Disney makes as historically or Biblically accurate.

I just looked it up and Executive Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg (a Jew) used around 600 "religious experts" in making the film and this included Christian, Jewish and Muslim as well as "Arab American leaders".

[Salyan]

On ‎3‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 11:23 AM, fastjav390 said:

I just looked it up and Executive Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg (a Jew) used around 600 "religious experts" in making the film and this included Christian, Jewish and Muslim as well as "Arab American leaders".

What... no ancient Egyptian pantheon religious leaders?

Islam wasn't even around back then.

[...]

3 hours ago, Salyan said:

What... no ancient Egyptian pantheon religious leaders?

Islam wasn't even around back then.

To be fair, neither was Christianity.

[Ukulelemike]

Seriously, if Hollywood can't get something like the Fantastic Four right, how would we expect them to get anything biblical right? Although I think relatives of the Thing from Fantastic Four made an appearance on Noah, didn't they?

[...]

On 3/11/2017 at 5:36 AM, DaveW said:

If people are going to be critical they should at least get the right info.

The company behind this is not Disney, but Dreamworks

I stand corrected.  My apologies.  They are so similar that I get them confused.

21 minutes ago, Ukulelemike said:

Seriously, if Hollywood can't get something like the Fantastic Four right, how would we expect them to get anything biblical right? Although I think relatives of the Thing from Fantastic Four made an appearance on Noah, didn't they?

I have never been a fan of comics and the older I get, the more I not only don't care for them, but I believe them to be dangerous.

I have created another thread on this topic here: The Dangers of Superheroes and Fantasy.

[Ukulelemike]

1 hour ago, Brother Stafford said:

I stand corrected.  My apologies.  They are so similar that I get them confused.

I have never been a fan of comics and the older I get, the more I not only don't care for them, but I believe them to be dangerous.

I have created another thread on this topic here: The Dangers of Superheroes and Fantasy.

I get you. I wasn't trying to lift them up in any way, just making the observation that if they can't get something simple from pop culture, the world, right, how can they hope to get something of the Spirit right?

[...]

10 minutes ago, Ukulelemike said:

I get you. I wasn't trying to lift them up in any way, just making the observation that if they can't get something simple from pop culture, the world, right, how can they hope to get something of the Spirit right?

I don't believe it's about them not being able to get it right.  I believe that they intentionally misrepresent biblical stories.  Since things like the Fantastic Four are fictional, there's nothing to "get right;" they're just manipulating fiction.  I think part of the goal is to create an environment where people no longer accept the concepts of facts or absolute truth.  

[Ukulelemike]

16 hours ago, Brother Stafford said:

I don't believe it's about them not being able to get it right.  I believe that they intentionally misrepresent biblical stories.  Since things like the Fantastic Four are fictional, there's nothing to "get right;" they're just manipulating fiction.  I think part of the goal is to create an environment where people no longer accept the concepts of facts or absolute truth.  

Agreed. In fact, Aranofsky, who made Noah, boasted of the fact that he was going to make the least biblical 'biblical movie' ever made. I don't know-I think he is in a tie with the guy who made 'Egypt: Gods and Kings', the recent Moses-related movie. And, well, even the so-called 'Christian' movie makers, who seem to really want to do honor to God with their movies, can't seem to get close. I remember an old B&W version of David and Goliath, I watched part, thinking, well, maybe they did better than the big money movies today, but it started immediately with a Goliath just over 6 feet tall, (Saul was taller than that!), and a David who came to Jerusalem to protest Saul and his rule. Wow-not even close. I have long since given up on any chance of seeing anything close to being biblical coming out of hollywood, despite the amazing amount of money they would make.