My Movie Review on Joseph: King of Dreams · 2:39pm Nov 4th, 2019
Greetings and salutations, my good friends.
This is your on-top-of-it-as-always film, TV show, and episode reporter here to give you all another film analysis.
And today, for my 77th film review, and my 3rd "Thanksgiving Treat" to you all, I'm gonna be reviewing "Joseph: King of Dreams".
Here's the summary of it:
Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, has an astounding ability to interpret dreams, and his dreams are symbolic of the future.
However, when his eleven half-brothers grow jealous and bitter of him and their father's favoring towards him, Joseph is sold by his brothers into slavery and is taken to Egypt, where he goes through many other trials.
Could this be the destiny God had prepared for Joseph since birth? Or could God be preparing him for a greater purpose?
I realize that I likely should've reviewed this movie before "The Prince of Egypt" considering Joseph was born before Moses, but I grew up much more closely to the latter than the former. Plus, I really wanted to make "The Prince of Egypt" my 70th film review, and I came up with making "Joseph: King of Dreams" my 77th film review for quite some time.
I really must admit, I certainly didn't think this movie was as strong as its theatrical predecessor. However, the film as a whole was still an amazing piece of work, and as a direct-to-video film, it's impressive too.
As an all hand-drawn animated film, the animation it had was beautiful. It not only had this excellent storybook feel to it all, but it captured a certain essence that was perfect for an adaption of a Biblical story.
The direction by Robert Ramirez and Rob LaDuca, and the screenplay by Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, Raymond Singer, Joe Stillman, and Marshall Goldberg, were all pretty spot-on as well. Along with the clear influence of Jeffrey Katzenberg, the team was able to make a film that was faithful to the actual story in more ways than one while still putting in their own creative flair. Like "The Prince of Egypt", they did a great job at making the movie noticeably character-driven, and there was an astounding amount of heart and wit that made everything all-the-more alive.
The songs and music score that were done by Danny Pelfry and John Buccino were likewise melodiously amazing. Pelfrey and Bucchino are definitely no Hans Zimmer or Stephen Schwartz, but they spectacularly caught the spirit that the movie's predecessor was given while making it their own at the same time. The best of the musical elements, obviously, is "Better Than I", whom David Campbell did an awesome job singing for, by the way. I'm surprised that Dreamworks didn't release this film's music album on iTunes yet, really, because I would love to to upload it to my Music app.
Finally, the voice acting, casting, characters, and character development were all as awesome as anyone could expect. Among the most compelling of character-elements is definitely that of the relationship between Joseph and his brothers, and how God has been leading Joseph into so many surprising turns. Plus, the voice cast were given dialogue that was as clever and creative as ever.
It was Ben Affleck and his character of Joseph that I found to be the strongest of the cast and characters. Affleck did an incredible job at really throwing himself into the role, both physically and emotionally. The development of Joseph was also something that I thought was really strong, and the kindness and warmth he had, along with his smart-aleck and humorous side were astounding too.
Jodi Benson, might I add, portrayed her character of Asenath beautifully. The large role that the filmmakers gave the character herself, as well as the kindness, wisdom, and wit she had were also elements about her that were extremely admirable.
In the end, "Joseph: King of Dreams" likely won't be able to compare to the sheer awesomeness of "The Prince of Egypt", but it's still an amazing film nevertheless.
So, I rate "Joseph: King of Dreams" five out of five stars.
Another movie I'll need to check out some time in the near future. You know I read that there were more Biblical events planned for animated adaptations on DreamWorks (also on video release) but sadly none have come to fruition.
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That is saddening.
As a matter of fact, I often couldn’t help but find myself wanting to see them make a sequel to “The Prince of Egypt” to continue Moses’s story. Of course, with how much time has gone by, I’m not sure how it’ll be possible.
I grew up with this as well as Prince of Egypt, and they still stick with me. They're just that memorable. But I will say there are other adaptations I enjoyed more. The 1990 Joseph movie that's 3 hours long is phenomenally emotional and awesome, and of course, there's the Technicolor Dream Coat.
Oh my gosh! I love this movie.
I Agree completely
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Can you imagine how an animated film about how Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would have looked in that same format? I mean sure it would strongly resemble Passion of the Christ but it would still be utterly epic!
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Hey, you’re right!
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I've seen quite a few animated adaptations of Jesus's life. The most...unique one I found was told from the tale of a young boy who first witnesses Jesus enter Jerusalem shortly before the Passion. The oddest bit was Jesus was blonde and blue-greened eyed
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There's another one that is also an animated version of Ben-Hur, with Charlton Heston reprising the role as Judah Ben-Hur.