Prince of Egpyt vs. Joseph: King of Dreams?

No doubt: Prince of Egypt.

I just rewatched Prince of Egypt, followed by a first view of Joseph. Total anticlimax. Joseph could perhaps have seemed better if I hadn't just seen Prince of Egypt, but I don't think so. The two films are miles apart in any aspect of quality.

Tough choice, but I'll say The Prince of Egypt cause it's soundtrack is beyond epic; Especially The Plagues.

Jospeh is decent, but Prince of Egypt is superb with an amazing score and songs and one of the epic and most compelling scenes in an animated film in the form of The Plagues.











"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)

Easy...The Prince of Egypt. That one was epic in every sense of the word. But, seeing as they had to go with a tighter budget for the second one, you can't really blame them. For a direct to DVD it was pretty solid.

I like the Prince of Egypt more, yet I also like Joseph: King of Dreams. But POE is undoubtedly a better film. When watching them, it's better if you don't do it back to back, as the "direct-to-videoness" of KOD really stands out. This is especially true with the songs and music; again, they're good by themselves (usually).

Still, the smaller scale of the story of Joseph (well, aside from Joseph becoming ruler of Egypt under Pharaoh--THAT's pretty big) makes it so that the smaller scale production value doesn't stand out as much.

I was debating on whether to give this an 8 or 9 (I gave POE a 10, which is pretty rare for me), and I ended up going with 9 because of the story. Not only is the story of Joseph one of my favorites from the Bible, but they also portray it well here. When I was younger I didn't like it how Joseph was shown to waiver in his faith in God, since the Bible doesn't say anything about that--but now that I'm older, I realize that that's a realistic reaction to all of the things that happened to him. Actually, having him completely unfazed by his trials would seem ridiculous now, but maybe that's just me.

It's an unfair comparison, honestly - Joseph had a fraction of POE's budget, if you check out the credits you can see how much of the work on that movie was outsourced. (I think a more interesting comparison would be to see how it stacks up against Disney direct-to-video movies, and I personally think Joseph wipes the floor with those. Seriously, watch Joseph and then follow it up with Pocahontas 2 and you'll see what I mean :D)

There were a few things I thought Joseph handled better - while POE has to constantly shift back and forth between the epic and the personal, Joseph is mostly small-scale, with lots of drama centered on the tension among Joseph, his father, and his brothers, and on Joseph's internal battle with fairness and forgiveness. Also, while I am in love with both songs, Better Than I is more complex than When You Believe in terms of the message it carries. Though both are very important and stunning pieces of music.

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT - 9/10
JOSEPH: KING OF DREAMS - 5/10

Prince of Egypt but Joseph is also very sweet with lovely animation and a haunting score and songs. Plus, I love that cat.