Joseph: King of Dreams

Reviewed by: L.C.
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:	Excellent!
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:	Family
Genre:	Biblical Animation
Length:	1 hr. 14 min.
Year of Release:	2000
USA Release:

Featuring	voices of Ben Affleck, Mark Hamill, Steven Weber, Jodi Benson, Maureen McGovern, James Eckhouse, Judith Light, Richard Herd, David Campbell
Director	Rob LaDuca, Robert C. Ramirez
Producer
Distributor	DreamWorks Pictures, aka DreamWorks Studios, a production label of Amblin Partners

DreamWorks (“The Prince of Egypt”) retells the biblical story of Joseph as chronicled in the book of Genesis (chapters 37 and 39-46).

My family really liked this movie. Although the visual effects were not as outstanding as in “The Prince of Egypt”, the storyline does stay closer to the biblical version

Potential objectionable elements were minor. The only questionable scene was when Joseph is having a feast/party for his brothers, some women with alluring dress come dancing down to serve the food.

In interpreting dreams, Joseph does give praise to God one time for his ability (“Not me, your excellency; my explanation comes from God”).

The music was enjoyable, especially the song “You Know Better Than I” which addresses God’s loving omniscience and knowing what’s best for us. I was especially touched by the prison scene when Joseph accepts God’s will for his life. The song “You’ve got to pick whatever grows at your feet” is another positive message encouraging us to make the most of every situation.

“Joseph” was impressive, and I am thankful for another great Christian movie from Dreamworks! Someone is finally making movies that we don’t have to be “afraid” to show the children! This movie and “Prince of Egypt” are also good resources to begin a family Bible study. We discuss the movie and then read the story from the Bible and compare the differences in the movie and the biblical story. I highly recommend “Joseph” for family viewing.

Joseph was a fairly accurate and entertaining direct to video bible story. The songs don’t compare to those in “Prince of Egypt”, but for a direct to video production it was fairly good. Like the song You Know Better Than I a lot. The seduction by Potiphar’s wife is handled very delicately. Good animation for direct to video. Would have like it to be a little longer and character explored in more depth. But overall very good. My Ratings: [Good / 4]

KJB, age 29

…I watched this movie with my family after greatly enjoying Dreamworks Prince of Egypt. I was not to be dissappointed. There were a few times that I thought the movie was out of line, but then I checked it up in my Bible and found out a few things about Joseph that I didn’t even know. The storyline is quite good, and the artistic freedom that they warn you about at the beginning of the movie, in my opinion does not change the movie very much. If there is a drawback it is the lack of the mention that God is the giver of dream interpretations. Joseph only mentions once that God is the one who gives him the answers. But from a Christian perspective the movie is excellent. I am a children’s ministry leader in my church and I would not hesitate to show this movie to all of my kids…

Vern Toews, age 34

Being a direct-to-video release, don’t expect this to be at the quality level of “Prince of Egypt”. In particular, everyone in my family agreed that the songs were not anywhere near as good, and in fact at times I found myself wanting to fast-forward through what seemed the seemingly interminable poorly written songs. Compared with most Bible-based animated features however, it fares very, very well. My Ratings: [Excellent / 3½]

Timothy Blaisdell, age 37