Saturday, April 11, 1998

Religious leaders had input into animated film about Moses

By Mark I. Pinsky / The Orlando Sentinel

Starting Friday at sundown, Jewish families will celebrate Passover by gathering around the dinner table to tell the story of Moses, Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues during a ritual meal called the Seder.

However, Hollywood's latest version of the central historial event for Jewish people won't hit movie screens until December.

With a $60 million-$70 million budget, more than 300 animators, artists and technicians are putting the final touches on Dreamworks Pictures' "The Prince of Egypt," an animated retelling of the Passover story.

For the movie's screenwriters and producers, the delicate balance was to simplify the story for a mass audience Ñ including children Ñ without oversimplifying.

In an effort that former PBS movie critic Michael Medved called unprecedented, the producers have reached out to hundreds of religious leaders from a spectrum of faiths to make sure they have the story right. About 50 of the religious leaders' suggestions were accepted, according to Dreamworks. But, most importantly, those involved said they got a fair hearing.

Many of the movie's elements were considered, from the grand to the trivial: What the voice of God should sound like; how much of the Exodus story should be covered; whether to show Pharaoh's backside or nubile maidens bathing Moses.

"No one has ever done this before," Medved said, "It's precisely the type of reaching across dividing lines that America desperately needs."

Dreamworks is exceptionally tight-lipped about the film except for some early promotional hype describing it as "an epic drama of heritage and destiny."

With a musical score by Hans Zimmer ("Lion King") and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz ("Pocahontas"), The Prince of Egypt features the voices of Val Kilmer and Michelle Pfeiffer. The title character is, in the words of a press release, "born a slave. Raised by kings. Chosen to lead. His story is known around the world; his name is revered by millions . . . Moses."

There is, of course, more to the saga. Both Jews and Christians revere the Book of Exodus, which tells the story of the first Passover. Jewish scholars and rabbis as far away as Jerusalem were consulted extensively in preparing the script.

But Dreamworks took the consultations a step further by talking to Christians as well.

Dreamworks' principals Ñ Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen Ñ are Jewish, and a significant minority holding in the studio belongs to several South Koreans. Despite this Ñ or because of it Ñ Katzenberg and Spielberg consulted with hundreds of evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders.

"They really made an exemplary and good faith effort," said Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin, head of a Seattle group called Toward Tradition. But he emphasized that he viewed the film "as entertainment, not religious instruction."

More than two years ago, Dreamworks began inviting and paying for groups of religious leaders to attend daylong briefings at the company's facilities at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. During the meetings, Katzenberg's assistants used storyboards to outline the movie's plot, displayed sketches of the characters and showed 35 minutes of rough animation.

Following the meetings, the religious leaders voiced some concerns. For example, one participant thought ending the film with the crossing of the Red Sea eliminated some of the strongest religious experiences, including Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.

Katzenberg said the crossing of the Red Sea was a logical dramatic climax to the film, but did not rule out a sequel that would include the events at Mount Sinai.

"They understand that if they're going to appeal to the Judeo-Christian audience and make this movie successful, they must be true to the biblical account," said the Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition in Anaheim, Calif. "The overall thrust of the story is true to the person of Moses, how God called him and how Moses responded."

Others who have seen "The Prince of Egypt" agreed.

"Spielberg and Katzenberg got this one right because they intended to," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell, predicting that it will create an interest in the Bible.

"Dreamworks has been very open to constructive criticism and has worked very hard to make this a positive contribution to American families," he said. "Where they do use hyperbole it does no damage to the message."

Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, said there is some concern that the involvement of religious leaders may backfire at the box office if people see the movie as a propaganda vehicle or an effort to court conservative moviegoers.

"I don't think there's any danger of that," said Medved, who has written extensively on the cultural politics of Hollywood. "This goes way beyond a marketing ploy. What Jeffrey (Katzenberg) has done is to demonstrate that respect, inclusiveness and diversity ... does not mean selling your soul to the religious right."

Others are not so sure.

"They want to capitalize on religion Ñ because religion is hot Ñ but they don't want to offend," said Todd Gitlin, author of "Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars" (Holt).

Some of the same evangelical and fundamentalist Christians Dreamworks consulted have been vociferous in criticizing the content of Disney films and Disney-owned ABC-TV shows, books and personnel policies.

The 15.2 million-member Southern Baptist Convention voted last summer to boycott Disney theme parks and products, citing what it said was the entertainment giant's "anti-family policies."

In the face of these boycotts Disney spokesmen have consistently dismissed religious leaders' concerns. Dreamworks has taken the opposite approach.

"There was no reason not to accommodate them," the film's producer Penney Finkelman Cox told the Los Angeles Times.

That response made sense to Christian leaders.

"Whenever someone wants to deal with issues that are of extreme importance to a faith community, it just makes good sense to try to get the input of that community in order to not needlessly offend them," said the Rev. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is spearheading a Disney boycott.

"Clearly," Land said, "there is an enormous market out there for entertainment that affirms the basic values of the faith community, and that is wholesome viewing for the whole family."

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(c) 1998, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

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