Review of Joseph: King Of Dreams: Special Edition

Introduction

Those familiar with the animated creations of the DreamWorks team will no-doubt remember their classic movie “The Prince of Egypt”. This lesser known, straight to video/DVD title “Joseph King of Dreams” was in development at the same time as “The Prince…” and many of the animation and scripting staff were involved in both titles. Therefore there is a common appearance to both movies, and a high quality of animation and vocal talent throughout.

Harking back to Genesis (the first book in the Bible), this movie tells the story of Joseph, his amazing coat, his brothers and his struggle to be accepted as a ‘normal’ boy. Given the amazing ability by God to interpret dreams, Joseph is treated by his father Jacob as a miracle child, much to the indignation of his twelve brothers. Trouble for Joseph comes when his increasingly envious brothers arrange for Joseph to meet with an unfortunate ‘accident’. Poor old Jacob is fooled into thinking that Joseph has been attacked and killed by wolves, and it is not long after this that Joseph begins a new life as a slave.

There now follows a rich tapestry of adventure, mystery and sheer miracle as Joseph goes from slave to the heady heights of Pharaoh’s understudy and confidant.

But there was one thing that Joseph never counted on seeing again. His brothers…

Video

This 1.85 anamorphic presentation is of very good quality with superbly accurate, deep colours with no visible artifacting or grain. Bright colours and tones come over convincingly and the ever-changing backgrounds are well captured and convincing. Chief background artist for this movie, for those who have in interest in such matters, was Japanese supremo Nizo Yamamoto, whose previous work has included the sumptuous epic “Princess Mononoke”. He manages to convey great feeling and artistry into his background artwork and it adds much to the overall look of this movie.

Audio

The DD5.1 track (there’s also a Pro-Logic track available) is lively and involving with a clear vocal channel standing out from the ambient effects and soundtrack. Whilst unfortunately not up to the same standard of “The Prince…” the movie’s various songs are pleasant enough and suitably match the happenings on-screen.

A key feature that needed addressing was the change in Joseph’s voice from a 17 year-old boy to a well-seasoned 34 year-old man. This particular challenge fell upon talented actor Ben Affleck who is utterly convincing in this, his first animated movie. The other vocal talents, amongst many others, include Mark Hamill, Jodi Benson and James Eckhouse. All give good performances and are good choices for the various roles they play on-screen.

Features

For the little ones, there are some good extras included here.

Firstly, we have a well presented read-along and sing-along section. Here the most popular parts of the story are presented in an easy-to-use menu format, and allow various sections to be read on-screen. There are also three of the movie’s key songs to listen and sing-along to.

Also included is a trivia game that, through a series of multiple-choice questions, quizzes the viewer on key scenes from the movie. This is challenging for the younger members of the family, but once mastered will probably be forgotten. Fun for a while though, just as long as irritating American phrases such as ‘Good Job’ don’t annoy you too much.

There is a storybook presentation that offers a chance to hear from the filmmakers as they discuss their original animation sketches, including one deleted scene and a never-before-heard song, This is quite an interesting extra with some great artwork being displayed. The deleted scene and song, however, are pretty poor in relation to what was included in the final cut and something of a disappointment.

Also included is the original theatrical trailer, some interesting production notes and some cast and crew biographies.

Finally, there are some DVD-ROM extras including a print-and-colour picture of Joseph’s beautiful coat, a concentration game, a word search and maze to print and conquer, and some web links to on-line events. A nice collection of games to play on your PC and a good way for your youngsters to learn more about the movie and have some fun too.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed this animated adaptation of one of the Bible’s most popular stories. It is not as exciting or crowd-pleasing as “The Prince…” but nevertheless is as similarly well animated and directed. It tells the story of Joseph in a light-hearted, but sincere way and does follow the book of Genesis fairly accurately, with only a few parts amended for impact.

I would whole heartedly recommend this movie for fans of “The Prince…” or for those seeking an easy way to introduce this classic Bible story to their young family. It is certainly an entertaining 75 minutes and has a good range of quality added value extra features.

I am looking forward immensely to DreamWork’s next animated offering – it’d be great to see their adaptation of the life of Jesus for example. They have some amazing talent in their animation department and as such are showing themselves as serious rivals to Disney.

The famous mouse must be very worried indeed.