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Home Subscribe About Us Features News Album Reviews Movie Reviews Past Movies Movie Resources Concert Reviews Book Reviews Top 10 Contact Us	The Ten Commandments (DVD-animated) Voices of: Christian Slater, Alfred Molina, Elliott Gould, and Ben Kingsley as the narrator Director: Bill Boyce Screenplay: Ed Naha Composer: Reg Powell Promenade Pictures Rated: PG for mild peril Running Length: 88 minutes www.10commandmentsmovie.com The Ten Commandments is the beginning of a series of animated films of stories of the Bible. This particular film closely follows the Cecil B. De Mille Ten Commandments version that Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter and Yvonne De Carlo starred in. Animation, here, is well done, utilizing a flat style in which characters have slightly elongated features, but background has a three-dimensional effect. Thus, when Moses is trying to escape Pharaoh's guards and the animation process goes past the figure of Moses, the scene has depth. The same with the scene of the parting of the Red Sea. iVL Animation is the imaginative company. To tell the life of Moses (voice of Christian Slater) in less than 90 minutes is a task, so the storyline moves briskly. We begin with the Israelites as captives in Egypt. The edict is given to kill Hebrew babies, so Moses' mother hides him in a basket and Moses (the name given to him by Pharaoh's daughter, a princess) is found and adopted. He is raised as an Egyptian prince, but can't inherit anything. Ramses (voice of Alfred Molina), the Pharaoh's real son is the heir and never lets anyone forget it. The story then follows Moses being exiled from Egypt, meeting Zipporah who becomes his wife, and Moses being chosen by God (voice of Elliott Gould) to lead the people of Israel from Egypt into the Promised Land. There are the plagues, the most impressive one being the loss of Egypt's first-born sons and Ramses, now the Pharaoh, finally deciding to let the people go. We see the large group through the parting of the Red Sea, the casting of the golden calf and life-long friendship between Moses and his older siblings, Aaron and Miriam. Several times, I caught a modern language phrase creeping into the dialogue, such as "stranger in a strange land." It sounded out-of-place in this Biblical story. The voices. though, are wonderfully done, and pronunciation is top-notch. Humor is provided by the complaining of Dathan, who is the thorn-in-the-side to Moses and Aaron. This character was portrayed by Edgar G. Robinson in the De Mille film. Soundtrack by Reg Powell is lush and could stand on its own as an orchestral suite. In fact, that is what catches your attention when the film begins, that this is no humor-animated film, but something serious with a story to tell. If a person had no previous contact with Biblical stories and saw this film, they would gain some view into the life of Moses and what the Ten Commandments are. This version of The Ten Commandments is for the entire family. Promenade's next film release in 2009 is The Flood. Copyright 2008 Marie Asner Submitted 3/6/08 .