The animation had a wild year in 1998. Disney has released the musical packed with Mulan action, which broke out a new terrain in the presentation of Asian-American animation. Meanwhile, Pixar followed the "Toy Story" with the "Life of the Bug" and showed that the CGI animation was (for better and worse) to stay here, even as "Pokémon: The First Film" took Pokémania to new heights and ended the box office records. Most importantly, it was the year when Disney's dominance over the American animation landscape really began to fall apart, with three different studios that made their feature debitations for animation that year: Nickelodeon with "Rugates", "Warner Bros.". "Antz" (his response to "Bug Life") and "Prince of Egypt".

The last bit is particularly important. While Nickelodeon's films did not adhere to the theater features for a very long time (with the exception of his extensions "Spongebob Squarepants") and "Warner Bros", the animation similarly gave him a priority Disney's biggest rival (and rewards) rival. Moreover, although "Antz" came out first, it was the "Prince of Egypt" that made the biggest greeting, winning the best original song of the Oscars and considered one of the best American animated films of all time. And to think about it happened because of a suggestion by Steven Spielberg.

This story was told so many times in the 1990s that it became almost a mythical, at least according to the 1998 work Washington Post. As the story goes, when Effeefrey Katenberg met with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to begin the discussion that eventually led to the founding of DreamWorks SKG, the former Studio head of Walt Disney, was looking forward to expanding the range of Animated Movies. Indeed, Katenberg cited films such as "Indiana Ons: Thieves of the lost casket" and "Terminator" as a kind of films that can be made in animation, watching as a medium is everything for audience transportation to new worlds and presenting all kinds of fantastic concepts and visual.

"I said:" More than anything else, I would like to make a movie that has the epic cinema and the volume of my favorite film "Lawrence of Arabia" and the intimacy of what David Lane has done in telling the story, "Katzenberg said. "

Much of what makes "Prince of Egypt" such a special film is how seriously treats his subject. Just like "Hunchback of Notre Dame" remains one of Disney's darkest and most mature films Similarly done, "Prince of Egypt" One of the best things made by DreamWorks And, of course, the most ambitious film of the studio. Katzenberg reportedly tried to make an animated adaptation to Disney's "ten commandments", but was repeatedly rejected by then CEO Michael Eisner because of the religious aspect of the story. However, in DreamWorks and with Steven "I made the definitive film of the Holocaust" Spielberg for its part, Katenberg could have made an animated Bible EP in the style of big live productions of the 1950s.

"Steven had the idea, and David (GEFEN) was the one who said, 'If you do that, you can't say a fairy tale. You have to go for it with a sense of respect and integrity that no one has done in modern times." It was instinctive brilliance, "" Katzenberg once told of Times. In order to bring the epic story to life, Katenberg also approached former Walt Disney animation and amblimation, eventually collected a 350 -man crew for the film.

All that art is shown in every frame of the film. "Prince of Egypt" is a real EP, a movie that captures the magnificence of ancient Egypt And one of the few legitimately great films on the subject. Holy temples and monuments fill the background of almost every footage, reminiscent of the characters of the film and the audience of the achievements of this civilization without hiding many, very enslaved people whose work made those achievements possible. The result is not only a stunning visual achievement, but also a phenomenal mixture of traditional hand -drawn and computer animation, with the splitting of the sequence of seas looks better than most big budget films today.

The story maintains a dramatic and serious tone for the duration of the film, also giving up comic relief and tramples even when addressing the theme of infantide. As a whole, the "Prince of Egypt" felt like a continuation and the next step in the trend that Disney started in the mid-1990s with "Porahontas" and the aforementioned "Hunchback of Notre Dame".

That was, in other words, a film designed to bring a new era of animation ... except.

"Prince of Egypt" tried to reach a wider, adult audience. DreamWorks even avoided a marketing campaign filled with fast food and submitted a renunciation of a film that states: "While an art and historical license has been downloaded, we believe this film is true of the essence, values and integrity of the story that is the cornerstone of the faith of millions of people."

Although the film was a hit, he was supposed to be more than that. In an interview with Polygon To mark the 20th anniversary of the film, co-director Brenda Chapman, the first woman to direct an animated film from a big studio, said the hope is that the film will break the mold, reach an older audience and allow DreamWorks to "bring to America all different types".

"What about an animated film with a rating r? Unfortunately, as he said, "we failed."

Really. In the next few years, we would get a wave of animated films that dared to break the mold of the study ticket (read: Disney) and made different stories of genres. Attempts were made with films such as "Ironeles Giant", "Dinosaur", "Road to El Dorado", "Titan Ae" and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". These were films that introduced new tones, though none were as mature and serious as the "Prince of Egypt". Unfortunately, those films were not thrilled with the audience, and the studio like Disney withdrew. Then came the last nail in that casket, when "Shrek" and his Scottish accent They dominated the box office, the conversation and the prizes season, encouraging DreamWorks and the entire industry to get stuck with smart, self -conscious animated comedies for a decade.