In fact, the only character in the film that is fully realized from beginning to end is Rameses. When Moses returns to Egypt for the classic deliverance, he is lost in a bombardment of plague scenes and the climactic Red Sea miracle. The only moment in the second half of the film where Moses s character gains back our sympathies is when he breaks down after the killing of the firstborn, his spirit crushed by the enormity of the curse. At the end, as he brings God s law down to the people, he has become something of a flannelgraph figure again. We do not even get to see his face, to see the weight of the new challenges ahead of him, to see the finished product the man that the tribulations have sculpted for us.
Kids expect constant jokes from animated movies.
They don t care about fully realized characters. And thus, for those of us who see what the film could have been if it had refrained from condescending to spoiled cartoon brats, it s almost tragic. There are so many miracles in this marvelous movie that have nothing to do with the animation. The animation is, of course, excellent and at times truly spectacular. The music, with the exception of one big mistake, is suitable to the film s epic scale and, at times, achieves operatic melodrama that actually moved me.