April 11, 2022
The Prince of Egypt / Ardbeg 10
Bob and Brad ring in the week of Passover and Easter with Dreamworks Animation's 1998 film The Prince of Egypt. Much like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this is a less-discussed animated film from their childhood that also plays much better to an adult audience. Full of breathtaking imagery and a faithful adherence to source texts, the only real quibbles to get into involve some of the vocal performances.
Meanwhile, our hosts sample the second in their line of four whiskies from Ardbeg, this time the flagship ten-year expression. Bob calls this the whisky that made him realize peated scotches weren't all bad. Will Brad agree?
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Theme music: "New Shoes" by Blue Wednesday
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Transcript
Brad
In 1998, DreamWorks Animation Studios gave the world a legendary retelling of one of the world's most famous stories.
Bob
In 2022, we try our second week of Ardbeg products.
The film is The Prince of Egypt, the whiskey is Ardbeg 10, and we'll review them both.
Brad
This is the Film and Whiskey Podcast.
Bob
Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.
I'm Bob Book.
I'm Brad Gee.
And this week we are looking at a movie that Brad has been hyping up for years and years on this show, 1998's The Prince of Egypt.
Rameses
Abandon this futile mission, Moses.
I've indulged you long enough.
This must now be finished.
God
No, Rameses.
Bob
It is only beginning.
Brad, Bob, what have you to say for yourself, sir?
Brad
I mean, this is this is your movie.
This is one of those movies that I didn't grow up, like, watching a ton of.
Like, you know, I was a little more like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin.
You know, watch those a little more often.
Lion King.
I remember watching this as a kid and really liking it.
And then I remember coming back to it in college and being like, oh, my gosh, this movie is like spectacular.
And then, you know, about 10 years later, my wife and I sit down and I'm like, you know, we should watch we should watch The Prince of Egypt.
I remember that being like really epic.
And oh, my gosh, dude, it it just grew on me even more.
So now, like coming into this, this is probably my fourth time watching it, I would guess.
Every time I watch this film, it grows even more on me.
And so I I'm at a point where I'm like, this is one of the best animated features ever created.
Bob
Yeah, man, I have a lot of thoughts on this movie.
I think we can go in a lot of different directions.
And I think we're going to have a pretty jam packed episode today.
So I'm excited to dive right in.
I will say at the top here, you know, I don't want to speak for you, Brad, but I think that when I listen to you talk about this movie, I think it has a very similar kind of history with you as The Hunchback of Notre Dame did for me.
I don't think I ever saw that movie growing up as a kid.
And my sisters swear that I did, but I don't remember it.
And I watched it as an adult and I was like, oh, my gosh, like the themes are incredible and the animation is incredible.
And wow, this is just hitting me on such an emotional level.
And and I feel like I've hyped that movie up to so many adults.
And, you know, we kind of in that episode, we talked a lot about how this is definitely not a movie that is going to like really be riveting to a five year old or maybe even appropriate for a five year old.
And I would say that that Prince of Egypt is definitely falling in that category as well.
This was even back then marketed toward a little bit older of an audience as opposed to your typical Disney type fare.
But, Brad, I do think that just hearing you talk about it, I think a lot of what I said about Hunchback is probably going to be true for you about this movie.
Brad
Yeah, there were a few moments in watching this movie where I was like, oh, that like it kind of reminds me of Hunchback a little bit and not really in themes or story or anything.
But there's a few moments where you're like, oh, this is like more adult content than you're used to seeing in a children's animated film.
Yeah, that's an understatement, man.
Well, and like DreamWorks knew this and they actually for the like this was one of the first movies that was really an animated film that was heavily marketed towards adults.
There wasn't really like a toy line that came out with this, maybe a kids book that was like a storybook that came out.
And other than that, they they basically put their chops on like, you know what?
We're making a really grounded, intense, dramatic film for adults that just so happens to be drawn by people rather than acted out in person.
And and honestly, they were successful at it.
They like they knocked it out of the park.
We can get into Hunchback comparisons later.
I think that the big comparison for me is that this movie feels smooth compared to Hunchback.
Like the story of this movie flows so much more easily and doesn't feel as disjointed and long winded.
And it just kind of jumps back and forth.
And I guess the second small thing I would say is there's no gargoyles in this movie.
There are no gargoyles.
Bob
So I do disagree with you, but I hear your point.
And I think that, again, we're going to be kind of quibbling in a very similar way that we did to Hunchback, where I really love this movie a lot.
I respect this movie.
I think the animation style may even be a little better than Hunchback, which I think was animated beautifully.
But like, I can tell you're coming out to the ten out of ten on this movie already, Brad, and I'm not going to be there.
So it's going to be interesting to see how our disagreements, I think, on this movie play out over the course of the episode.
And so as we get into the start here, we're going to move into a segment that we like to call Brad Explains.
But before we get there, we do want to encourage you, if this is your first time listening to the show, or if you're a longtime listener, consider supporting us on our Patreon.
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So please go over to our Patreon, patreon.com slash film whiskey.
Brad
I believe it's not safe for work, Bob, but but suitable is a good a good way of putting it.
Oh, that's true.
Bob
Yeah, we are.
We aren't safe, are we?
We like to live dangerously here on the Film and Whiskey Podcast.
Brad
I mean, living on the edge, Bob, every day.
Reviewing children's films.
I was going to say Brad Explains is pretty simple.
Just go read the book Exodus.
Yeah.
Like not even the whole thing, like the first half.
Bob
Yeah, exactly.
Actually, I don't.
Are you cool not doing Brad Explains today?
I mean, for old time's sake.
Brad
Yeah.
If there's I'll just simplify it and say if nobody has ever read or heard of the story of Moses and the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt, then, you know, Google it.
Bob
It's a really good read.
There it is.
All right, Brad, you have successfully explained the plot of this movie.
Yeah, it's it's an adaptation of the book of Exodus, the story of Moses and God delivering his people from Pharaoh and Egyptian slavery.
And man, oh, man, Brad, I got to say, for the most part, this pretty much just directly lifts the Bible story.
It's a very faithful adaptation, I think, in some ways that might actually detract from the overall quality of the movie for me.
But I will say, like, as opposed to some other biblical themed movies I've seen, like Darren Aronofsky's Noah, like this, this definitely stayed a lot truer to the original text.
Brad
Yeah, I think that's one of the beautiful things about this film is that, you know, if I did do a Brad Explains, I think it would be to point out the beauty of the relationship that is shown between Ramesses and Moses.
I love how they say his name the entire movie.
Three strong syllables.
Bob
It's not Ramsey.
Brad
It's a Ramesses.
Ramesses.
Yeah, man, I think that the way that they take the biblical story and make it personal, like do the line during the the plagues song when Moses says, I am your chosen foe in this matter.
But like he's pointing out the fact that, like, it's not my choice to be your foe.
I am the messenger.
And like, it just highlights this beautiful story that the writers use to, I don't want to say enhance the biblical story.
They use it to make it palatable for a movie.
And they do it in such a way that is honoring to the original biblical text.
And I think that's that's the most important thing for me, you know, as a Christian, as a pastor, as somebody who, you know, cares about accuracy when it comes to our holy scriptures.
And I think that this movie does that in spades.
Bob
So I'll say this because I kind of want to tease.
This is where I want to go in the second half.
Like, I don't think this is a conversation for right now, Brad, but I've really been grappling lately with why I think that movies about the Christian faith that that really deal in the human elements of it seem to work better as movies than the ones that actually tell narratives from the Bible, like where like miraculous things happen.
You know what I mean?
I think that a lot of times movies like that, for some reason, they just don't feel I don't want to say real.
That's obviously not what I mean, but they seem preachier.
They seem a little bit more, I don't know, safe.
They don't you see this miracle?
Yeah, but they also seem very much like we don't want to mess with the original text.
We don't want to, like, challenge anything in that, you know, we're going to take liberties.
And so they often seem very stilted.
They feel very arm's length.
And then I think filmmakers really struggle with how do you portray the miraculous on screen in a way that doesn't feel like you're you're going through a Sunday school lesson.
And I have a theory on why I feel that way.
And I'll get to that in the second half of the episode.
But this movie, I think, for the most part, Brad, does a really good job of striking a balance between, you know, highlighting the human components and the relationships and also portraying a world in which the miraculous can happen.
Brad
Well, and that's the beautiful thing about animation.
For some reason, it bridges the gap between the imagination and reality in such a way that I don't think you can do a live action version of this movie without at some level feeling the falsehood, the the unreality of CGI.
And I think that's where a lot of Star Wars has fallen into the trap of.
I think that Marvel falls into the trap of thinking that CGI solves all your problems.
And so with that being in mind, when you take the story of the Bible and it could be any story of the Bible and you use an animated medium to express the stories, I think it allows the human brain to just kind of relax a little bit and and open up its imagination to like, what if this was true?
And really, I think that's what that's what faith is all about, Bob.
Like it's sitting back and saying, well, the Bible tells me this and my Christian friends tell me this or, you know, really any faith.
They tell me these ideas and faith is saying, you know, I can't be like 100% sure if it's true, but I'm going to believe it as if it's true anyways.
And for whatever reason, I think animation gives you an avenue to do that more easily than live action.
Bob
I think that's a great point, man.
And I think let's talk a little bit about the background of this movie, since we're already diving into the filmmaking.
This was the second film released under the DreamWorks Animation heading after Antz with a Z.
Brad
But interestingly enough, the first film they started working on.
Bob
Yeah, right.
It was this was the the let it be of DreamWorks Animation.
And Antz was their Abbey Road, you know.
So so Spielberg had been working, you know, for decades to really try to break into the animation game.
His studio Amblin had an animation arm in the 80s that they called Amblamation.
That's that's a great name.
Oh, it's so good.
Bob
Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?
Bob
They produced like the American Tale movies.
He worked a lot with Don Bluth.
And then eventually, like he had the the juice, the clout in Hollywood to just go ahead and form his his own studio altogether with DreamWorks.
It was a partnership between him and Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, three of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.
And that's why for a long time, when you saw the DreamWorks title, it said DreamWorks SKG underneath it.
That was for the three founders of the studio.
I did not know that.
Yeah.
So I got to say, man, they are very transparently, I think, trying to immediately establish themselves as like big, serious animation studio here, right?
Like, well, it doesn't get more serious than like we are going to adapt the Exodus story.
They took like, you know, and Disney had been going like the Lion King was very serious.
Pocahontas, for the most part, was pretty serious.
Notre Dame was really serious.
And Spielberg is like, oh, yeah, you want serious?
How about plagues on Egypt, baby?
Like, yeah, they dove right into it.
Brad
Well, and you want to talk about serious.
I'm just going to read some names to you real quick.
Val Kilmer, Ray Fines, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart.
Is that not enough for you?
Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, Martin Short.
Like, yeah, the cast that they pulled together for this, Bob, is the most wild ensemble of like, yes, they were big in the 80s and 90s.
But I would say that 90 percent of those names are still people that almost anybody in the general public would recognize.
Bob
Right.
And I would argue like not to not to nitpick the movie, right, but kind of unnecessarily a great cast like some of these roles.
It's like, did they really need Danny Glover to come in and read three lines?
Then get his paycheck and leave, dude.
And I think I will say I was going to say Jeff Goldblum playing his most serious role ever.
Like, I really I really wish he had just done part of his Jurassic Park.
Like life finds a way that life always finds a way it really would have fit in here.
Well, man, it would have.
So going back to that voice cast, though, let's start kind of at the top with the role of Moses played by Val Kilmer.
And it is really funny that I watch this movie today because just yesterday, you know, when we're trying to kill time with our kids and I don't feel like watching any more episodes of Bluey, sometimes I'll just click the home screen on my Chromecast and it kind of recommends movies to you that are streaming on many different platforms.
And it recommended a bunch of the Batman movies to us.
And I sometimes we just watch trailers so that my son can get an idea of what the movie's like without me, like terrifying him with the real thing.
And we clicked on the trailer for 1995's Batman Forever, where Val Kilmer plays Batman.
And that movie is God awful and I don't like it.
And I think Kilmer is a really lifeless Batman in that movie.
And part of what makes him such a bad Batman is that his voice has no variance to it.
Like it never goes up and down.
There's no tenor or timbre to his voice.
It's just very much whether he's Bruce Wayne or Batman.
It's just Alfred.
And I will say, man, like as Moses, Val Kilmer is kind of the weak link of this cast.
I don't know if you agree with me.
I don't think he's that good in this movie.
I think he's a pretty bad voice actor.
Funnily enough, he also plays the voice of God in this movie, and his voice is so much more well-suited to that kind of like more lofty language, ethereal, almost robotic sounding voice of God than it is to Moses.
God
I don't understand.
I am the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
You were born of my mother, you are our brother.
Moses
What do you want with me?
Bob
I don't know if you agree with me there, but I really do think among the principal actors in this movie, they probably could have gotten someone a little bit more charismatic than Kilmer.
Brad
I agree with you on a small level.
I do think that he is the worst of the main actors.
And I mean, really, you're talking about Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, maybe Sandra Bullock, like Miriam has a decent amount of lines, but it's it's really Val Kilmer and Ralph Fiennes in this movie.
And I think that compared to Ralph Fiennes, he is not that great.
But I would disagree that he doesn't have any variation in his voice, that he doesn't have any emotion.
I think there's a lot of moments throughout the movie when he's talking to Ramses and he kind of calls him out and often will have this longing, this yearning for the days gone by.
And I think it's in those moments where I think Val Kilmer shines as an actor.
I think it's sometimes when he's trying to be serious that you're right.
He comes across a little more flat, a little more almost like a drudgery for him to be delivering the lines compared to the when, like I said, when he's excited when they're young and they're doing the chariot race and he's excited and laughing like you feel the energy there.
And when he's trying to reconnect to that vibe when the plagues have finished and he's talking to Ramses, it makes more sense there as well.
But I'm with you.
He is not the best choice for Moses.
I do love their decision, though, to have him voice God.
And like the whole idea behind that was that in every other media depiction of God before, somebody else voiced God than the character who was listening to God's voice.
And they kind of decided that there would be something interesting to layer on these other voices when when Val Kilmer is speaking as God, but also to be open about the fact that, like, yes, this is Val Kilmer's voice.
And often when we hear the voice of God in our lives, it can sound like our own voice.
And I thought that that was a really neat touch.
Bob
Yeah, I agree with that 100 percent.
And then on the other side of things, Brad, is your boy Ralph Fiennes, who you voted as the greatest animated vocal performance ever back in, I think, season one when we did that top five.
That might have been like our first or second top five.
I think so.
You know how early on in the podcast it was?
I'm pretty sure we forgot to drink a whiskey on that episode.
We did not go down the checklist of like, you know, our our podcast is called Film and Whiskey.
We have to check for two things.
And we were like, we got the movies.
Let's go.
We nailed it.
All right.
Let's talk a little bit about Ralph Fiennes.
He's really good, you know, and I think that even though sometimes this script, it commits two kind of cardinal sins, I guess, in that, like, they they work overtime to make Ramsey's remeses a really, really, really sympathetic character.
But then at the end of the movie where you need to understand that his stubbornness and wrath has consumed him, I think it almost feels like too sudden of a flip to make him as wrathful and obstinate as he is.
And I think despite that, I think Ralph Fiennes does a really good job.
Oh, I think that's a silly take, Bob.
Dude, Moses, my take is that he's really good.
Brad
What's what's silly about that?
No, the the the idea that the transition happens too suddenly.
The moment for me that I just can't get over in this movie is when Moses and Ramsey's are are talking.
It's the end of the plagues.
And Moses goes to him one last time.
He says, look, man, like you have to let us go.
Otherwise, like this is it's really going to go down.
This is all child's play compared to where we're going next.
And as soon as Moses looks at his son, you see Ramsey's close his eyes, open them up, and they are completely bitter and angry.
And the vocal performance in that moment is perfect.
And so for me, from there on out, it totally makes sense.
The transition for Ramsey's from, you know, sympathetic character to like, no, I'm bitter.
You've destroyed my people.
And I will not be the weak link in this chain.
And I for me that it totally made sense.
The hardening of Pharaoh's heart.
Bob
So if you don't mind, let me kind of steer us in a different direction for a minute, because like the rest of the vocal performances are are fine.
And I mean, I don't know.
Nobody really stood out to me is really bad.
But I also don't know that anyone else is substantive enough in this movie that we need to, like, spend five minutes talking about them.
Brad
So I'm just going to mention Patrick Stewart as the first Pharaoh.
Dude, his voice.
Come on, man.
Bob
I believe his name was Pharaoh Picard the first, right?
Brad
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, it's aliens, obviously.
Bob
So I do think, Brad, that I really want to hear your opinion on this.
Obviously, in certain places, because this is a 90 minute movie, they have to condense certain things about the story and they have to take a few liberties just to kind of make the story make sense.
Right.
And some of the places where they take these liberties are in the introduction of like major narrative plot elements, like the first time Moses runs into his sister Miriam and his brother Aaron.
And Miriam's like, don't you know who you are, man?
And Moses is like, what are you talking about?
And then again, at the end of the movie, in this scene you're talking about where Moses just kind of, you know, waltzes right into the the palace of the Pharaoh and happens to find him mulling over all these plagues.
And I do think that in a lot of ways, the the content of those scenes is necessary.
Like you need to have another conversation between Pharaoh and Moses.
You need to have the reveal by Miriam to Moses of who he is.
Like you have to have those story elements.
But I think sometimes the way that they get those characters together in a room is like not even contrived.
It's almost like so easy that you're wondering, like, how did this happen?
And like when when Moses is just kind of immediately granted audience with Pharaoh, the first time he comes back to Egypt, I really love their interaction where, you know, Ramses is still like hugging his brother and like, where you been, man?
And that's great.
But when you start to think about some of the like the logistics of the whole thing, it's like, man, even after Moses was starting to bring pestilence upon his people, like he seems to have really easy access to to Pharaoh and like to the point where he can just like walk in in the middle of the night and everyone's like, it's cool.
They used to be brothers, like, just go let him talk.
And so I think for me, like some of those elements of the movie, even if you had like 10 more seconds to set up like Moses snuck past a guard or Moses gets stopped by a guard and Pharaoh still lets him come in so that he can berate him or something like it would have just strengthened the writing of those scenes a little bit more for me.
Brad
Well, I Bob, I don't know if I could disagree with you more.
I think that the very first time he really interacts with Pharaoh after the plague starts is once the plague of darkness has fallen and he goes to the temple.
And for me, like they show a scene of the guards barely being able to hold on to their their spears and shields because of the boils and the different plagues going on.
And for me, it almost feels like the lack of guards and the ease of which Moses enters the palace shows how devastating these plagues have been.
And that's a fair point.
Bob
Yeah.
Brad
Yeah.
Like the moment of him walking in the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.
First off, it's perfect.
Oh, we'll we'll get to that, man.
Oh, yeah.
Second off, dude, when he's walking into the palace and the the artistic scenes of like the big shots of the palace and the soundtrack is just mournful and you feel you feel in that moment that Moses is not just going to see Ramses.
He's also mourning his childhood.
It's just perfect.
And I just love it.
And I think it's artistic and beautiful.
And the last thing that I'm thinking about in my brain is like, what was it?
There's some guards there to make fun of me.
Bob
Gosh, I'm just saying.
Brad
Oh, but it's so much fun, Bob.
Moses
A greater Egypt than that of my father.
That is not what I see.
Moses, I cannot change what you see.
I have to maintain the ancient traditions.
I bear the weight of my father's crown.
Do you still not understand what said he was?
God
He was a great leader.
His hands bore the blood of thousands of children, slaves, my people.
And I can no longer hide in the desert while they suffer.
At your hands.
Moses
So you have returned only to free them.
Bob
I will say I'm with you in that.
I think this movie has so many layers to it and so many themes that it could have gone further in exploring.
Like I would not have minded one bit if this movie was 15 minutes longer.
It's cool that it's an hour and a half, but in some ways it really left me wanting more in a good way.
And in some ways it left me wanting more in that.
Like, I think it would have been an even stronger movie if they developed it a little bit more.
Brad
I'm actually with you, man.
I think that this movie could have used just another 10 minutes or so.
I don't even know what they could have added to it because I do think it's a perfect movie, but I wish there was more of it.
Bob
I'll tell you where they could have put that 10 minutes.
And this is probably like my biggest nitpick.
And then, you know, from here on out, I have almost entirely universally positive things to say about this movie.
But I think if there's one chunk or segment of the movie that suffers the most, it is the Moses as Simba running away into the wilderness motif.
And I was going to say this earlier with Val Kilmer.
I think the comparisons I'm going to make about this movie from now on are that it is really, really, really similar to The Lion King.
From certain shots in the movie to the overall hero's journey to the voice acting, where I think Val Kilmer and Matthew Broderick are like, suffer from the same kind of monotonous delivery to the Hans Zimmer score.
It's just Spielberg saw The Lion King and was like, OK, I see what you're doing.
Watch this.
And he tried to one up everything The Lion King did.
But I think the fact that this movie is structured so similarly to The Lion King means that that segment, the Timon and Puba type segment, also suffers.
And if you've heard me talk about The Lion King before, I think that's a really necessary alleviation of the heaviness and depressive stuff that's going on.
But it also is like it's a huge tonal shift in the movie.
And I think that in this movie, what really pulled me out of it, Brad, was, you know, if you read the Bible, Moses runs off into the wilderness and it says he was in the wilderness for 40 years before he goes back and tells Pharaoh to let his people go.
And in this movie, he's in the wilderness long enough to get married and grow a slight beard.
And then he's like, I'm back, baby.
Like, I and I think, honestly, you know, there's a there's a cool little montage with the Danny Glover song where he's learning about his heritage and he's kind of embracing this way of life out in the wilderness.
But I just needed like five more minutes of that.
I needed a little bit more of him grappling with like, here's who I have been.
Here's who I am being called to be.
Here are here's me grappling with the sins of my father and the sins of myself in letting these things happen and really kind of taking a little bit more ownership of his responsibility to lead these people.
I thought that, like, visually, the setup of Moses being called at the burning bush was like incredible.
And even that conversation with God, I mean, it's, you know, almost entirely lifted out of Exodus.
It works really well.
But it just kind of felt like, OK, he's in the desert.
He's dying.
He gets rescued by a camel.
He gets brought to this thing.
He's married within four minutes.
And then he's at the burning bush.
And then God's like, go now.
And he's back in Egypt.
And all the way to the end of the movie, there weren't enough moments where you just kind of felt the weight of this responsibility, because that's that's part of what the story of Moses is so compelling for.
Right.
Is that not only did he get plucked from being the oppressor to representing the oppressed, but there's like this whole familial element of like, I'm fighting against my own brother now.
And and there's like little glimpses of it, like after that final plague where Moses just breaks down and cries.
But I'm like, man, I really wish that they had invested like five more minutes in giving me moments like that where I could really relate to the weight of this, you know, Frodo carrying the ring type thing of of Moses having to carry that staff.
Does that make sense?
Yes.
Do the words that I said make sense to you?
I'm not asking if you agree.
Like, do you understand what I'm saying?
Brad
Yeah, I speak English.
I'm capable of comprehending the words that come out of your mouth.
I guess for me, the the whole purpose of the escape to the wilderness is to help us understand that Moses didn't have to go back, that like the calling from God was powerful and important, but he found true peace out in the wilderness.
He found peace with his new family.
And it was his willingness to go back that really shaped him as a character.
If anything, I would agree with you.
I wish that I would have seen a little more of him and Zipporah struggling with the idea of going back.
And they give you a little bit of that.
And I I love the scene where he non audibly explains it to her like that.
That's just a beautiful visual scene with really great music going on in the background.
But yeah, I'm with you.
I think it would have been cool to see him struggle because, you know, if you have read the biblical story, then you would know that Moses initially just flat out refuses God and just says, no, like, I can't do that.
And he doesn't refuse in the sense of I don't want to.
It's in the sense of I'm not good enough.
I can't speak well enough to do it.
And so God says, all right, well, I'm going to send your brother Aaron with you and he will be your mouthpiece.
And like, I'm OK with them not doing that piece of it in the movie.
But I think it would have been worthwhile to invest a little more time in saying Moses really struggled with leaving this peace and comfort to go back to be God's deliverance for his his, you know, extended family.
Bob
And I will say the best part of the being out in the desert chunk of the movie is that montage you get when he's like, I'm going back because, again, it is very, very Lion King.
Right.
Like that moment where Rafiki is like, go ahead and go.
And he starts running off and you get the dun dun dun dun like great Hans Zimmer score.
It's the same thing here.
And you get this montage of on one side of the screen, you're seeing, you know, people under the whip in Egypt.
And then the other half of the screen is this close up of Moses just looking like I'm going to go fuck shit up.
And it is like he looks like like if you didn't know how the story ended, you would think it was like a Django Unchained sort of situation where it's just going to go murder everyone.
And it really does get you pumped to see what's going to happen next.
So I thought that was really well done.
Brad
Now, I like desperately want and hate the idea of seeing a Tarantino adaptation of the Moses.
Moses Unchained, baby.
Let's do it.
Bob
All right, Brad, I think this is a good place for us to hit pause.
Let's try this Ardbeg 10.
What do you say?
Let's get to it.
All right.
So today we are checking out Ardbeg 10 year.
Brad, last week we tried the Ardbeg wee beastie, which is one of their more recent additions to their portfolio.
That was a five year age stated product.
Today we're getting into what is pretty much commonly known as their their standard flagship whiskey, the Ardbeg 10, much like Glenmore and G10 or, you know, LeFroy 10.
This is the thing that really kind of built this brand.
And I'm a huge fan of it.
This was, I think, the second or third pitted scotch I ever tried.
And it was the first one that really made me think, OK, I could get on board with pitted scotch.
Brad, have you ever had Ardbeg 10 before?
I have not had it before this day.
Well, that's exciting because we're going to dive right in.
I don't have too much to say up front here.
Again, Ardbeg is an Isla scotch.
It is a pitted Isla scotch.
This comes in at 92 proof or 46 percent alcohol by volume, which I'm kind of excited about.
Brad
I feel like so many scotches drop in at like 80 to 86 proof.
And so even just jumping up, you know, another six or seven proof up to 92, I'm like, oh, all right.
Yeah, let's let's get a little more kick on it.
Bob
I'm just taking a nosing of it now.
I hope you don't mind if we just kind of jump right into the nose here, Brad.
But I want you to tell me more.
Brad
Can you describe the grass surrounding the distillery?
The terroir.
Bob
How it waves in the breeze.
The heather on the hill.
All right.
Here's why I think I liked this so much, like three years ago when I first tried it.
This smells in the glass like they took a highland scotch and added peat to it.
It has this very nice, soft, floral, you know, not as soft as the Speyside scotch as we had a few weeks ago.
But this one really smells like our favorite Glenmore and G and I, you know, I'm sorry to keep comparing things to Glenmore and G, but I love Glenmore and G that just has that nice layer of peat added to it.
There's a honey sweetness and a floral kind of kick here that they make it a little softer and more inviting for me.
Brad
Yeah, dude, this stuff is amazing.
I think that the first three or four noses I gave it, it was just this super heavy peat.
But, you know, patience is an important thing, especially in the world of whiskey.
As soon as you give it time and you sit with it and you nose it a fifth, sixth, seventh time before taking a sip, it rewards you with this really beautiful orange and cream notes underneath that have hints of like rosemary and like little bits of herbal to it that I am obsessed with.
I think it's phenomenal.
I think that if you are new to the world of peated scotches, be willing to sit on the nose for a lot longer than you think you should, because it will just keep transforming for you.
And once you get used to the peat and you kind of move on from it a little bit, there's some amazing notes going on here.
I'm going to give it a nine out of ten, Bob.
Bob
I am too, Brad.
And I think a lot of times with peated scotch, people get like salted meats on the nose.
And I kind of get that here.
It doesn't have like a really like a really bold kind of burst of cooking bacon or something like that.
But it has underneath that smoke, there is a little bit of a saline element to it as well.
And it just, man, it's so well balanced with that kind of sweet honey note I get as well.
Whoa, whoa, Bob, we're not talking about balance yet.
That's like way down the list.
All right, man, let's give this a sip and see what we think of the taste.
Brad
You know, up front, it's got a little bit of a thin mouth feel, um, but for me, it gets like these really nice, soft, citrusy notes that has a bit of vanilla paired with it that kind of circle together before all of a sudden, like middle of the palate, boom, all like just all the peat in the world that you could ever ask for.
But like before that, I have lots of really nice, sweet notes going on that I'm really enjoying.
Bob
Yeah, I'm kind of with you here, Brad.
Uh, for me, like I hit that middle of the palette and you're right, like all the smoke, all the peat, and it gets this really kind of like piney taste to it.
Like it's, it's, it's not even herbal, it's not vegetal.
It's like, you know, I've, I've talked about this a little bit before, but it has that sort of like smell and I imagine flavor.
I don't know of like when you're like pulling weeds out in the yard, you know what I mean?
There's something that's like a, like a bitter grassy kind of thing.
And I would, I kind of equate that with pine and yet like for going bitter, for going smoky, I feel like there's like a ring around the outside of my tongue that keeps that sort of like floral honeyed note going on that is just enough to counterbalance it so that it doesn't become like an overly bitter drinking experience.
I do think it's a step down from the nose, but I think I'm still going to give it at least a seven and a half on the taste.
I think I'm going to give it an eight out of 10 on the taste.
Brad
And for the finish, man, Bob, like this is just an absolute bomb of Pete.
And as soon as that kind of slows down a little bit, I'm left with these flavors of like savory charcuterie meats, a little bit of like raisins and, and almost like some poultry going on.
Like for me, it gets super savory at the end of the experience.
And I really like it a lot to move from that sweet into the savory with a ton of Pete in the middle.
I think that's interesting and fun and unique.
I'll give it a nine out of 10 on the finish.
Bob
Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and give it an eight out of 10 on the finish.
I do think some of those kind of like more bitter, piney herbal things are still hanging on a little bit here at the end.
Once you swallow, you're left with this really nice layer of sweet smoke.
And man, I got to say, Brad, there's still something about this that when I describe it out loud, it doesn't sound like I would be as big of a fan of it as I am.
It's like they do just enough things to kind of mitigate.
You know, the, the components of it that people might not like, and it really balances out well.
And I keep saying that word balance, but yeah, I'm gonna give it an eight out of 10 on the finish on the balance.
Since I've said it so many times, I think I'm going to bump it up to a nine out of 10.
This is a well-balanced whiskey and it kind of does everything you want it to do to introduce the level of Pete that this thing has.
Brad
Yeah, I'll give it an eight and a half on the balance.
I really think it's incredible in this category.
It, it hits up front with all the sweetness and then it like kind of drops the proverbial mic with just this, all this Pete on the finish.
And then it leaves you with like really savory, interesting notes that linger for a while.
So I think it's really well balanced.
And that brings us to our value score.
You know, Bob, you can get this in the state of Ohio for $55, uh, which, you know, really is right in that category of like a 10 to 12 year Scotch.
And so I think that this is, honestly, I think this is a pretty fair value for, for where the competition is at, at the very least.
Bob
Yeah.
I mean, this is, this is pretty much right in line with a little Freud 10, you know, last season we had, or maybe it was earlier this season.
I can't remember, Brad, we had the, uh, Buna Haben 12 year, which I really, really liked.
And you were just a bit cooler on.
And I think Buna Haben comes in, you know, in like the 45 to 50 ish dollar range.
So we're, we are right in line here.
I don't know, man.
I just don't know if $55 sounds right to me.
Like, does, does it appeal to you at a $55 price tag?
Brad
I think it does.
I think that this is a really solid value.
This is one of the better peated Scotches we've had, and it's right in the right in line with most other Scotches that we've drank.
And so for me, I think it's a really solid value.
Bob
I I'll give it an eight out of 10 on the value.
Yeah.
I think I'll give it a seven because like, like you said, it's right in line.
There's nothing about this that is really knocking me out with the value.
Like I'm not coming out of this thinking, oh my gosh, how is this only priced at $55?
But to be fairly priced, I think says something for it.
So I'm going to give it a seven out of 10 and that brings me out to a 40.5 out of 50.
Brad, what are you coming out to?
Uh, I am sitting at a 42.5 out of 50.
Oh, well that makes the average quite nice.
We're coming out to a 41.5 out of 50 or an 83 out of a hundred.
This is a darn good whiskey.
And I think that it really, like some of these whiskeys are just, it's a classic for a reason and you drink it and you're like, yeah, it may not be the greatest peated Scotch I've ever had, but darned if I'm not going to recommend it, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Brad
Honestly, Bob, I think what we need to do is go through every whiskey we've ever reviewed and figure out what percentage of whiskeys make it to 40 out of 50 or higher.
Cause I feel like it's pretty low.
Like I, I would guess it's around 10 to 15% of whiskeys we review.
Would you say that's fair?
Bob
Yeah, I think we usually get about five or six a season, so it's, it's probably closer to 20%, but even then, like, you know, it says something for it to hit a 40 out of 50.
Brad
Yeah.
So, so that's what I'm, I'm trying to point out.
This is a really good whiskey guys.
And I think that I would recommend buying a bottle like seven out of 10, but getting a poor at a bar.
I think that's the way to go with this.
If you're not totally sure where you're at on peated Scotches, give it a try at your local whiskey bar.
And from there on out, I would say, if you enjoy it even a little bit, it's a hundred percent worth buying.
Bob
All right, man, we have a lot more to say about the Prince of Egypt.
So what do you say we get back to that movie?
Let's get to it.
All right.
That was Ardbeg 10 here.
We are getting into the Prince of Egypt once again, and Brad, it's time for our most recent addition to the podcast, the segment that we call two facts and a falsehood.
This is where Brad pulls seemingly true things off of the internet and tries to stump me by, by figuring out which one is not true among them.
Brad
I mean, Bob, if you want to claim fake news at any point, you go for it, man.
I mean, we can't verify any of this.
Bob
I'm assuming the two facts are actually true, but we don't really know.
And I think that is born out in my record.
I'm three, two and one.
Brad, you've been doing a really good job on these so far, man.
I appreciate it, man.
Brad
It's, it's genuinely been a lot of fun.
It's, it's definitely gotten me more into the production side of the movies, which, which I really enjoy.
Bob
It's a good time.
Let's do it.
Try to stump me.
Two facts and a falsehood on the Prince of Egypt.
Brad
Fact number one, the film grossed $218 million worldwide in theaters, which made it the most successful non-Disney animated feature at the time.
Fact number two, this is the first non-Disney film to be nominated for two Oscars, winning one of them.
Fact number three, this is the first non-Disney film to use both traditional animation mixed with computer generated images.
Bob
So here's the thing about your two facts and a falsehood lately.
You have, you have really hit in that formula of like, I'm going to make up facts that sound boring enough that Bob won't immediately recognize them as a falsehood.
Hey man, it, it, all of these things seem very innocuous.
Brad
You know, it is interestingly hard to write lies about movies.
Bob
I found that out very quickly in making up two facts and a falsehood.
All right.
I know this movie won an Oscar.
Like I, that's just one thing I knew about it.
I think it won for best original song.
I think, I think number one is probably true too.
Like I can't think of a non-Disney movie that came out before this maybe land before time, but I don't think that made 200 mil.
So I'm going to say three is the falsehood.
Brad
Bob, here's, here's the thing about this week's two facts and a falsehood.
I think that the falsehood I created might actually be true.
All right.
I want my point.
I didn't, I didn't realize it.
No, you are correct.
The falsehood was that this is the first non-Disney film to use both traditional animation mixed with generated images.
Here's the thing.
This movie did actually use traditional animation mixed with computer generated images.
I just, the, the part that I wasn't sure I was actually lying about was the fact that this is the first non-Disney film to do it like this actually might have been the first Disney film to do that.
Bob
So you never actually went back and verified if what you were making up.
Brad
Well, at the very least, what I did verify was that ants was fully made with CGI.
There it is.
Bob
So I did a little bit of research.
I wonder when like, uh, when the Anastasia movie came out.
Ooh, that's a good question.
I think 20th century Fox.
And I think that came out like 97 ish.
And I'm pretty sure that had elements of both.
So, okay.
Brad
We're just going to go with it.
Yeah, I was totally right in line about that.
Bob
All right, man, I have, I have doubled my win value over my loss value.
I'm at four, two, and one now, and I'm feeling pretty darn good about myself, man.
So I'm dude, I'm proud of you, man.
Your movie knowledge is impeccable.
I mean, clearly not, but I appreciate the compliment.
All right.
I want to talk about things I really loved about this movie and Spielberg's involvement is evident, right?
Like he didn't write the movie.
He didn't direct the movie, but you know, there are, there are lots of stories throughout the history of Hollywood of how Spielberg would serve in the capacity of producer and then end up like directing half the movie.
And I have a hunch that that's going on here too.
What do you, what are you talking about, Bob?
There's no fatherhood issues here.
Yeah.
I mean, but in addition to that, like, you know, it's very well documented that in the nineties, Spielberg really wanted to get back in touch with the roots of his Judaism, right?
We talked about this with our Schindler's list episode, and also, you know, by the end of the decade, he's trying to reconcile with his dad with saving private Ryan.
But I mean, even some of the action set pieces in this movie, they do the thing that Spielberg does so well, which is like, I'm going to take a really preposterous scenario, but it's also going to be the thing that if the audience were all kids, they would wonder what if that thing happened?
And then I'm going to show you that thing happening.
And at the end of it, I don't care how hard hearted you are.
I don't care how much of an old cynical person you are.
You're going to be like, yup, I wanted to see that happen.
And Spielberg committed millions of dollars to making it happen.
And the thing in this movie that is that does that is this ridiculous chariot race at the beginning of the movie.
That is like the geography is all off.
I'm like, this is stupid.
And then somebody knocks the nose off of a Sphinx in a very similar way to Aladdin.
And I'm like, oh, that was dumb.
And then the Spielberg comes in and it's like the nose of the Sphinx is going to become the focal point of the rest of this action set piece.
And I was like, hell, yes, this is awesome.
I went from hating it to loving it immediately, dude.
Brad
And then the the barrier holding up all the sand breaks and they're riding this like wave of sand.
I absolutely love that scene.
I think that it establishes so much character between Ramses and Moses.
I think that it gives you like a really small but important story development point of like Ramses when he's named chief, you know, precept over the temples and he names Moses chief architect like he uses that mistake.
And he says to Moses, you know, what we did is actually led me to create something even greater.
And I think that that little moment is like, oh, Ramses is somebody who will always try to take a mistake and turn it into a success.
And you see him do that for the rest of the film throughout the plagues, throughout his relationship with Moses.
He's always trying to turn things into a success until the final moment when he's sitting on the rock alone, crying out Moses, the one thing he could never turn into a success.
Yeah.
So like even that one little moment where they they destroy this temple turns into a really important plot point for the rest of the film.
And I'm like, come on, come on.
That's what I'm talking about.
Bob
All right.
So let's let's talk about Hans Zimmer for a minute, because he's Hans Zimmer.
He's probably the second most famous composer working in film today.
And this this movie is just scored perfectly, like everything about the score to this movie is just it has the epic opening of the Lion King.
But one of the things I really loved about this movie, and it's credit to Stephen Schwartz, too, who wrote the music or the songs is.
Very often, I actually think the songs are not that great, like some of the songs are bangers and some of the songs are like there's a reason that that person only sang for 30 seconds because it's just like not a very good song.
Yeah, but but the choral backing of each song, like the chorus, the things that they have the choir doing in this movie, the vocal acrobatics, the harmonies, the sometimes you'll get the bassist singing way down low and then immediately jumping up in like an octave.
It is like as a guy who was in choir for years and years, like I listen to that stuff all the time.
And man, oh man, I don't know if it was Zimmer, if it was Schwartz, if it was some combination of them.
But the way that they arranged the choral music is outstanding.
Brad
Dude, I know that like in today's culture, it probably wouldn't fly for like a high school choir to do, you know, the choir version of this musical.
But this is like prime territory for like high school choirs to just sink their teeth into some of the coolest, most epic sounding choral pieces you can ever imagine.
Bob
Well, and part of the reason that I keep bringing up Stephen Schwartz here is that two years before this, he wrote the music and the songs for the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Like they poached him from Disney to come do this.
And that choral opening of Hunchback, like it's it's here.
Right.
And and I think that you see some of the influences on this movie.
It had real strong Les Mis vibes at the beginning, that very first song where you have the slaves singing like mud, sand.
It really echoed the look down song from Les Mis.
Yeah, man, it's just it's so, so well done.
And I don't mean to like counterbalance something I love with something I didn't love, but it does kind of make me wonder, like why the actual songs in this movie weren't better, you know, and it sounded like you kind of agreed with me there.
Brad
I think that the majority of the songs in this film are just spectacular.
Bob
So I will say the melody of that lullaby that then plays throughout the rest of the movie is so good.
I think the Deliver Us song is really good.
I actually thought that like the the scar be prepared song that Steve Martin, what's it called?
Playing with the big boys.
Yeah, that was excellent.
I really, really liked that song.
But then you have like a couple of songs like Moses's mom sings him a song for a hot second and Miriam sings a song for like 20 seconds.
And it's just these little kind of like interstitial songs that are just why are they in here?
If you're not going to commit to the song, just don't do it.
Brad
You know, I, I don't know, man.
I think that all of those moments give character development in such a way that you see Moses growing.
And overall, man, I, I didn't have any issues with the songs.
For me, the the music of this movie paired with the beautiful animation is what makes this movie so great.
It really takes it to the next level.
And so for me, I want to hear from you, Bob.
I think this is probably the most beautifully crafted animated film of all time.
And I'm curious for you, where did all the different vistas and up close shots?
And, you know, for me, like, man, when when Yakov is singing and her hair like covers her face and you just have her on screen, it's like heart wrenching.
And I just think it's incredibly animated.
Bob
So when you say, well, crafty, you're talking about like the visual shot composition of the you're not talking about like the structure of the film itself.
Brad
You're talking about like, yes, the visual effect of the movie from seeing the Red Sea parted to watching Moses be cast out into the river, like and everything in between.
Yeah.
Bob
The funny thing about this movie is that I think that a lot of times when they are going for something that is like visually calling attention to itself, there's some of my least favorite moments in the movie, like Moses's dream sequence where he he's realizing via a dream like what happened to the children of the Hebrews.
And it's played out as like these these paintings on the wall.
It was a cool sequence, hieroglyphics, Bob.
It was a cool sequence, but it was also one of those things that's like, OK, like I see what you do.
It's like in Hercules when they were doing like the clay pottery type thing.
It's it's cool, but it was also like probably the most unnecessary visual thing they did in the movie.
But then you have moments.
And I took a note of it early in the movie and then it came back later in the movie.
So points to them for the visual callbacks.
When Moses comes out of that dream sequence and is wandering through the halls of the temple or the palace, whatever it is, and finds the mural of the kids being thrown into the river to the crocodiles and he drops his torch and kind of crumples.
And then it is like a very long shot from the point of view of Ramses, the first who is like looking in.
It's a point of view shot.
And you see Moses lit from beneath by the torch that's on the ground and his shadow being cast up onto the wall.
And I'm like, holy crap, what an incredibly animated shot.
And then and then an hour later in that final confrontation between Ramses, the second and Moses.
They're discovered by Ramses son, and you don't really know exactly where they are geographically at first because it's so dark and the torch is illuminating that mural behind them again in a very subtle way.
And I'm like, it's moments like that where they put so much thought into the shot composition and the lighting, especially that are.
Yeah, man, like there are moments in this movie that if you just press paused and framed it, it would be among the best animated film cells ever created.
Brad
And especially for me when they are with the first pharaoh, Pharaoh Seti, I believe his name is Picard the first.
And they give you that wide vista and you see Pharaoh Seti standing in the foreground and then you see the statue of him in the background.
Yeah, man, that is exactly him.
And then like 30 minutes later, you have that exact same shot.
It's as if you didn't move the camera at all.
But now you have Pharaoh Ramses standing there with a larger statue than his father's looking exactly like Pharaoh Ramses in the background.
It's just it's just perfect.
Bob
The great thing they did with that shot, too, if you notice like so the movie is is I want to say shot, but it's put together in like a 16 by nine ratio, like the size of your TV right now.
But when they do that shot, it's such a wide shot that they actually have to make it like a super wide screen shot, like a two point three five to one.
And they do that by basically drawing the floor and ceiling of that room therein as like black bars.
It's not really black bars, but they they frame it as if they're shooting it in a different aspect ratio.
And it is like it's such a cool touch.
I got to say, man, there is one moment in this movie that calls so much visual attention to itself.
And I don't care because it is probably one of the ten best shots I've ever seen in my life.
Is it the whale?
Brad
It's the whale.
Bob
It's so good.
Brad
So good, dude, if I was ever walking for some reason through water that had been parted, I don't care where we are in the world.
I'm going to see lightning flash and a whale swimming past me.
Bob
I don't care.
I don't care that whales aren't in the Red Sea.
Probably.
I don't care about any of that.
It is the coolest shot, like insert image of Martin Scorsese saying this is cinema.
You know what I mean?
It is just so good.
Brad
And that's that is what I love about this film.
It invokes a feeling of awe like nearly no other animated film has done for me.
And that is what you're right.
That that is the perfect quote.
This is cinema.
And that like that's how I feel about this film.
And that's why I'm going to give it a 10 out of 10.
Bob
Yeah.
Here's the thing.
We haven't gotten around to what I think is probably actually the most interesting thing we could talk about with this movie, which is like what I was saying in the first half, the idea of faith based movies that are direct Bible stories versus movies that are just faith based and why I think sometimes it's it's harder to do the Bible movies.
I don't know that we have time for that today, but we're already at like an hour here.
And so I think maybe you and I should just kind of sit down and record that and release it for our patrons on Patreon.
I think it's it's a conversation I want to have.
Brad
Yeah, it's just hard.
Bob
It's a great idea.
It's hard because I think it does play into my overall evaluation of the movie.
So like to not say it here, you know, it's a bad beat for those of you who aren't on Patreon, but, you know, shameless plug for three dollars a month, you can you can hear my breakdown.
Brad
Let me talk about my Christian faith for three dollars.
Bob
I'm going to give this movie.
I'm going to give it an eight and a half out of ten.
It's really, really, really good.
I think that there are some issues with the way the story is told.
I think that that the time jump is both too sudden in the middle and also like they they don't leave Moses in the desert long enough.
And I think that really had a bearing on me sympathizing with his character.
I did read one negative review of this movie, which I disagreed with almost all of it.
But I thought they said one interesting thing, which was that they they go so overboard on making Ramsey's a sympathetic character that it's almost hard to buy him as a villain later in the movie, even when he's doing obviously villainous things.
And so one thing that I really do want to say before I get my score is the last, I don't know, 20 minutes of this movie, you know, before the Red Sea, like the play, the final plague on Passover is really hard to watch, man.
Like it's yeah, it's brutal.
I give the movie credit for being ballsy enough to show me kids dying on screen, which I was not.
I thought that they would be off screen like, no, I watched small children die.
And as a dad of small children, like it just hits on a level that it didn't use to for me watching, watching a narrative like this in a world today that is much more resistant to Christianity and to Judaism and religion in general.
You got to be really careful with how you present that stuff.
And I think this movie does a pretty good job, but I think what they really could have strengthened was understanding or explaining why the steps that in this, you know, this story that God took were really, really necessary.
I think you have Moses telling Pharaoh, you're stubborn and bad things are going to happen.
But even then, I think that we see God commit more atrocities on screen than we saw the Egyptians commit on screen.
And I think for me, that's like a big glaring red flag because the story in Exodus is kind of like a one to one ratio of like when you are sowing hatred and murder into the world, then like that judgment is going to be judged upon you.
Right.
Like that's a that's a theme throughout the Old Testament.
And we see the Egyptians beating up slaves and people being pushed to the brink with their work.
But, you know, the scene at the beginning with Moses being put in the basket, they really do shy away from showing those kids being thrown to the crocodiles.
Right.
And it's very much just hinted at throughout the movie.
But then when you see God do it, God does it.
And we watch we watch the spirit that comes from heaven kill kids for me to step out of my kind of like watching this through a Christian lens.
And, you know, if I was like an atheist or an agnostic watching this movie, I think, honestly, the way that they kind of hem hawed at the beginning of the movie almost makes God look more like the bad guy at the end of this movie.
And I think that really unsettled me as a Christian.
I think that they could have gone a little farther with either you got to do both things off screen or you got to do both things on screen.
But it almost felt like it almost felt like you saw God committing more atrocities than the Egyptians.
And I think that was something for me that was almost unforgivable with the way this movie was laid out.
Brad
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a fair take for me, the imagery that they use in the temple or the palace of the infants being thrown to the crocodiles.
I feel like they present that in a strong enough way to show like, no, this is this is Egypt calling it down upon themselves.
And the way that they have Pharaoh delivered that line, you know, and there will there shall be a great cry heard upon the land like none that has ever come before it.
Like you can tell that he is about to do the same thing that his father did.
And so for me, that element of character development for Ramses, that he has finally reached the point of no return, that I am going to do what my father did.
And even worse, that for me, helps explain what God is doing, like where God is going with this is not a sense of like tit for tat.
It is a this is what you have reaped.
Yeah.
Therefore, this is what you are getting.
Bob
Yeah, I mean, I totally agree.
And I think it's just interesting if you look at it from a filmmaking perspective, like the directors of this movie thought that you had to show the shot of a kid dying on screen.
And I'm like, I just I've been trying to wrap my head around that directorial decision.
Like, yeah, it would have been enough to see that kind of spirit float into somebody's house.
And they have that sound effect of like the breath getting stolen out of the body.
And they do that as some of the best sound construction haunting.
And they do that for the most part.
But then then the one time you you go into the house and you watch it sweep over these kids and you watch these kids die on screen.
And it's like there is just something about like even knowing what the Egyptians did and seeing it depicted in a painting.
There's a there's a sense of remove for the audience.
We're like, well, thank God I didn't have to watch a kid get eaten by a crocodile.
Right.
And I'm not advocating that we do like I don't want that.
But I just think it's good.
Brad
Yeah.
And I wonder if like the the directors of the film felt more comfortable with like a spirit moving through a town than like watching Egyptians stab children.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, obviously, yeah, it's much more bloodless like this isn't Schindler's List we're talking about.
Bob
Yeah.
Bob
And that's what I'm saying.
But like, functionally, we only see one agent kill children in this movie.
Yeah.
You're watching the same thing.
Children are dying.
So anyway, that's just something I think that's going to prevent me from going a little further with this.
I think overall, incredibly well-made movie.
I really would put this kind of in a similar boat as The Hunchback, where it's like it's better seen as an adult.
I think it is super underappreciated.
I think it deals with themes that more famous animated movies don't even deal with.
And I think it deserves a hell of a lot of credit for that.
So it's an eight and a half for me.
Brad
Bob, that might be the most fun way we've ever ended an episode like that was that was just a boy, just a barrel of laughs.
This one was geez.
Guys, thank you for joining us on this wild ride of an episode that I wasn't totally expecting.
If you want to interact with us on social media, you can find us at Film Whiskey on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Let us know what your experience has been with The Prince of Egypt.
Is it something you loved?
Is it something you hate?
Is it something you've never seen before?
We love to talk to you guys about it.
Bob
All right, Brad, I have the rest of my movies into our wheel randomizer here.
I'm going to click spin.
We're down to only four movies for me.
I think now you're down to three.
So we're getting close to the end of the season here.
And it looks like we are going to be watching.
Oh, Ben Affleck's 2007 directed modern noir film Gone Baby Gone.
Man, this is a movie I'm super pumped to talk about.
I think it's probably the best movie he's ever directed.
And the guy won Best Picture for a different movie.
So we'll watch that one next week.
But until then, I'm Bob Book.
I'm Brad Gee.
And we'll see you next time.
