DVD Review - Joseph: King of Dreams

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Site created 12/15/97.

review added: 11/16/00

Joseph: King of Dreams
2000 (2000) - DreamWorks

review by Brad Pilcher of The Digital Bits

Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

Film Rating: B+

Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): A-/A/B+

Specs and Features

74 mins, NR, letterboxed widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 enhanced, single-sided, dual-layered (no layer switch), Amaray keep case packaging, promotional trailer, storyboard with director's commentary, interactive trivia game, production notes, cast & filmmakers bios, read-along story, sing-along songs, DVD-ROM features (including kid's coloring sheet, activity sheets and memory game), film-themed menu screens, scene access (18 chapters), languages: English (DD 5.1), subtitles: English

"You know better than I."

In the tradition of straight-to-video animated sequels and spin-offs, we have Joseph: King of Dreams from DreamWorks. It isn't so much a sequel to The Prince of Egypt as a related topic that happens to include much of the same visual motifs.

The film follows the biblical figure Joseph, with his coat of many colors (or his "technicolor dream coat" for you theater folks). We see him born. We see him get his coat. We see him go through all life's trials and tribulations as he makes his epic rise, fall and rise again. It's all very dramatic and epic. And since it's a virtual retelling of a biblical tale, it's a bit disjointed. That's not to say that it doesn't take some liberties to weave the narrative into film, but it stays more or less faithful to the story and provides the same disclaimer as The Prince of Egypt did at the beginning.

I have to be honest here. I almost wished DreamWorks had decided to use the biblical tale of Joseph as a premise as opposed to the full story. It could have been much tighter, plot-wise, had they focused on the impact that Joseph's sale into slavery had on him and his family. Granted, it would have involved dropping many elements of the biblical account and even more filling in the blanks, but it might have made for a better film.

Still, the story flows very well and we manage to find a compelling drama in this film. Lest we not forget that the target audience is children, I think the filmmakers did a fabulous job of making this smarter than your average Saturday afternoon kid's video. The extras reflect the target audience however, and we'll get to those.

A quick note on the animation. It never rises above the quality of Prince of Egypt, and actually represents a backward step. That's not surprising since this is a straight-to-video release, but they over do the "living hieroglyphics" trick a bit, and really fell down on some CGI work. The Pharaoh's dream sequences were horrible and jolting from the overall softness of the rest of the film. All that aside, there's some remarkable depth and animation here, especially for a video release.

Now, let's talk about the presentation. The video is quite good, but could have been better considering the movie never found its way onto a single piece of film. The entire movie was finished digitally. Most of the time, we get stellar video quality from such films (think Tarzan, Toy Story or A Bug's Life). In this case, we get good video, but I noticed just the barest hint of artifacting and color imbalance. This all has to be qualified of course. The video is great, but given its digital nature, I may be holding it to a higher (and slightly unfair) standard. The audio, on the other hand, is of superb quality. It won't blow you away, but it has a solid balance of ambiance, vocals and score. It represents just how far we've come with DVD and straight-to-video releases, and shows that DreamWorks has a real commitment to the platform for every title.

For the kiddies, the bulk of the extras include a read-along story version of the film, a sing-along batch of three songs from the movie, an interactive trivia game and, on the DVD-ROM side, a memory game, a downloadable coloring sheet and activity sheets. I looked at all of those extras because I'm a dutiful reviewer, but I could pass on all of them. Well... all of them except the sing-along. I actually find this strangely appealing, and I can imagine kids will absolutely love it. For the film buffs, you're not being left totally out in the cold. A storyboard sequence with optional commentary is here, showing you three different sequences' progression. That is pretty cool. A trailer and the usual production notes and bios round out the offerings.

Joseph: King of Dreams is a very deep and rich effort on the part of the DreamWorks animators. And this is more than a quality DVD. If you have kids, or happen to appreciate decent animation, this is a title worth owning on its own merits.

Brad Pilcher
bradpilcher@thedigitalbits.com