I’ve always thought that, if Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s court, then even after wandering for years in the wilderness, when he returned to the court, he must surely have known the man who was Pharaoh at that time. The movie posits that Pharaoh was his foster brother, and that his stubborn refusal to let the Children of Israel go had some of its roots in a friendly sibling rivalry gone bad. Indeed the movie goes much deeper into the major characters’ thoughts, attitudes, and motives than the bare-bones Exodus story ever could. The fleshing-out process really does work well.

Technically, the movie is a masterpiece. There is a richness, color, and three-dimensional quality to the scenery of Egypt that far surpasses the drab, flat desert that I envision when I think of that country. The graphic artists have spared nothing to make us feel part of the set. There is, figuratively speaking, a “cast of thousands,” especially dramatic when Moses leads the Children out — you can look at the milling crowd and easily imagine there are two million of them, as estimated. The attention to fine details puts this animation in an altogether different league than a mere “cartoon.” There is more than a little humor, too, such as a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how the Sphinx lost its nose.

It seems strange to speak of “special effects” in an animated feature, but some scenes, and certainly the miracles, are spectacular. The cold fire of the burning bush, the coming to life of a tapestry scene in Moses’ dream, the mist that gently draws the breath and life out of the first-born of Egypt, and especially, the parting of the Red Sea into two walls of water such that the Children of Israel pass through a cleft while gazing at exotic sea life as if through aquarium glass, all are wonderfully imaginative treatments of the way it might have been.

I left the theater with one thought: What a mighty God we serve! It’s hard for me to imagine why the Children of Israel, after seeing first-hand the deliverance only God could perform, so soon afterwards became fearful and complaining, and turned to other gods. Did they think the great I AM would desert them after all that? Of course we have the advantage of hindsight. But if we ourselves are about to go through a time of trial and testing, as I believe, why should we be so fearful? After all, we still serve the same God, and he is still able to save.