Joseph King of Dreams

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One of the most obscure of all the Dreamworks Animation films, and Dreamworks' first Direct to Video release.

Meant to be the follow-up/prequel to The Prince of Egypt, although it was made during that film's production. Basically, imagine Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, but in animation, and with Ben Affleck.

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This film contains examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation: Of the the tail end of Genesis. A number of characters are trimmed, Reuben (firstborn and previous leader of the brothers) has been Demoted to Extra, and the reason why Judah is also leading over Simeon and Levi, who were next in line after Reuben, is simply not mentioned; to put it mildly, this movie would have to have had a hard PG-13 rating at the very least if it had delved into the extremely family-unfriendly events that got them demoted.
• Ancient Egypt: Of course.
• Art Shift: The Pharaoh's dream, which transitions from traditional animation to CGI.
  • Joseph's dreams too, which are in a living painting style (backgrounds at least) and the wall Joseph paints like his home of Caanan (which animates as he remembers it) as well as the interpretation of Pharoah's dream.
• Bishounen: Joseph and Benjamin, who look more like Rachel than Jacob.
• Clear My Name: In keeping with the Bible story, Zuleika accuses Joseph of forcing himself on her, resulting in his time in prison.
• Cursed with Awesome: Zigzagged with Joseph (who kept getting in trouble over his prophecies) and invoked by the baker as he's taken away: "It's not a gift, it's a curse!"
• Did Not Do the Research: The movie shows Joseph and Asenath getting married, dressed in white, in a big public ceremony. The ancient Egyptians did not have any kind of civil wedding ceremony or formal rituals (that we know of).
• Fat and Skinny: In prison, the baker and royal butler, respectively.
  • Fridge Brilliance at its finest. The fat one goes and the skinny one is left. This foreshadows the Pharaoh's dreams and eventual fate of Egypt.
• Five Stages of Grief: When Joseph tells the baker that he will die in three days based on his dream, he shouts "You're lying!". He appears to have made it through the other stages in the three day fast-forward shouting "You knew!" as he's carried out.
• Forgiveness: A particularly striking example, as Joseph forgives Potiphar (which visibly surprises him) for throwing him in jail. And then again when he forgives his brothers albeit after showing how much they care for the new youngest.
• Happiness in Slavery: Played with and kicked around a bit. Due to Zuleika's attraction to Joseph, he's given less physical labor while in slavery, and Joseph's intelligence and wit wins over the Pharaoh, but some of the times in between these events aren't so happy.
  • The entire marketplace scene is dedicated to showing how being a slave sucks, complete with Joseph being terrified at the sight of whip marks on other slaves for sale and his being made over to look like a proper Egyptian slave as a violating and undignified act.
• Ironic Echo: "Half-brother!"
• Little No: Joseph says this when Zuleika tries to seduce him.
• Meaningful Name: Pharoah dubs Joseph 'Zaphnath-Paaneah', meaning 'The god speaks and he (He?) lives'.
• Mood Whiplash: 2 years as a slave, 2 years in prison, to being made second only to the Pharaoh, then seeing your brothers, who sold you into slavery at the first place?
• My God, What Have I Done?: In a somewhat plausible interpolation of events from the original story, Zuleika starts to show some regret for framing Joseph and pleads to her husband to spare his life. It's also hinted that she may have pined away to an early grave from grief and guilt for what she did.
  • The husband also greatly regrets imprisoning Joseph, and apologizes profusely when he's released. It's implied that the main reason he had him imprisoned was because he didn't want to acknowledge that his wife tried to seduce a slave, and regrets not doing the right thing.
• Non-Singing Voice: Joseph was voiced by Ben Affleck, but his singing voice was sung by David Campbell. Same for Jacob, who was voiced by Richard Herd, and his singing was done by Russell Buchanan.
• Older Than They Look: Joseph looks to be about 14 (even though he was actually 17) until he starts getting stubble, and Judah and the other older brothers look the same 20-something when they sell Joseph as they do when he's born. Heck, Jacob, who looked to be in old age even when Joseph was born, seemed perfectly healthy by the end of the movie. Note that Joseph is in his thirties by the end of the movie.
• Parental Favoritism: Not at all, not at all...
• Rags to Royalty: Cinderella style.
  • More of a nice coat to rags, to better rags, to worse rags than before, to riches.
• Spiritual Successor: To The Prince of Egypt, although it's actually a prequel.
• Teen Genius: Genius compared to those around him; Joseph irrigates his family's field (a bit of a Chekhov's Skill as he does the same to the lands of Egypt) and makes a scarecrow for Potiphar's vineyard (single-handedly restoring it to fruitfulness).
• The Makeover: Joseph is washed, powdered, trimmed and painted to look more Egyptian.
• Time Skip: Sneaks in there a lot; the main part of the film takes place over 20 years with only an off-hand comment from Asenath and one from Simeon to tell of it.
• Squishy Prophet: Book-learned and unused to the same work as his brothers, Joseph is a fairly squishy prophet until he is put to slave work.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Joseph wears his coat over a bare chest for the first part of the film and an Egyptian skirt thingy for much of the rest.
• Undying Loyalty: Joseph exhibits this when Zuleika tries to seduce him.
  • Also, he probably knew that sleeping with his master's wife would get him into big trouble.
• Woman Scorned: Zuleika.
• Miracle Child: Joseph, born to the previously barren Rachel.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Zuleika claiming that Joseph tried to rape her.
• Your Cheating Heart: Zuleika tries to seduce Joseph.