Released all the way back in 2000, Joseph: King of Dreams is probably the most forgotten of all the movies that DreamWorks have made over the years. I would wager that there are many people who do not even know that this movie exists and there are probably many that saw it back in the day and then completely forgot it existed!
How to Download Joseph: King of Dreams
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The Movie Review
Many people do not realize that this was being worked on or at least conceived while Dream Works were making The Prince of Egypt. DreamWorks had a pretty big hit on their hands with The Prince of Egypt and Joseph: King of Dreams is actually a prequel to that movie.
A neat little bit of trivia about this movie is that for over 20 years, this was the only full-length straight-to-video/DVD movie that DreamWorks had produced. This was made with the same love, detail, and attention as their full-length feature movies were and that is something I think is very impressive.
Now, enough about the history of this movie, is it actually any good? Well, it is ok, Joseph: King of Dreams is a musical and it does have some decent musical numbers. It follows the story of Joseph much more closely to the source material than The Prince of Egypt did, but if that is a good thing or not is really all down to personal preference.
I thought the voice cast was decent and Joseph is actually played by Ben Affleck. While Ben Affleck provides the regular voice for Joseph, it is not him who is singing. The thing I got a real kick out of about this movie was how Mark Hamill played Judah, I am a huge Mark Hamill fan, not just because he is Luke Skywalker, but I legit believe he is one of the greatest voice actors of all time.
We follow the story of Joseph and how he has a special ability regarding his dreams. We then see how people react to the “gifts” that Joseph has and how some want to exploit this gift. If I am being 100 percent honest, Joseph: King of Dreams is a movie that really struggled to keep my attention. I think that going the musical route was not perhaps the best idea and one or two musical numbers would have been enough.
The best thing that the movie has going for it is the incredible visuals. At the time this was released, it had to be one of the best looking straight to DVD/home video releases ever made. It looks a hell of a lot better than the various Disney sequels that were released straight to the home that is for sure.
It is the dream sequences that people love about this movie. The dream sequences have this very unique look about them and I have heard others describe them as “Van Gough” like and that is honestly the best way to describe them. They are the kind of thing that you really have to see to appreciate and they look amazing on a 4K TV.
I am not a big fan of Joseph: King of Dreams and I would probably put it rather close to the bottom of my DreamWorks movie list. It is not a horrible movie and it does look fantastic, but I have to be honest and say that I found it rather boring. I could not imagine this keeping a kid’s attention very well at all these days!
