DreamWorks Hopes to Sensitize ‘Prince’

When Arab American and Muslim leaders talked after previewing DreamWorks’ coming animated Bible story, “The Prince of Egypt,” they say the studio executives listened.

DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg recently joined a dozen representatives from Arab American and Islamic organizations for an advance screening and discussion of the feature film.

Though Muslims stopped short of endorsing the film, which depicts the life of Moses, Muslim and Arab leaders lauded the studio for reaching out for comment.

“The fact that they solicited input is a major step forward,” said Maher Hathout of the Islamic Center of Southern California, who attended the screening. “That kind of sensitivity is refreshing.”

The screening with Muslim and Arab leaders was one of hundreds of such consultation meetings the studio says it has had with various religious groups that revere the biblical prophet Moses--including many Christian and Jewish groups--during the three years “The Prince of Egypt” has been in production, says DreamWorks spokeswoman Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug.

“We have met with as many different faith communities as you can possibly imagine,” she said. “We have reached out as broadly and as deeply as we can.”

Schwartz-Getzug said the consultations were not in response to the protests that faced Disney’s “Aladdin” in 1992. Muslim and Arab leaders strongly criticized stereotypes of Arabs portrayed in that film, and Katzenberg, Disney’s studio head at the time, ultimately agreed to alter the video version.

“We are interested in receiving input, and letting us know if we are understanding the story as they understand it,” she said. “[“Aladdin”] has nothing to do with this.”

DreamWorks had invited Islamic leaders two years ago for a preliminary screening, and several of the resulting suggestions found their way into the nearly finished product, said Michel Shehadeh, spokesman for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. For instance, leaders proposed that the studio use different skin colors for the slaves to show that not only Jews were oppressed by a dictatorial pharaoh.

“The slaves in Egypt were not just one [ethnic] group, but a lower class which included Egyptians, Nubians, Libyans and others,” Shehadeh said. “We wanted the film to reflect the diversity of the slave segments so they wouldn’t make all Arabs the bad guys.”

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, added that the name of a camel had been changed and that Arab stereotypes had been removed in response to earlier comments.

Arab and Muslim leaders say, however, that they are leery of several elements of the film. Islamic doctrine forbids depictions of prophets, and Arab leaders also worry about possible political implications on the fragile Middle East peace process.

DreamWorks plans to release the film Dec. 18.