OPINION

THE ONLY THING WE DIDN'T
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You Saw The Movie;
Now Read The Book

Before you say, "I won't grow up,*
ow many times have you
there could be a film on the horizon
heard someone say, "The
on Muhammad.
book was better than the
Call me living on the edge, but I
movie"?
think
if we can get Jewish kids and
You could probably name several
their
parents
into the theater to
of these cases. I want to make
learn
about
Moses,
then let's meet
another suggestion: with few excep-
with
Spielberg
and
get
him to go
tions, the movie shouldn't replace
for:
the book.
"Rashi: Man of Commentary."
I remember while teaching
"Rabbi Ben Yochai and the Zohar."
evening religious school having a
Don't try to sneak in if you're under
conversation with a student. He had
40. We'll check.
a videotape movie in his
We could do full-length
book bag of "Ivanhoe." He
musical
features on the Ba'al
told me that he had a term
Shem
Tov
and the Vilna
paper due in two days, and
Goen.
he would watch the movie
This can be stretched
not read the book.
into the secular world as
Wow.
well. Pretty soon, the corn-
This came to mind
plete works of Shakespeare.
when I read all of the press
a cartoon.
about the much-bally-
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
hooed release of "The
PHIL JACOBS
more
animation.
Prince of Egypt." I haven't
Contributing
Or
the Starr Report (R-
seen the movie yet, but it's
Editor
rated,
of course). I wonder
a guarantee that the book
who
the
voices will be for
is better than the movie. In
this one.
this case, all five books of Moses.
Far-fetched? Did you ever'
It's interesting, indeed, that in
think
you'd
be watching Moses as a
this day it seems to take a full-length
cartoon
with
Val Kilmer's voice? For
feature cartoon to get us in the
most
of
us,
Moses
is Charlton Hes-
learning mode about Moses.
ton.
I
mean,
really.
If this is what it takes ro get any of

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us interested, I say fantastic. But it just
shouldn't be the only way to go.
And why stop at Moses? There
have got to be other possibilities for
full-length feature films with voices
of big-time movie stars. The next
one could be about Jesus. Can you
imagine casting that one? Let's see,
Jackie Mason as the voice of ... never
mind.
One of the aspects of this Moses
film that seems to be pleasing is that
there are no cute animals playing
important roles like we see in ani-
mated movies such as "Aladdin" or
"Little Mermaid."
It would be pretty shocking to
have seen the golden calf take on a
cute personality of its own, not to
mention the various animals in the
plagues dancing to a background of
calypso music.
Maybe, though, we shouldn't stop
here. After all, we have Cinderella,
Snow White, Aladdin, Little Mer-
maid, Beauty and the Beast, the
Hunchback of Notre Dame, Poca-
hontas, the Lion King and now
Moses.

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Phil Jacobs is editor of The Jewish

1/1
1999

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DETROIT
JEWISH MEWS

Times in Baltimore, sister publication of
The Jewish News.

We could do full-
length musical
features on the
Ba'al Shem Tov
and the Vilna
Goen.

Seriously, these efforts to educate
are admirable. But did you ever sit
and read "Beauty and the Beast"
with your child before bedtime?
Or do they know it from the car-
toon version only? Have your kids
ever walked into the family room
and seen the TV off and you reading
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or one of
the great authors?
Have they ever, by chance, caught
you reading the original story aboli
Moses, the Bible
The book beats the movie evcry
time. Ei