Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

FOUNDATION MYTHS

2004; Routledge; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1740030042000276662

1740-7923

James Russell,

Digital Games and Media

DreamWorks SKG, the studio founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994, was intended as a reaction to the contemporary filmmaking climate. Its founders hoped to create a place where talented, creative filmmakers would be supported and encouraged to pursue their more personal projects. This paper looks at how these ideals shaped the studio's early releases. In particular it examines The Prince of Egypt (1998). This animated historical epic embodied DreamWorks' early mandate, but more than that, it spoke to the film industry about the fledgling studio. Like the historical epics which have preceded it, The Prince of Egypt presented an allegory about its own creation. The details of this allegory provide us with an insight into the way that the studio itself was established and promoted.