Joseph: King of Dreams

It is perhaps inevitable that DreamWorks's direct-to-video follow-up to The Prince of Egypt would lack the epic feel generated the first time around. The background art (some of it computer-generated) is acceptable, but the character design and fluidity of the animation is not. The biggest problem is that the beloved Biblical hero - who is the focus of almost every scene - comes across here as shallow and a little smug, and it takes most of the movie before we can warm to him. When that happens, the movie admittedly becomes compelling, but it's hardly worth having gone through 50 or so minutes of choppy storytelling and songs that are both treacly and irrelevant.