The film is an animated version of the story of Moses - and the studio says it has consulted 450 religious leaders, including cardinals, to get the story right.

The Dreamworks promotional juggernaut has just completed its assault on the American media and lumbers into Britain later this week.

Michelle Pfeiffer: Star voice

The $70m cartoon, an animated retelling of the story of Moses with the star voices of Ralph Fiennes and Val Kilmer, breaks new ground for film-making by committee. Dreamworks has sought advice from every religious authority imaginable from cardinals in the Vatican to leading figures in the religious right.

"We went out to about 450 religious leaders, theologians, Egyptologists, archaeologists to get as much information as we could in the beginning," said Sandra Rabins, the producer of Prince of Egypt.

"Later on we began to show the film so that we could remain faithful to the material. They would tell us when we were diverging."

Hollywood studios often seek outside advice but rarely so extensively as Dreamworks has for the Prince of Egypt.

Toby Miller, professor cinema studies, said: "I don't think there's ever been anything quite like this, it really is an exceptional effort. It shows that in some ways perhaps Dreamworks is the kind of international government that the United Nations could only dream of being."

Moses ... after wide consultation

Critics fear the extensive consultation will make the film bland and politically correct, but cast members disagree.

"It was really very bold of them to attempt something like this," said Michelle Pfeiffer.

Danny Glover added: "If you go to everyone, even if you don't agree with their position, at least you've gone to them. They feel as though they've been involved in the process to some extent."

Dreamworks' efforts to consult widely may in fact represent shrewd marketing, especially if it inoculates the film against damaging criticism.

The producers acknowledge that promoting a biblical story at the box office has not been easy. They know a traditional marketing campaign with merchandising tie-ins could invite charges of crass commercialism

Appealing to a Country and Western audience

"We didn't want Red Sea shower curtains, we didn't want burning bush nightlamps so we went out in the arena of music and created the albums," said Ms Rabins.

Instead three different soundtracks are being used to promote the film - the main one targeting the mainstream secular audience - and two others inspired by the picture - a Christian gospel version for the Bible Belt and a Nashville version bringing the story of Moses to country music fans.

Biblical scholars involved in the consultation process may well now be hoping that the religious significance of the story of Moses does not get lost amid the din of differing soundtracks and the relentless hype leading up to the Prince of Egypt's worldwide release on 18 December.