The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

Original title

Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed

Directed by

Lotte Reiniger

Genre

fantasy film, silent film, children's film

Country

German Reich

Runtime

1h 05m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 236 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young prince goes on a magical adventure involving a flying horse, a sorcerer, and a princess. The story pulls from classic Arabian tales and is told entirely through paper-cut silhouette animation.

whimsicaldreamlikeelegantlightfantasticalstylizedsilentgraceful

What happens

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film, written and directed by Lotte Reiniger. Since two earlier Quirino Cristiani films are lost, it remains the oldest surviving animated feature film. The plot is based on elements from several One Thousand and One Nights stories, such as "Aladdin," "Ahmed and Paribanou", and "The Ebony Horse". Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique that Reiniger invented by manipulating cardboard cutouts and thin sheets of lead under a camera, similar to Wayang shadow puppets. The original prints featured color tinting. Reiniger also used the first form of a multiplane camera in making the film, one of the most important devices in pre-digital animation. Several famous avant-garde animators worked on Prince Achmed, among them Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, and Carl Koch. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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