Underplayed Gems

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed poster
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
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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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)

More like this

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