Les aventures du prince Ahmad

The idea for "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is unusual and interesting, and Lotte Reiniger uses it to create an enjoyable and distinctive feature. To make such a different approach work so well must have taken large amounts of both skill and patience, as well as the creativity to adapt the stories to the format.

The cutout-style animation that the feature uses ruled out a lot of options for the film-makers, and it put a premium on the careful design of the figures and on well-planned story-telling. At first, the plainness of the silhouette figures is somewhat apparent, but it's not long at all before the story is involving enough, and the animation creative enough, to give the characters and events plenty of life and energy.

The plot itself is taken from some of the old "Arabian Nights" tales, much of it from some of the less-familiar episodes. It is a good adaptation of the material, and the careful details in the outlines of the silhouette figures soon create an atmosphere that works even without colors or special visual tricks.

The style allows your own imagination to flesh out the characters, rather than providing an artist's depiction for every detail in the story. In this respect it makes an interesting contrast with the more usual kind of fantasy film that does try to make everything expressly visual. As soon as you get used to the style and concentrate on the story, it becomes quite interesting and at times even engrossing. Overall, it's an imaginative feature that works quite well.

Visiting earlier today the exhibition," The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America" at Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, I was very lucky to watch as a part of the exhibit Charlotte (Lotte) Reiniger's "Die Geschichte des Prinzen Achmed" (The Adventures of Prince Achmed"), completed in 1926, which makes it THE oldest surviving animated feature film. Lotte Reiniger (June 2, 1899 - June 19, 1981) was a German (and later a British) silhouette animator and film director. Through elaborating articulated paper silhouettes set to an original score by Wolfgang Zeller, Reiniger combines in "Prince Achmed..." several fairy tales from the Thousand and One Nights aka Arabian Nights. Reiniger was ahead of Walt Disney by a decade using her innovative camera which separates foreground from background to produce 3-D illusion. She also experimented with wax and sand to create magical special effects. The result is simply stunning considering that the film is 80 years old. It did not age at all, it is paced extremely well, and its backgrounds literally hypnotize the viewers of any age. By the power of her creativity and imagination, Reiniger takes the viewers to the dream world of mesmerizing and magic characters and their incredible adventures.

A really superb animated film, quite amazing for its time, I think. Delightful!

An African sorcerer tries to sell a flying horse he has created or conjured up to a Caliph. He hopes perhaps to have the Caliph's daughter. That being unlikely, he lets the Prince try the horse out, without explaining how it works. Thus, the Prince goes up to soaring heights, and by the time he figures it out, he's found the magical island of Wak-Wak where he half-kidnaps, half-saves a Princess there. They go to China, he meets Aladdin, there's lots of charming adventures, some of them perhaps scary for kids (giant snakes, demons, the Sorcerer, etc.).

It's done with silhouettes, black cut-outs against white (or tinted) backgrounds, though the backgrounds are also filled with silhouettes too. Some of them are very intricate, and there is also a fair amount of attention to detail, like creating rippled reflections in water.

Highly recommended!

While I was at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library looking at various VHS tapes I could borrow, my eyes saw something that I've never heard of before called The Adventures of Prince Achmed. I looked at the back case and found out it was possibly the earliest full-length animated feature in existence and was directed by Lotte Reiniger in cutout silhouette. I must say, most of the images were pretty impressive with various color tints and use of detail in backgrounds and movements, all involving black construction paper. Certainly one of the most impressive sequences involved the battle of the evil sorcerer and Witch of the Fiery Mountains as they changed into various vicious animals in the fight to the death. While there's plenty of action here, it's not very fast paced which I guess is par for such a painstaking film that took three years to make involving such attention to dreaming of the big picture but if you allow your imagination to take hold, this could be one of the most enchanting experiences of your life! Definitely worth checking out for animation enthusiasts.

In our age of CG and digital enhancements, it's difficult (for some) to remember a time when things were done by hand and hand alone. Thus, is the case of animation. This painstaking art has been replaced with programs that not only speed up the process of single-frame rendering, they can even mimic pen strokes and outlines.

So it's a rare treat to come across a unique work that illustrates the artistry of early animation in Film. A shining example is Reinger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" . There's really no preparation for this feature, one just needs to succumb to the beautiful imagery that begins to reveal itself, one silhouette at a time. It completely takes us off the conventional track and into the realm best inhabited by forgotten dreams. One forgets that one is watching a series of contours and like the traditional Nang Yai shadow puppet play, the journey has you swept away in a short time!

Some may not be as impressed with this `old-fashioned' approach to story telling. It doesn't compare to the spectacles of the `instant classic' available these days. It's a bit `clanky' and possibly too analog for others. On the other hand, if you're looking for a whimsical and imaginative tale of magic, travels to mystical lands, heroism and love (with a charming score), you won't be in the least bit disappointed with this one.