Le avventure del principe Achmed

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.

Lotte Reiniger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is one of the most amazing achievements in the history of cinema. The first animated movie ever, Achmed was based on the ancient stories "Arabian Nights." It took her three whole years to make, shooting over 250,000 cardboard cutouts with the assistance of her husband Carl Koch.

The German silent film begins with the creation of a flying horse. The African Magician tricks Prince Achmed into flying the horse, hoping to rid the kingdom of Achmed's presence. But Achmed is able to control the horse, and flies off to an island, where he finds the beautiful princess Peri Banu. In order to win her heart he must defeat the Magician, the Chinese Emperor, and an army of demons, with the help of Aladdin and a mysterious witch.

The irony of this movie is that the German subtitles are subtitled in English. But don't let that throw you, this silent masterpiece is magnificent film-making at its best, and certainly a landmark in cinema.

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.

From the "Arabian Nights" this is a German silent animated film (with music score and color tints). It tells the story of Prince Achmed and hid adventures when he gets on a flying horse. He falls in love with Princess Peri Banu, fights the evil Sorcerer and meets up with the Fire Mountain Witch (!!) and Aladdin (whose story is also told).

This was done in silhouette animation--they use cutouts instead of drawings and film them frame by frame moving each piece a little at a time--this took three years to complete!

It's truly incredible--the cutouts are incredibly detailed and the animation itself is flawless--the characters move very smoothly. The story moves briskly and the color tints and great music score just complement the animation perfectly. Sadly this is little known. Maybe with the restored version playing it will get the recognition it richly deserves.

A great film for the whole family--if the kids don't mind reading subtitles.