Lotte Reiniger, "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926)

~ Howdy, Folks!

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting.

Several famous avant-garde animators worked on this film with Lotte Reiniger, among them Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, and Carl Koch.

The story is based on elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou featured in Andrew Lang's "The Blue Fairy Book".

Definitely one of the pioneering animations in all of cinema, and the first to have a woman as credited director. What's truly astonishing to me is that there were no storyboards or dope sheets during the production. Every scene had to be composed, staged and manipulated while Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger kept track of all the mechanisms in her head. This meant she had every scene mentally mapped out, and once a scene started filming, she had to execute every frame of it purely from memory. There were times when this entailed ten- and twelve-hour workdays to complete lengthy scenes. Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed is clearly one of those magnificent labors of love, an artistic passion that refuses to see obstacles, and concentrates firmly on conveying a story. Groundbreaking in its day in 1926, this film still stands as a high water mark for this difficult technique.

~ Hi, oneuglybunny!

That's some great info you've shared regarding the making of The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The film is a must see for all fans of animation and contains many artistic and beautiful camera effects. It's sobering to realize that Reininger toiled for over two years making this feature. It was truly a labor of love.