THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED: The oldest surviving animation

Rating: ⧳⧳⧳⧲

Disney’s Steamboat Willie has nothing on 93-year-old animated film by Charlotte “Lotte” Reiniger The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The animation film is a delightful surprise, a thoughtful and unique film that I am glad has survived the decaying grasp of time. Lotte Reiniger developed her own form of animation using an early multi-plane camera giving the film a surreal depth experience and a fluid background motion. With Reiniger’s influence of Chinese paper cutting shadow puppets and the ongoing German Expressionist movement of the time, the animation’s aesthetics rely heavily on the shadows, shapes, and strange depth of field. 

The story is more of a video game plot complete with a fairy, magician, prince, Aladdin, and a witch. It gets really complicated to follow at times but that might just be my attention span. There are certain animations I watch for the story telling or profound characters but this film was a lot more interesting to appreciate for its technical values than storyline.

It’s broken up into acts using title cards that have beautiful typography while remaining simple in color tones and heavy on the contrast of shadows. Visually strong, the silhouette animation technique Reiniger invented used manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera, kinda like early South Park + poisonous lead. The cutouts are opulent and intricate, with patterns, detailed sheets, and feathered plants taking the film over two years to complete. Reiniger’s animation was a precursor to the cel-based stop-motion technique used by studios throughout the 20th century, a pioneer of her time.

If you’re into animation, you should definitely watch The Adventure of Prince Achmed. After watching, you’ll be able to notice the various allusions other animated films make to Reiniger. Disney, in fact, has made nods to Lotte Reiniger’s films with a shadow Mickey Mouse in the opening scenes of Fantasia and even featuring Prince Achmed in Aladdin. I couldn’t help but think about the infamous Apple iPod commercial and how someone in that art department team was probably a fan of Lotte Reiniger’s work but that’s just my conclusion. Check out a recent homage Google Doodle did for Reiniger’s animation legacy, here.