The Adventures of Prince Achmed

I had read many years ago that THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED was the first animated feature made many years before Disney's SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. I read that in Kit Laybourne's THE ANIMATION BOOK. But it is not until I watched Lotte Reineger's animated cut out sillowette shorts on YOU TUBE that I became curious about this movie! When I clicked onto Amazon.com I saw the ad for this movie dvd so I remembered that this title is on You Tube and watched all 65 min. of it there! And WOW!!! I was immediatly amazed! The paper cutouts are so intricate and to realise that this woman animated these paper versions of these arabian night characters by pushing the paper parts one frame at a time to create such graceful and lovely movement is truly remarkable! Prince Achmed, Alladdin, the ogre Witch of the Mountain, the genie( made with sand animation) and a horde of monsters are all animated with their own characteristic movements!The evil intent of the wizard, the beauty and grace of Paru Banu the bird princess and the heroism of Prince Achmed are all fully realized! According to the 60min. documentary this movie did not do financially well with the 1926 audience. The 1926 audience was not ready for a serious animated feature! This was the same problem that Walt Disney had with the release of FANTASIA in 1940! PRINCE ACHMED also makes me think of Alexander Korda's THEIF OF BAGDAD. Reineger was clearly ahead of her time! While I know there is always the problem of copyright issues in putting up copyrighted work onto You Tube, if it wasn't for PRINCE ACHMED being shown on You Tube I wouldn't have seen it and then I would not have bought this dvd! One reviewer pointed out to another that this movie's black and white film frames were hand painted with colour by the film makers to make it a colour movie in 1926! That makes it even more amazing!There are many cutout monsters that remind me of Ray Harryhausen's stop motion creatures and a sequence of the witch ogre battleling the evil wizard by them both turning into black silowette animals made me think of the transformation battle of Alakazam and Hercules in ALAKAZAM THE GREAT! an early colour Japanese animated feature! So if you have a collection of animated movies on video you should have PRINCE ACHMED in your collection! I also recommend the other Milestone release WINSOR MC KAY THE MASTER EDITION! Mckay's silent animation made in the 1920s is also amazing and like Reinegers was before anyone heard of Walt Disney! And I should mention that Wolfgang Zeller's music score originally composed to go with PRINCE ACHMED is magnicent! I am reminded of the score for Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, which I also have on DVD! All this makes me feel that CGI is really over rated and over used in Hollywood today! As someone who makes his own hand drawn animation I feel a connection to the creativity of these early pioneers of animation! So glad I now have this!!

Outstanding! If you are a fan of cinematic or animation history - get this movie! Hard to find it streaming anywhere, so worth the purchase price. Amazing how this is created. Highly recommended!!

After watching this animated film from 1926, which was completely new to me, I knew that I had seen a true work of art. Yes, it has great historical importance -- but it's also wonderful entertainment. There's no dutiful drudgery here! Lotte Reiniger's silhouette animation is indeed a marvel of intricate, delicate technique & detail. There are moments that startle me with their beauty & obvious skill. But in the end, what matters is that she's just as gifted a storyteller as she is an artist.Something that struck me immediately was the use of unexpected humor. For example, when the Caliph demands to know if Prince Achmed understands how to return from his flight on the magic horse, the Evil Magician simply shrugs his shoulders with a sly, mocking smile -- perfect! No director could ask for more from a living actor. The characters may be silhouettes, but they possess a lot more personality than you'd expect.And how much of that smile do we actually see, as opposed to imagining it? That's part of the film's strength -- while providing us with remarkable images, the silhouettes enable us to use our own imagination, so that we project a good deal of emotion into the characters. Much of what's emoted, we "see" in our own mind's eye. Modern CGI couldn't do this sort of storytelling justice, to be honest.The use of color tinting for the backgrounds also adds to the magic of the story, with vivid shades of yellow, blue, red. Ten years before Disney, here's the multiplane camera used to superb effect in creating subtlety & depth. And again, while the technique is impressive, it's always in the service of the story, used to evoke a specific mood.The story itself? A joyful mish-mash of the Arabian Nights, with amazing set-pieces such as the duel between the Evil Magician & the Witch, who continually change forms as they fight one another; or the tranquil poolside scene with the lovely Peri Banu, complete with shimmering reflections in the water. The story never lingers too long on one scene, leaping to another new setting every few minutes. Breathtaking!You don't have to be a fan of vintage animation to enjoy this film. I happily recommend it anyone who loves a good story, told in gorgeous images with real panache. And if that isn't enough, the DVD also includes a fascinating documentary about the life & work of creator Lotte Reiniger, which includes tantalizing samples of her other silhouette films. All we need now is for the British-only collection of those films to be released in America -- Image Entertainment, are you listening?