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\n Conventional film-buff wisdom tells us that Walt Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the oldest fully animated feature film, but history proves otherwise. The actual oldest animated movie came out eleven years before Snow White, and coincidentally, it was directed by a German woman. Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed was released in 1926, and at an hour and six minutes, it is the oldest cartoon feature that can still be viewed and appreciated today — two older features from Argentinian animator Quirino Cristiani are believed to have preceded Prince Achmed, but no known copies still exist.
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\n 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' Was Based on Middle Eastern Folk Tales and Myths\n
\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nThe Adventures of Prince Achmed shares a story inspired by Middle Eastern legends, notably those scribed in Hanna Diyab's version of One Thousand and One Nights. The plot centers around the titular Prince Achmed, who, after being tricked by an African Sorcerer, is swept away from his kingdom on a flying horse. From there, he goes on an episodic odyssey to distant lands, where he falls in love with a princess, battles monsters, and ultimately teams up with Aladdin and a magical Witch to rescue his beloved, defeat the wretched Sorcerer, and return home triumphantly.
\nThe fantastical, fairy-tale-like narrative involving princes, princesses, sorcerers, and witches suggests a bit of prescient iconography in this early animated film, not to mention its coincidental inclusion of Aladdin. However, The Adventures of Prince Achmed's parallels to the animated movies audiences have come to cherish over the past 80-plus years may start and end with its plot. In style and form, it's quite different from a conventional cartoon.
\n\n 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' Is Distinct From Other Animated Movies\n
\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nTo create the film, Reiniger used a method known as silhouette animation. This method involves backlighting cardboard cutouts before the camera, creating something that looks and works like a shadow puppet show. Rather than just filming live-action shadow puppets and calling it animation, though, Reiniger painstakingly adjusted each frame to give the illusion of movement. The result is immaculately fluid, especially given how old the film is and how laborious the process was.
\nNevertheless, as the silhouette method's name suggests, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is also entirely made up of blacked out subjects and scenery. We never actually see the characters' faces, and while the film is not lacking in stunning imagery, the silhouettes don't allow for details beyond their basic, shadowy figures. The entire movie would actually be in black-and-white if it weren't for the prints being tinted in different colors.
\nThe Adventures of Prince Achmed also preceded the advent of sound film by one year. Thus, the movie is without auditory dialogue. It instead communicates its story through visuals and sparse text cards. An accompanying score from early film composer Wolfgang Zeller further aids the dramatic queues throughout the film. Of course, it is not altogether uncommon for cartoons to still prioritize imagery and sound effects over words. Sometimes, when the animation is done right, these non-verbal signals can even be more effective in setting a tone. By today's standards, though, it is rather esoteric to watch any film without synchronized sound, and the fact that The Adventures of Prince Achmed manages to weave a thorough and compelling narrative without voice acting is a testament to Reiniger's mastery of her craft.
\nOn top of The Adventures of Prince Achmed not looking or sounding quite like the animated films we watch today, it also has a different energy to it. While the film is not lacking in imagination, it doesn't feel like a children's movie, especially compared to the animated features eventually popularized in the United States. Reiniger made the film with a technical crew of German avant-gardists, including Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, and her husband, Carl Koch. Accordingly, The Adventures of Prince Achmed comes off as an artistic experiment for people of all ages to enjoy. In many ways, it is not unlike the live-action German expressionist films of the same era, which were stylistically bold and rich in formalism, indicative of the cinematic arts in their earliest stages of development.
\n\n 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' Was Lost For Most of the Twentieth Century\n
\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nToday's copies of Prince Achmed are made further enigmatic by their restored quality. The film was all but lost for several decades, and even today, no known German prints of the film have been found. An English-language nitrate copy was only recovered from the British Film Institute's archives in the late 90s, thus reintroducing it to the world at the turn of the millennium. Still, certain shots appear fuzzy, and the coloring is not the same as the original version. These blemishes, along with the knowledge that the film is nearing a century old and was considered lost media for so long, makes watching The Adventures of Prince Achmed a thought-provoking, yet strangely eerie sensation.
\nThe film's long hiatus from the public might be linked to the German film industry's spotty history. During World War II, the Nazis aimed to redefine all forms of German media, especially film. They went in a decidedly anti-expressionist direction, changing the nature of German cinema forever. This shift likely accelerated The Adventures of Prince Achmed's descent into obscurity, especially given that Reiniger spent much of the war years avoiding Germany and its new national cinema movement. In addition to this, the destruction of Europe during the war might account for the film's physical illusiveness. One can assume that many films were tarnished in the wreckage across the continent — a fate that American movies never had to endure.
\nStill, even if the version of The Adventures of Prince Achmed available today may not be the complete original, it is complete enough to warrant a viewing for anyone interested in animation, cinema, or art in general. Lotte Reiniger deserves greater recognition for her contributions to film history, for even if we can't compare The Adventures of Prince Achmed to most of the animated features that have come out since, it has endured longer than the rest, and its singularity is evidence of Reiniger's unmatched innovation in her then-budding, but now ubiquitous field.
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