The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is held to be the world's first feature-length animated film. Directed by one Lotte Reiniger in 1926, the entire thing is done in a type of stop-motion with metal and cardboard cut-outs against a lit background. The plot is based (albeit loosely) on stories from The Arabian Nights.

And it is glorious.

I admit here that I am certainly biased. This movie is an amalgamation of things I already enjoy. Animation? Check. Stop-motion specifically? Check. Classic tale of fantasy? Check. I knew before I watched it that I was going to like it very much.

Let's go over the story quickly.

It starts off with an evil wizard (the African Magician) plotting some mayhem on the birthday of a local ruler.

He tricks Prince Achmed into riding a magical flying horse

and tries unsuccessfully to woo his sister, Dinarsade, which only serves to get him thrown into a dungeon for a while.

Achmed is carried to the island of Wak Wak, where a bit of hilarity ensues

before he meets (and falls all aflutter for) the ruler of the island and its demons, Princess Pari Banu.

...And promptly kidnaps her. As one does.

Now, hilariously terrible a romantic tactic as this is, I have to mention in Achmed's defence that it's not really clear whether he dragged her off for purely selfish reasons or actually rescued her since, as we see later, the demons try to kill her upon getting her back. It's a little puzzling, and I attribute this to the absence of some undoubtedly important scenes.

Anyhow; Pari Banu then gets captured again by the now-escaped African Magician and is sold to the emperor of China.

Achmed's rescue attempts are thwarted and he is dropped into the territory of the-best-character-ever-seriously-I-mean-it: the Witch of the Flaming Mountain.

She gives Achmed the armour and weaponry needed to defeat the Magician (her mortal enemy), and they set off. They manage to get to Pari Banu, but the demons of Wak Wak show up and whisk her away yet again,

leaving Achmed and the Witch trapped outside and unable to help her. It turns out that the gates of Wak Wak will only open to the possessor of Aladin's lamp.

Aladin ends up being pretty easy to find, but he doesn't have the lamp, as it was stolen by the African Magician. We then get to hear Aladin's side of the story, and find out that he fell in love with and married Dinarsade,

who vanished when the lamp was taken. They plead with the Witch to kill the Magician and retrieve the lamp, which she says she will try.

Thus ensues the shape-shifting, fireball-flinging magical duel.

And yes, that is exactly as amazing as it sounds.

The Witch wins (of course) and they use the lamp to get into Wak Wak, where they fight off the hordes of angry demons.

Pari Banu and Dinarsade are rescued, the Witch keeps the lamp, and everything ends happily.

The film is only sixty minutes long, so the characters are simple by necessity, but they still leave strong impressions. Well, maybe not Dinarsade... and Pari Banu just tended to get kidnapped a lot.... All the same, it works for the tale.

The African Magician is suitably clever and malicious, Achmed is noble and brave, if a bit brash, and the Witch of the Flaming Mountain takes names and kicks asses with the best of them.

The animation is ridiculously impressive, especially as you remind yourself throughout the movie that, yes, that is cardboard.

Lace curtains and clothing, rippling reflections in water, shape-shifting wizard battle.

It's a treat for anyone with an interest in the medium.

The soundtrack is fitting and doesn't distract, working with the colour-tinted film to bring a nice, coherent atmosphere to the picture.

Sadly, as I mentioned above, there are sizeable chunks missing from The Adventures of Prince Achmed. What exists has been pieced together, and the originals are entirely gone. My heart twinges a bit when I think of how impressive the intact film must have been.

In conclusion:

Go. Watch it.

Watch it by yourself at least once, then show it to everyone you know. It's perfectly suitable for all ages and degrees of cinematic nerd.

I leave you now with the lingering distaste of my over-use of italics, and the assurance that I will do my best to track down more of Reiniger's work.

Spin.

© 1926 Comenius-Film GMBH