🎬 A Magical Shadow from the Past: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
By Ivy D. Lens, Resident Film Historian
Long before Pixar was rendering photorealistic water and before Mickey Mouse steamboated his way into history, there was a flickering silhouette riding a flying horse through an Arabian night. That silhouette belonged to Prince Achmed—and he made his debut in 1926, in what is now celebrated as the oldest surviving animated feature film.
Directed by Lotte Reiniger, a trailblazing German animator with the patience of a saint and the hands of a surgeon, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is not just a film—it’s a shimmering piece of cinematic poetry. Reiniger didn’t just make a movie; she hand-cut each character and backdrop from black cardboard, then moved them frame by painstaking frame using stop-motion techniques under backlit glass. Think puppetry meets shadow theatre meets wild artistic vision, all before modern animation had even found its feet.
Reiniger was working in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, a golden age of experimentation and bold ideas in German cinema. She was inspired by Chinese shadow plays and infused the film with tales from One Thousand and One Nights, complete with wicked sorcerers, magical islands, flying horses, and—of course—an epic love story. The film bursts with imagination, even without a single word of dialogue. Its visual storytelling is so powerful, you almost forget you’re watching cut paper come to life.
What makes Prince Achmed so special, aside from beating Disney’s Snow White to the punch by more than a decade, is its blend of elegance and adventure. It’s a reminder that animation doesn’t need color or celebrity voices to transport us—it just needs a story, a spark, and someone bold enough to try.
For students with an interest in film, animation, or just really cool history, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a must-watch. It’s 65 minutes of magic, mystery, and meticulous artistry—and proof that even shadows can shine on the big screen.