You may not have heard of German animator Lotte Reiniger. She turned her home into a DIY animation studio and pioneered animating silhouettes by shooting homemade puppets frame-by-frame against sheets of lead.
Later she used layers of glass to create depth, devising the first multiplane camera, which she used to create the first colour animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). While many people believe Walt Disney’s Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the first animated feature, Reiniger’s fairytale precedes the Disney film by over a decade. With more than 60 animated films to her name, Lotte Reiniger is a true hero of animation.
Curator Notes
Often hailed as the first full-length animation film in the history of cinema, this is also pioneering animator Lotte Reiniger’s most extraordinary work. Reiniger developed a highly sophisticated silhouette animation technique inspired by Chinese shadow theatre. Intricate hand-cut silhouettes were combined with shimmering backgrounds created with wax and sand set on back lit glass. Colour-tinting further enhanced the luminous effect. Amongst her collaborators were her husband Carl Koch, who acted as her production manager and photographer, and the filmmakers Walter Ruttman (Berlin: Symphony of a City) and Berthold Bartosch (L’idee) who created backgrounds and special effects. The story from the Arabian Nights allows full rein for Reiniger’s elaborate and ingenious work - magical-flying horse, wicked sorcerer, djinns, ogres, monsters and wondrous kingdoms abound. – The ACMI Collections team
A short clip of Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed
Related articles
Related works
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Stream, rent or buy via
Collection
In ACMI's collection
On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
181398
Curatorial sections
The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-01. Light and Shadow → MI-01-AV04
The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-01. Light and Shadow → MI-01-C02
Object Types
Moving image file/Digital