Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed)

Germany, 1926

Courtesy The BFI National Archive

Film On display
A yellow image with black silhouettes of fantastical creatures and princes demonstrating the early animation style of lotte reiniger
A still from Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed). Courtesy Alamy.

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

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

On display until

16 February 2031

ACMI: Gallery 1

Credits

creator

Lotte Reiniger

Production places
Germany
Production dates
1926

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

Collected

336239 times

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/100855--die-abenteuer-des-prinzen-achmed-the-adventures-of-prince-achmed/ |title=Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed) |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=16 February 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}