I’ve heard many times that Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the oldest feature length¹ cartoon. However, to be more precise, Disney’s cartoon is the oldest cel-shaded survived cartoon, but not the oldest animated film over all. That honour belongs to the German cartoon from 1926: The Adventures of Prince Achmed. It was directed by Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch. The film uses paper cut-out puppets and has no sound. Like all silent films it relies on written text on screen to show what characters say.

Story

Allow me surprise you with this premise: the story focuses on the adventures of prince Achmed. One day an African sorcerer comes to visit Caliph, Achmed’s father, and shows him a flying mechanical horse. The king wishes to buy the horse but in exchange the sorcerer asks for his daughter’s, Dinarsade’s, hand. Achmed is not pleased with such suitor for his sister, so he prevents the sorcerer from touching her but as the sorcerer tricks him and sends him flying away on the horse.

Some time after, Achmed figures out how to control the horse and lands. Unfortunately for him, he finds himself in a demon land of Wak-Wak. There wondering the land he stumbles upon a lake to which three bird demon come to bathe. Watching them from the bushes, prince Achmed adores the beauty of Pari Banu, the mistress of Wak-Wak. He steals her and they travel together.

As they reach China, the two finally have got a moment to spare to talk. After all, Pari Banu was captured against her will and she doesn’t want to go with the prince because the demons of Wak-Wak would definitely kill him for kidnapping their mistress. The prince asures her that he will protect them and reluctantly Pari Banu agrees to go. However, the sorcerer finds out about where they are and decides to kidnap Pari Banu to sell her to the Chinese Emperor. He tricks Achmed to go after him and traps him in a pit with a poisonous snake. As the prince gets out of the pit and tries to find his stolen bride, he encounters the Witch of the Flaming Mountain. She agrees to help because she is the sworn enemy of the Africa sorcerer _{^{(a.k.a. deus ex machina)}}. Together they try to save Pari Banu but the demons of Wak-Wak have found her first and now they want to kill their mistress for abandoning them.

Thus, they try to find Aladdin’s magical lamp which can open the door to the demon realm of Wak-Wak. They find Aladdin who tells them that the lamp was taken by the sorcerer. The Witch and the Sorcerer have an epic fireball fight and then they all rescue Pari Banu and also Dinarsade who was teleported to the realm by the sorcerer prior².

Finally, they all return home Dinarsade with Aladdin and Achmed with Pari Banu. Caliph is happy to see his children well again and the film ends with the morning prayer bells.

Characters

There is not much to say here but I have to mention that I liked the dynamic between the characters. It was refreshing to see siblings care for each other when Achmed tried to protect Dinarsade from the African sorcerer. It was also nice to see that Pari Banu had valid concerns about the demons of Wak-Wak and they were not brushed off by the story. I feel like in modern writing many times character concerns are simply there to validate the tension, not because the characters would actually have to face the consequences of their actions.

Additionally, I really appreciated the body language and the shapes of characters. The sorcerer has got a more angular spiky shape than the more soft and rounder shapes of Achmed, Pari Banu or Aladdin. The expressions of the puppets are also done very well and I could easily read characters’ emotions.

As a sidenote, I loved that Ms. Reiniger made the witch fight the sorcerer and not prince Achmed. It was a duel of magic after all, an ordinary mortal with no magical abilities would definitely not survived it.

Structure

The structure resembles one of a theatrical play with the announcement of the beginning and ending of an act on screen. The fact that it’s a silent film also ment that the heavy-lifting of storytelling was of animation and not the dialogue. Showing an action may be longer than saying a few words, but the film only felt a bit lengthy for me when they travelled from Wak-Wak to China. Generally speaking, this was the chapter that, though introduced the Witch to the audience, felt more like a filler than an integral part of the story.

Pacing

Closely connected to the structure, I need to say a few words about pacing. It was decent for the majority of the film. I may have gotten a bit bored by their trip to China because I’m just more used to a faster pace and it’s not the fault of the film. Either way, I still found it entertaining to watch every new scene because of its mastery and whimsy.

Product of Its Time

Needless to say, this film narrates not like modern films do. It’s slower but it doesn’t loose its focus and manages to do something to ultimately progress the plot in every scene.

I’m sure there would be many people today who may find the depictions of Eastern cultures to be either stereotypical or dated but all I could see was a magnificent relic of the past where not a single character treated another wrong due to their cultural background. Some outfits do seem a bit whimsical but I would like to partially blame it on the puppet style. Plain clothes with intricate embroidery cannot be shown on fully black puppets against a one colour background.

Besides, I have to remind about the Orientalist trend of the early 20th century. I know, many may have a critical opinion on this topic because Orientalism doesn’t represent the cultures, it represents “the vibe” Westerners had about Eastern and North African countries but it still sparked interest in real cultures in people.

In conclusion, I just have to say that it was an interesting experience and a rather endearing one. To watch one of the works that pioneered a genre feels like an honour. It allows to look at how people saw the world in the past. I adore studying those differences. It helps see the world from varied points of view. This film would definitely be an entertainment for someone who searches for a unique animation to watch.

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1. During different time organisations claim feature length minimal length to be from 40 to 60 minutes. ↩︎
2. I have also failed to note that Aladdin was her husband as he told his story about the lamp to Achmed. ↩︎