SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

elicopperman Believe it or not, Walt Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarves was not the first ever animated feature in history, as 11 years prior, German abstract expressionist animator Lotte Reiniger spent three years working on The Adventures of Prince Achmed, adapted from ancient middle eastern folk tales. Despite being lost after the bombing of WWII, the film was later rediscovered in the 1970s and soon restored to its formal glory for the whole world to see. The film's story centers on the Prince Achmed who is tricked by an evil sorcerer to get sent away on a magical flying horse on a perilous flight. However, Achmed foils the magician's scheme and soars far into a serious of adventures (hence the title) which include the likes of falling for the lovely Princess Pari Banu, encountering the Witch of the Fiery Mountains and Aladdin, and fighting against the sorcerer's army of demons. This is the kind of story made for a movie like this, as it takes numerous unpredictable turns to keep the suspense and adventurous aspects up and running to keep the viewers invested. While the characters aren't really three dimensional per se, they still play integral parts to keep the story's momentum afloat, and it's always fun to see who Achmed will meet next on his journey.However, while the story and characters are fun and enticing enough to present a fun series of adventures, the real highlight of the movie is the animation and artistry. It's amazing a movie like this was made in the 1920s, because the abstract animation is absolutely stunning. Considering that the animation mostly consists of paper cut outs, it's not hard to imagine how much blood, sweat and tears went into crafting them, let alone moving them. The designs feel lifted right out of middle eastern illustrations, the character acting is well defined and quite emotional (even with the intertitles around), and the effects animation are so experimental that the magic should not be known. This was also the first animated film to utilize a multiplane camera (giving two dimensional backgrounds depth as they move), and it really helps bring the already luscious albeit simplified backgrounds to life.So, does Prince Achmed still hold up after roughly 92 years? absolutely. The simple but thrilling story and highly innovative animation are what make this movie a milestone of animation today as much as back then. I highly recommend this if you're looking to discover an ancient animated film that offers enough suspense, visual beauty and thrills to both entertain and enlighten. I also recommend it to those who love action adventure stories, let alone tales of princes trying to fight back sorcerers and demons in order to save princesses on their flying horses. It's a dazzling wonder with intrigue and experimentation, and that's more than enough to recommend to all.

jscherber This movie is actually the oldest surviving animation feature film. it was made with silhouette animation which is like shadow puppetry but photographed frame by frame. It has a pretty simple story about a prince fighting an evil magician, trying to rescue a princess, and teaming up with Aladdin. But that is what makes this story good. It is just complex enough to be enjoyable but uses a lot of good classic devices without unnecessary ones. It is very much at the level of a folktale. It makes you feel more emotional than logical. The animation is also fun to watch and matches the stories simple level. It's like Fantasia and other movies where the beauty of it is more in the visuals than the subject. It goes beyond just basic shadows and has some cool effects like color tinting. The music also really helps with setting the mood and idea. I would recommend this to animation fans as it's historically interesting and also to younger children because it feels like a great movie to grow up with.

Jackson Booth-Millard I found this German silent animated film listed in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, I had seen many full length silent films, but never a full length silent cartoon movie, so this was going to be interesting. Basically a wicked Sorcerer conjures up a flying horse, he shows it to the Caliph, he refuses to sell it for any amount of gold, so the Caliph offers him any treasure he has, the Sorcerer chooses the Caliph's daughter Dinarsade, to he great distress. Dinarsade's brother Prince Achmed objects, but the Sorcerer persuades him to try out the horse, it carries the prince away, flying higher and higher into the sky, he cannot control it, the Sorcerer is imprisoned. Prince Achmed manages to take control on the horse and makes it descend, and finds himself in a strange foreign land, he is greeted by a large group of beautiful women, they fight for his attention, so he flies away to a lake. Achmed lands, he sees the beautiful Peri Banu, ruler of the land of Wak Wak, he hides and watches as she and her attendants bathe, they spot him and all fly away, except for Peri Bani, as Achmed has her magical flying feather costume, he chases her running away, but she trusts him when he returns her feathers, they fall in love, but she warns him that demons of Wak Wak will try to kill him. The Sorcerer breaks free and transforms himself into a bat, he seeks out Achmed, the prince fights a giant snake, and while doing so the Sorcerer takes Pari Banu to China, and sells her to the Emperor. The Sorceror pins Achmed under a boulder on a mountain top, but the Witch of the Flaming Mountain finds and rescues him, she wants to help the prince as the Sorcerer is her arch-enemy, so Pari Banu is rescued from the Emperor. The demons of Wak Wak find Prince Achmed and Pari Banu, he fights them off but they are able to carry her away, so he takes a demon captive to fly him to Wak Wak, but the gates are locked, and he slays a monster attacking Aladdin, an impoverished young man. Aladdin tells the story of how the Sorcerer recruited him to find a magical lamp in a cave, he refuses to give him the lamp, so the Sorcerer sealed him in, he accidentally released one of the genies of the lamp, and wished for it to take him home. Aladdin was able to court Dinarsade, marry her and build a magnificent palace, but the lamp disappeared, Aladdin was blamed by the Caliph and fled to avoid execution, he was cast ashore at Wak Wak by a storm, Achmed killed a monster that grabbed him. The Witch arrives and agrees to attack the Sorcerer to get the lamp, they each turn into various creatures and engage in a magical duel, after returning to human form and fling fireballs at each other, finally the Witch slays the Sorcerer. They use the lamp to enter Wak Wak, just in time to save Pari Benu from death, a battle ensues between them and the demon, but they are defeated by creatures summoned by the Witch from the lamp. A hydra- like creature seizes Pari Banu, Prince Achmed cuts off one of its heads, with two more growing back immediately, but the Witch stops it and allows Achmed to kill it, a flying palace settles to the ground, inside Aladdin finds Dinarsade, the two couples bid farewell to the Witch and fly home in the palace. What makes this cartoon film, based on The Arabian Nights tales, really special is not just that there is no sound, only an original music score by Wolfgang Zeller, and inter-titles, but the animation is made up of coloured backgrounds (blue, yellow, lime green, red-orange and green) and the characters, buildings and objects are all silhouette cutouts, the simplistic stop-motion technique is fantastic, it is charming classic silent animated adventure. Good!

gavin6942 A handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.While this is not quite German expressionism, it has that same sensibility of contrast between darkness and light. The use of dark silhouettes to be the characters (no features beyond their outlines) gives a very distinct look that is rarely seen anywhere else.This is apparently the earliest known animated feature film still in existence. What I find curious is that it was not drawn or painted, but rather features cut out pieces of cardboard. In this way, it anticipated and possibly inspired something completely different decades later -- "South Park", which uses construction paper (or at least did originally).