Too many fans seem to be blown away

Lack of good storyline.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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!

Watching The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is exactly like watching cutouts coming to life. It resembles a magical play and it certainly is not your ordinary animated feature. Aside from being the one of the first made and oldest surviving in the world, it is also one of the very few movies that are exceedingly detailed and exquisite from start to end. Highly inventive and creative in storytelling, each frame are painstakingly crafted and put together by hand resulting beautiful scenes in the animated feature. Even if the casts are merely silhouettes of the cutouts, we are able to feel the character's emotions as the magnificent music sets the mood and the body movements of the cutouts are straightforward, making the animation vivid.What I loved most about this animated feature is that it is truly artistic. Lotte Reiniger is a German but she is able to produce beautiful Arabian and Chinese cutout sets. If she is not a genius, I don't know what she would be! Some stuffs may not be historically accurate or make sense but well it's 1926 so it's actually pretty decent especially they do not have as much resources as we have today to refer or learn from! Hence, it is really amazing to able to watch what a woman's creativity and cutouts can do!So, can I call Lotte Reiniger the Mother of Animation? Actually why not? Lotte Reiniger rightfully is the Mother of Animation!! She invented her own technique and pioneered the earliest form of stop motion animation into a feature film. She is one of the first female film directors and certainly is the first female animated feature film director! Also, even though over 88 years has passed, her The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is still so enchanting and mesmerizing; it will not fail to capture the hearts of all animation fans! (Though I must mention and clarify that it would be given that the animation fan do not anti-fairy tales and don't mind the cultural depictions or societal elements)Seriously, I never thought the animation or the output would be that great, how could she possibly achieve this kind of animation that is so exquisitely animated, in 1926?! I watched this in disbelief and certainly am lost for words for a while because it is the third oldest animated feature and it is also so much more interesting, pleasant, beautiful, insert all the praise words here, in comparison to some of the decades much newer films!Therefore, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is truly a wonder of animation and if you are blessed to watch this, I am sure you will appreciate the art of animation more. I do not know how else I could express my respect and admiration other than highly recommending this to you. It is truly one indisputable great movie. (I'll be mad if you say it's not great!)

a magic film. and the masterpiece of Lotte Reiniger. a kind of embroidery who resurrect not only the childhood memories but a form of delicate humanity. a film like a spell. music, animation, the small pieces of black paper and the romanticism in precise manner to introduce you in the story spirit. an Arabian fairy tale. fascinating for the hard and high work. for the beauty. and for the real gift who represents its root. the story of Prince Achmed and Aladdin has the each ingredient of cinema from period - passion for exoticism, the difficulties of love story, the brave heroes, the splendid maids. but something is unique in its case. it is not easy to define it. but it is the motif for who, after almost a century, the film is not seems be old. maybe, the universal message. or the admirable/amazing art. in fact, maybe, only the magic of an extraordinary work.

Although a couple of long-lost Argentinean films may or may not predate it, this stands in the history books as the oldest surviving feature-length animated picture in history, a fact which is genuinely astounding given how well it's aged. Although the entire film is populated by silhouettes, the creative intellects responsible quickly shift that handicap into a calling card. Extravagantly ornate character and set designs give us more than enough to establish the cast and tell its ambitious fairy tale, while the thick black mattes leave just as much of the screen to be filled in by the viewer's imagination. Judged by modern standards the pace is very slow, but the plot - lifted piecemeal from a dozen different myths and fables - moves in unexpectedly bold directions. Best viewed as a spectacular time capsule, it's an enlightening glimpse at the roots of a proud industry that's yet to finish its first century.