The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926

It's wonderful the Germans made such a great movie. Here is the evidence that a great animation doesn't need special effects to make a fabulous story.

I have begun to look into old stop motion animation and this is still one of my favourite movies I have seen.

The animation is a bit weird at first, but the way the shapes and movements are utilised brings this whole story to life. The story itself is interesting to watch, though maybe even a bit confusing at times, but on a second watch it is definitely better.

It is a silent film but the soundtrack adds so much to the film that you almost forget that there is no dialogue. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the film.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in stop motion, or just enjoys watching older films.

The oldest surviving feature-length animated film, directed by Lotte Reiniger. Another film adapted from the Arabian Nights (I just watched Thief of Bagdad earlier in the week), this is notable primarily for its use of silhouetted stop-motion animation, using handcrafted cutouts with a beautiful, astounding level of detail.

The original title of the film is Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed

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.