The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

There is a reasonable case that The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the most important film you have never seen. Released in 1926 by the small German production outfit Comenius-Film GmbH, it holds the distinction of being the oldest surviving animated feature film in cinema history. That is not a trivial claim. Earlier animated features are believed to have existed, but none have survived intact, which means Lotte Reiniger's 66-minute silhouette fantasy is, for practical purposes, where the art form begins. It was produced in Germany during the Weimar Republic period, a remarkably fertile era for European cinema, and draws its source material from One Thousand and One Nights, the centuries-old collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales that had already proven rich territory for storytellers across every medium. The film follows Prince Achmed through a series of fantastical encounters, set against the backdrop of a world populated by sorcerers, enchanted creatures, and faraway kingdoms. If you have spent any time with other silent-era films (and there were plenty of ambitious ones being made around the same time, as you can see from our look at The General and The Eagle), you will know the period was anything but creatively timid.

The director, Lotte Reiniger, was a German filmmaker who had been working with silhouette animation since the early 1920s, developing a technique that involved hand-cutting figures from paper and card, then animating them frame by frame under a camera. The process for this film took approximately three years to complete, which gives some sense of the scale of commitment involved. Reiniger worked alongside a small collaborating team, and the film was produced with a multiplane camera setup that allowed for layered backgrounds and a genuine sense of depth, a technical approach that predates the method Disney would make famous over a decade later. For animation enthusiasts who have followed the form across its history (including more recent works like Josep), the technical lineage here is genuinely striking. The film has been restored and re-released several times over the decades, and modern screenings typically pair it with a newly composed or arranged score, since the original exhibition prints were, of course, silent.

As for the cast, the nature of silhouette animation means there are no on-screen performers in any conventional sense. The characters are cut figures, given life entirely through Reiniger's manipulation of their forms. There are no faces to read, no voices to listen to, and no star names to bring prior associations. What the audience receives is pure visual storytelling, which makes the film a genuinely unusual experience even by the standards of silent cinema. It is polished but otherworldly, rooted in craft rather than performance, and stands quite apart from almost anything else in the medium's history. Whether that amounts to a satisfying watch is, of course, a matter for the review itself.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) isn’t just a milestone, it’s a miracle. As the oldest surviving animated feature film, Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette masterpiece stands as a testament to imagination, patience, and sheer artistic audacity. Created entirely by hand using intricate paper cut-outs and stop-motion techniques over three years, the film adapts stories from One Thousand and One Nights into a flowing, dreamlike ballet of shadow and light. That it exists at all is astonishing; that it remains so visually enchanting nearly a century later is nothing short of magical. Reiniger’s animation is breathtaking in its fluidity and detail. Characters glide across the screen with grace, their delicate silhouettes expressive despite the absence of facial features, conveying longing, fear, mischief, and wonder through posture and motion alone. The layered backgrounds, shimmering effects, and inventive use of depth (achieved through multiplane techniques years before Disney popularized them) create a rich, otherworldly atmosphere that feels both ancient and timeless. The story (following Prince Achmed’s quest through flying horses, sorcerers, and enchanted islands) is episodic and mythic, more fable than plot-driven narrative. But that suits its fairy-tale origins perfectly. Accompanied by a haunting score (often newly composed for modern restorations), the film casts a spell that transcends its age. It has it's flaws. (its pacing can meander, and its gender dynamics reflect its era), but the artistry is revolutionary. Watching Prince Achmed isn’t just viewing animation history, it’s witnessing poetry in motion, crafted frame by frame by a visionary woman who defied every expectation. A true cinematic treasure.

What strikes me most, coming away from this one, is how rare it is to watch a film and feel that the person behind it was genuinely inventing as they went, not borrowing a grammar that already existed but writing one from scratch. Reiniger had no real template for what she was doing, and that freedom, or perhaps that necessity, shows in every scene. I find myself thinking about it in the same breath as other animation I have covered here, particularly The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a film made seven decades later with vastly more resources, and yet the gap in imagination between the two is perhaps narrower than you might expect. If you have any interest in where cinema came from, this one is not optional. It is, as I said, a miracle. And miracles, in my experience, are worth the 66 minutes.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1926  | Watched: 2026-03-10

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store
Buy: Apple TV Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Criterion Channel
Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Germany: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Cemetery Man (1994) · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
More from the 1920s: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · The Docks of New York (1928) · A Throw of Dice (1929)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)