The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Almost intriguingly convoluted and nonsensical blend of various stories from "One Thousand and One Nights" animated with Reiniger's formidable artistry. She really managed to develop a beautiful and captivating style of silhouette cinema that transforms all its technical and narrative limitations into unique dreamlike magic. In a weird way it taps into the essence of cinema and serves as a link to its prehistory in magic lantern shows, wayang kulit and various other ancient forms of shadowplay.

Reiniger's work is beautiful and impressive and she has a terrific imagination. But after a while the limitations of a silent movie with characters who are mostly expressionless became clear. It's hard to get emotionally invested and care about what happens. Still, a fascinating piece of cinema history.

First off this film looks beautiful. The lush background colours and cutout animation are both superb. After a while, when that loses it's charm, the film does seem to drag a bit. I suppose that's one of the limitations of silent cinema. Still, this is an essential piece of cinema history that all should see.

Gorgeous? Absolutely. Important? No doubt. Charming? You bet. A bit of a drag at times? Well, yeah. But it's still a fun, engaging tale (if a generic, well-known one) done with beautiful visuals.

The story is definitely the film's weak point, lacking detail and motivation and I kind of stopped caring after a while since it was obvious how things would turn out anyway. The animation, on the other hand, is exquisite and more than enough reason to watch the film. The creativity, the attention to detail, the colourful backgrounds, they're all beautiful and keep you watching till the end.