The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The first German film of the year, Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed.

A sorcerer turns up at the Caliph's palace, and tricks the Prince into taking off on a flying horse, and while hitting on the Caliph's daughter the sorcerer is thrown in jail. The Prince ends up in some magical lands, and hits on the demon Peri Banu, and kidnaps her, but of course she gives in to him. The sorcerer escapes, kidnaps Peri Banu himself, sells her off to the Chinese Emperor and leaves the Prince on a volcano. Fortunately, the witch in the volcano picks the Prince up and helps him to get back. They collect Aladin along the way, but really it is the witch that solves all the problems at the end.

This was done in 1926 as a silhouette animation film, in which the animation is stop motion cut out figures. That said, it's really well done, and although it's monochrome (as in one colour, not as in black and white) the colour does help it pop. The story is largely a retelling, which makes me suspect that this was mainly a technical passion rather than really wanting to tell the story.

But I liked it, so check it out if you can.

[END]