Lotte Reiniger created first feature animation
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In 1926, German artist Lotte Reiniger released “The Adventures of Prince Achmed,” a 66-minute film made of silhouettes, making it the first feature-length animated movie, eleven years before Disney’s “Snow White.”
As a child, Reiniger developed a passion for film and began creating intricate paper cutouts of actors while they performed.
Paul Wegener, a silent film star, recognized her talent and commissioned her to illustrate title cards for his films, eventually leading to her first animation, an excerpt of rats for his film “The Ratcatcher of Hamel.” Reiniger and her husband, Carl Koch, refined her animation technique by using a backlit glass table to move figures incrementally for each frame.
They established a studio above the garage of a Berlin banker, Louis Hagen, who funded the production of “Prince Achmed” during a period of hyperinflation. The film drew inspiration from tales in “1001 Nights,” allowing Reiniger to showcase her delicate silhouette work with the ornate designs of Islamic art. To create the film, Reiniger and Koch developed a multiplane camera, using layered glass plates to create depth and complex effects.
They painstakingly produced around 250,000 individual frames, of which approximately 96,000 made it into the final cut. Although “Prince Achmed” received international acclaim, Reiniger only made one other feature film due to the laborious and costly production. In 2024, she posthumously received an Annie Award, recognizing her pioneering contribution to animation.
