The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The oldest surviving animated feature film, made by Lotte Reiniger over three years using silhouette animation. Reiniger cut every figure by hand from paper and lead, then photographed them frame by frame on a multiplane camera she and Carl Koch designed. The story draws from the Arabian Nights: Prince Achmed rides a mechanical horse, battles demons, and courts Princess Peri Banu across a world of shadow and color tinted by hand. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.