alt.hn

6/7/2026 at 2:35:20 AM

The oldest surviving animated feature film at 100

 https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260603-how-a-26-year-old-german-woman-made-the-worlds-oldest-surviving-animated-feature-film

by 1659447091

6/10/2026 at 7:51:13 AM

100 years old, yet its copyright only expired five years ago—in the United States. In Europe and other life+70 regions, the film will remain copyrighted past 2050, even though Lotte Reiniger died nearly half a century ago!

by bentley

6/10/2026 at 9:25:14 AM

Animators (and storyboarders, layout artists, illustrators etc) are still taught to prioritise the clarity and readability of the character's silhouette, although they're usually working with a three quarter view (between side profile and front-on) rather than a profile like the shadow puppets here. Still I can't help thinking this film would be a good object of study.

Some of the forest scenes remind me of the original King Kong in their use of dark foreground shapes and framing devices to give an impression of scale.

https://youtu.be/j6DaB0Is4jM?t=1720

https://youtu.be/1vNv-pE8I_c?t=72

by klondike_klive

6/10/2026 at 10:09:03 AM

Never heard about it before and just watched it on youtube. I have found it absolutely beautiful.

by FpUser

6/10/2026 at 2:15:40 AM

I’m shocked I never heard of this before.

Just watched the first couple minutes of The Adventures of Prince Achmed and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.

by jimbokun

6/10/2026 at 6:09:51 AM

> it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before

It's a filmed shadowpuppet performance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_play

by thaumasiotes

6/10/2026 at 10:04:49 AM

This is not true, it's a stop-motion animation.

by veltas

6/10/2026 at 7:22:39 AM

Starevich was doing stop motion animated films in 1912: "The Beautiful Leukanida" or "The Cameraman's Revenge".

by yiyus

6/10/2026 at 6:30:49 AM

IIRC, that's the movie they play on loop at the kids section of Landesmuseum in Zürich.

by acoster

6/10/2026 at 2:54:06 AM

Amazing story!

I was unaware of her.

Thanks!

by ChrisMarshallNY

6/10/2026 at 10:15:54 AM

[dead]

by ostacke