The Adventures of Prince Achmed (German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film, written and directed by Lotte Reiniger. Since two earlier Quirino Cristiani films are lost, it remains the oldest surviving animated feature film.[3][4] The plot is based on elements from several One Thousand and One Nights stories, such as Aladdin, Ahmed and Paribanou, and The Ebony Horse.
Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique that Reiniger invented by manipulating cardboard cutouts and thin sheets of lead under a camera, similar to Wayang shadow puppets. The original prints featured color tinting. Reiniger also used the first form of a multiplane camera in making the film, one of the most important devices in pre-digital animation.