1925-6: The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

100 Years of Animation is a series, where I will review animated movies from every year leading up to the 100^th anniversary of animated feature films, which will be on November 9, 2017. However, since some movies have been lost and in the beginning, not every year had at least one movie, so I will be skipping a few, which is why there won’t be 100 reviews.

Since the first movie was released on November 9, 1917, the years will go from November 9, one year to November 8, the next year.

Even though I don’t think I need to say this, this series will contain spoilers. This will be the only warning. I am not going to say it every video.

We start our journey with the 1925-26 movie, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”, which is the oldest animated film. However, it is not the first. In fact, it is the third. The first two are considered, “lost”.

Anyway, I quite enjoyed The Adventures of Prince Achmed. However, this does not mean there are not flaws. The plot is rather primitive and there a plenty of illogical elements. The English dub is also not very good.

Let’s start with the plot. The film is split into five acts.

After introducing the characters, the first act focuses on the African magician or is he the sorcerer? The English dub calls him “The Sorcerer”, but the captions call him, “The Magician”. When one translates what is on the screen, one will find that they are the same thing in German. Let’s just call him the African Sorcerer. Anyway, the African Sorcerer conjures up a magic horse, but apparently, he needs to show off that he can make other animals before he can make the horse. He then conjures up a handle, which he attaches to the back of the horse. He then quickly tests the horse and it floats. He stops and conjures up clothes. I guess he was naked. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. I guess it might just be outerwear.  Anyway, he magically puts them on. He then conjures a mirror, looks at himself, and then makes it disappear. He then pulls the handle that he pulled earlier to make it fly. He and the horse then fly away.

In the next scene, the Caliph, who is like the king, is having a birthday. After people preform for him, the Sorcerer appears with the magic horse. The Sorcerer explains that the horse can fly. He then gives a demonstration. I almost forgot. The movie feels compelled to remind us who the characters are, even though it has only been four minutes from the first time these characters were introduced. Anyway, the sorcerer grabs a flag and brings it down. The Caliph gives him gold, but the Sorcerer does not accept. I guess the Sorcerer just came to the Caliph to gloat that he can make a magical horse. Anyway, the Caliph offers the Sorcerer anything he wants that the Caliph has to get the horse. The Sorcerer sees Princess Dinarsade, the Caliph’s daughter. He wants her. However, her brother, Prince Achmed, intervenes. The Sorcerer somehow convinces Achmed to get on the horse. He tells the Achmed how to fly with the horse, but not how to get down. The Caliph sees his son flying away and makes his guards surround the Sorcerer.

In Act 2, the Sorcerer, who if you only watch the first act, might think is the main character, even though it is Prince Achmed, finds himself surrounded by guards and Achmed is flying away. The Caliph asks the Sorcerer how to bring the horse down. The Sorcerer tells the Caliph that Achmed must use the back handle. The Caliph asks if Achmed knows this. The Sorcerer shrugs. Meanwhile, with Achmed, he is still flying in the sky. He tries to bring the horse down, but nothing works. He goes through a storm. For some reason, they cut to the Sorcerer, who is imprisoned. They then return to Achmed, who might be in space. Achmed then finds the back handle and pulls it, which makes him go down. He then lands on a magical island in a part of the world called, “Wak-Wak”. That isn’t real by the way, but apparently, it’s a place in Magic the Gathering. More specifically, he lands on a palace’s balcony. The prince then enters, kisses some girls, and then leaves, even though the girls want him to stay. The movie tries to make it seem more magical than that or something, but that is exactly what he did. Oh, I almost forgot about the fact that he broke a hanging bed. I guess the purpose of the scene is to introduce Peri Banu, who is the ruler of Wak-Wak. After flying away from the palace, Achmed lands on an island either with a magic lake, on the Magic Sea, or just in the sea depending on which version of the story you are following, which is the translated, subtitles, or dub version. Peri Banu and a few of her subjects fly in with bird costumes. Achmed hides behind a bush. Like every good protagonist would do, Achmed looks at the naked women bathing. Again, like every good protagonist, Achmed steals Peri Banu’s bird costume. After the women are done bathing, Achmed reveals himself and Peri Banu’s servants fly off. Peri Banu runs away and Achmed chases her. After she stops. He asks her to come to his home with him. Yes, she’ll totally want to do that after you stole her bird costume and chased her. Peri Banu demands to have her bird costume back. She starts running again and he chases her again. She stops and faints. He then takes her and puts her on his horse. He then grabs the bird costume and then the two fly away. The narrator and the captions both confirm that what he did was kidnapping.

The horse later lands in China. Achmed puts Peri Banu and her bird costume next to a tree. Peri Banu wakes up and sees Achmed. He tells her to not be afraid of him. Depending on the story you follow, he tells her that he will serve her until the end of time or his death. Depending on which version you follow, Peri Banu either tells him that he does not know the demons of Wak-Wak or the power of the spirits of Wak-Wak. For the rest of the film, the narrator will refer to demons, which are featured in both the translated and caption versions of the story, as “spirits”. Peri Banu tells Achmed that they will kill him, but the narrator doesn’t seem too concerned. Again, there is a variation on the story. Achmed tells Peri Banu one of the following: “Allah’s mercy will protect us if you will be my wife,” “Allah's grace protects us when you become my wife,” or “Allah’s grace will protect us if you become my wife.”

Meanwhile, the Sorcerer has been looking for his horse. It then immediately cuts to the scene, where he is in chains from earlier. You can’t really search for something when your locked up, can you? Anyway, he summons a tiny version of the horse. It flies around in a few circles, then the Sorcerer, summons a window, which shows where Achmed, Peri Banu, and the horse are. The Sorcerer quite easily escapes the chains. Like, seriously, did they even try? He then transforms into a bat and flies out of his cell.

Back with Prince Achmed and Peri Banu, Achmed says, “We will find our way home and you will forget about Wak-Wak,” “We will find our home and you will be wak-wak,” or “We will find our home and you will forget about Wak-Wak.” Peri Banu starts crying. Achmed feels bad and gives her the bird costume, which I guess is supposed to symbolize that he is willing to let her go back home. That is apparently all Peri Banu needs for her to instantly be in love with him. She then tells him that she will follow him, which in both the caption and narrator version, she is showing a lot less excitement for than in the translated version. Achmed gets close to her and kisses her hand a bunch.

Meanwhile, the Sorcerer, who is still in bat form, lands nearby. He then transforms into a kangaroo and grabs the bird costume while Achmed and Peri Banu are kissing. The two notice and Achmed chases after the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer, being a Kangaroo, easily jumps over a pit, but Achmed, only being a human, does not. The Sorcerer then leaves the bird costume on a branch and heads back to where Peri Banu and the horse are. Shortly after leaving Achmed, the Sorcerer transforms back into his human self. He then summons a hat and puts it on. He then summons a box and brings it to Peri Banu. He bows and gives her the gift. She opens it and he says that it is a garment or robe from Achmed.

Meanwhile, Achmed tries to escape the pit, but a large snake appears. He then easily strangles the snake and it just happens to die in a way that allows Achmed to use the snake as a rope.

Back with the Sorcerer and Peri Banu, he looks at her, who is now wearing the garment. He then tells her that he is to take her to Achmed.

Back with Achmed, he climbs the snake up to the surface and then grabs the bird costume.

The sorcerer brings Peri Banu the horse and grabs her and the two fly away on the horse.

Achmed returns to find neither of the two there.

Act 3 begins with hands playing some bells. The emperor of China is then introduced and his design is borderline racist. The next character introduced is either the Emperor’s favorite or jester, depending on which story you follow. It is revealed that he was the one playing the bells. The Sorcerer comes to sell Peri Banu to the Emperor. The Sorcerer gets a lot of money. The Emperor has Peri Banu to sit besides him.

Meanwhile, with Achmed, he mourns his loss.

Elsewhere, the Sorcerer, who is riding the horse, lands somewhere and throws his bags of money on the ground. He then turns them all into creatures. He uses them to fly back to Achmed. The Sorcerer grabs Achmed. The Sorcerer and his creatures take Achmed away.

Back with the Emperor and Peri Banu, one of the following happens: She either pleases him, he likes her, or he smiles at her. He gives her a flower and wants a kiss, but she backs up. He grabs her and while wrestling free, she knocks his crown off his head. He puts on the crown, but is angry at her for knocking it off his head. He kicks her off the chair and yells for the guards. They and his Jester/Favorite come. The Emperor tells his Jester/Favorite to… wait, here’s the part where things get weird if you follow the different versions. For most of them, there is just a small difference in wording that really doesn’t matter to the story. However, this time, the wording is weird. So, in the captions, it reads, “Kill her or make her your wife!” The translated version is this: “Kill her or take her wife!”. The narrator says, “Kill her or take her to wife!” The captions is the only one that is correct. The translated version suggests that Peri Banu has a wife and he should take the wife or kill Peri Banu and the narrator version suggests that he should either kill Peri Banu or take her to the Emperor’s wife, which isn’t even a character that is shown. In fact, the previous scene suggests he doesn’t have a wife. Anyway, after that mess of a line, the Jester/Favorite kisses her.

Back with the Sorcerer, his creatures, and Achmed, they are above a dormant volcano, which is surrounded by fire. The Sorcerer and his creatures drop them off at the top of the volcano. The Sorcerer then turns the creatures into a boulder and puts it on Achmed. Reminding the audience of his original intention, the Sorcerer says that he will get Achmed’s sister. Achmed tries to fight under the boulder, but cannot. The Sorcerer somehow flies away. It’s possible that he did not turn all the creatures into the boulder, but that cannot be confirmed. Inside the mountain, a witch and her creatures notice Achmed. She throws a few creatures out of the volcano’s top and they grab Achmed and bring them to the Witch. The creatures were also somehow able to turn the boulder back into a bag of gold.

The Witch asks why he entered her magic mountain. Achmed says that the Sorcerer brought him there. The Witch and Achmed fight for some reason. The Witch begs for Achmed to stop and says that the Sorcerer is her greatest enemy. She then says that Achmed is her friend, likely using the “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” logic. The two shake hands.

Back in China, a horn instrument is being played.

It then cuts back to the Witch and Achmed. Achmed asks the Witch to help him free Peri Banu. The Witch says that she does not fear the demons/spirits. The witch turns some lava into a bow, arrows, a sword, and a suit of armor. She says that with the weapons he will defeat the demons/spirits. Achmed puts on the helmet.

Back in China, Peri Banu waits to be married to the Emperor’s Jester/Favorite.

Back in the Magic Mountain, the Witch gives Achmed, who is now in the armor, the weapons. The Witch uses a snake to levitate Achmed and her out of the top of the mountain. The two start flying away, but then they stop.

Back in China, the wedding is starting. The Witch and Achmed are above the ceremony. Achmed says that they must stop the wedding. The Witch and Achmed land and arrive where Peri Banu has been taken after the wedding. The Emperor’s Jester/Favorite outside and the Witch just flings him out of the way.

Inside, some women start to take her away, but Achmed stops them by entering the building. Peri Banu runs to him. Achmed tells the women to go away and they do. The two kiss. Achmed takes her to a bed and the two start kissing again.

Meanwhile, the demons/spirits of Wak-Wak are looking for Peri Banu, their ruler.

The demons/spirits appear outside the building. The witch sees them and runs away. The demons/spirits, who are giant in this shot, easily remove the top of the building. They then enter the building, becoming much smaller. Achmed tries to defeat the demons/spirits, but they manage to take Peri Banu and fly away. With one demon/spirit left, who is in the arms of Achmed, he demands that the demon/spirit take him to Wak-Wak. The demon/spirit does so. They follow closely behind Peri Banu. Once they get to Wak-Wak, the demon/spirit drops Achmed close to a mountain, which closes when the demons/spirits and Peri Banu enter it.

It is revealed that the mountain is the gates of Wak-Wak. It is also revealed that it will only open to the one who has Aladdin’s magic lamp.

Act 4 begins with Achmed, feeling defeated after the mountain closes. He sees a person being attacked by a monster. Achmed shoots an arrow into the monster’s back, which kills it. Achmed checks on the man, who was attacked by the monster. The man says that he is Aladdin. Getting right to business, Achmed asks where the magic lamp is. Achmed asks if he does not have the lamp. Aladdin does not have the lamp. However, he says that he will explain what happened.

Aladdin explains that he was a poor tailor in the city of the Great Caliph. One day, a stranger came to visit him. The stranger, who is the Sorcerer, tells Aladdin to follow him and he does. They go until they see Princess Dinarsade, who is playing chess. The Sorcerer says that Aladdin can have her if he does something for him.

Aladdin and the Sorcerer go to a high mountain. They stop at a well. It is covered with vines and has a lid. The Sorcerer moves the vines and opens the lid. The sorcerer opens a scroll, which shows the magic lamp. The Sorcerer tells Aladdin to fetch the lamp. Aladdin takes a rope ladder down to the bottom of the well. He sees that he can go down further and does so. He gets to the bottom and sees the lamp. He carefully grabs the lamp, blows on it, and starts to climb back up. He then climbs up the ladder, where the Sorcerer tells Aladdin to give him the lamp. Aladdin says, “First, let me out!” in the captions and narrator version, but says, “Let me go first!” in the translation version. They struggle for a bit and Aladdin ends up falling. The sorcerer says that Aladdin will die and that he will obtain the lamp on his own.

Aladdin explains that he was in the cave for a long time until he lit the lamp. The spirit, or genie as it is in the captions, appears. He asks what Aladdin’s command is. The spirit/genie says that he and the other spirits/genies of the lamp are here to serve him. Aladdin asks to be home. The spirit/genie sends him back to Aladdin’s tailoring tent.

Aladdin explains that now that he the lamp, he could win over Princess Dinarsade. That night, Aladdin uses the lamp to make a palace. The next morning, the Caliph and Dinarsade come to the magic palace, which has servants. Aladdin, who now has fancy clothes, greets the Caliph and Dinarsade. Surprisingly quickly, Dinarsade became Aladdin’s wife. They really skip ahead. One moment, it is him kissing her hand and then BAM! Married! I guess, they didn’t have the time to develop that. I mean, that makes Disney relationships look long.

Anyway, Achmed explains that the Caliph is his father and that Dinarsade is his sister. Achmed demands that Aladdin tell him what happened next.

Aladdin explains that one day, the palace, princess, and lamp were all gone. The Caliph’s guards take him to be executed, but before he can be, he escapes. In his escape, his fancy clothes are thrown off him. Aladdin explains that he escaped because the Caliph was mad at him. Aladdin runs to a dock. Here, he takes a boat and sails away. Eventually, a storm happened, which breaks the boat. Aladdin is swept by the waves, which land on a rock. He gets up and find what looks like a tree. He finds a bunch of bananas and takes them. Before he can eat any, the tree is revealed to be the monster that Achmed fought earlier. Aladdin explains that is when Achmed showed up.

Achmed asks who did this and Aladdin explains that it was the Sorcerer. Achmed explains that he loved Dinarsade. The Witch appears. She tells Achmed to hurry in his saving of Peri Banu. The Witch explains that the spirits/demons want to kill her because she followed her. Yes, that doesn’t make sense. Why even capture her if you were just going to kill her? So, stupid. Anyway, Achmed is sad and the Witch wants to comfort him, but Aladdin stops her. He explains that the Sorcerer has the magic lamp and that only the lamp can open the gates of Wak-Wak. Aladdin says that if she kills the Sorcerer, she can have the lamp. Achmed gets up and demands that she kills him. The Witch says that she will try to kill him.

The Witch summons the Sorcerer. He transforms into a lion. She transforms into a snake. They growl and hiss, respectively, at each other. He transforms into a scorpion. He uses his pincers to cut her, but she is too quick. She bites down on his tail. He manages to get him off and she transforms into a chicken. He transforms into a vulture. They then fight for a while, until he transforms into a small dragon and she transforms into a large fish. They fight again until they both transform back into their normal appearances. She throws a fire ball at him, but he ducks and it misses. He throws a fire ball at her and she steps out of the way, so that it misses her. They continue to throw fire balls at each other, every time missing, until one finally hits the Sorcerer, killing him. The Witch gives Aladdin the lamp. She confirms that the Sorcerer is dead. Per the agreement, Aladdin gives the Witch the lamp.

Act 5 begins with Peri Banu about to be killed by the spirits/demons. They take her to a cliff and wait for her to jump. She hesitates because, you know, she doesn’t want to die. Before she can do it, a spirit/demon comes and says that Achmed is at the gates. It then cuts to Achmed, Aladdin, who is holding the lamp, and the Witch outside the mountain. Achmed demands that they release Peri Banu. One of the spirits/demons holds her up, Achmed shoots an arrow, it hits the spirit/demon, and the spirit/demon plummets off the cliff, releasing Peri Banu before doing so. Achmed commands Aladdin to summon the spirits/genies of the lamp. Somehow, instead black demons/dark spirits appear. Achmed fights to get to Peri Banu, but leaves Aladdin unprotected. One of the black demons/dark spirits takes the lamp. Achmed manages to save Aladdin. Aladdin and Achmed start throwing boulders at the black demons/dark spirits. Finally choosing to do something, the Witch kills the black demon/dark spirit that had the lamp and gets the lamp. For some reason, the spirits/genies start coming out of the lamp. The spirits/genies start to destroy the black demons/dark spirits. However, a black demon/dark spirit grabs Peri Banu and Aladdin and Achmed throw boulders at it. They then run after the creature. Achmed and the Witch kill the beast, freeing Peri Banu.

After the spirits/genies finish destroying the black demons/dark spirits, Achmed kisses Peri Banu. The Witch interrupts to point out Aladdin’s palace, which is returning. It flies into the seen and lands. The Witch says goodbye to Achmed, Peri Banu, and Aladdin. The three then enter the palace. The spirits/genies enter the lamp. The palace flies away. Aladdin assumes that his wife is just in palace. He eventually finds her. The two kiss. Achmed and Peri Banu arrive and Dinarsade hugs her brother. The palace eventually lands where it was originally made. In his palace, the Caliph is sitting. A servant arrives and says that Aladdin’s palace is back. The Caliph greets his family. Achmed introduces his dad to Peri Banu. The Caliph hugs her. The Caliph forgives Aladdin. The end!

When I started writing this, I thought it was an okay movie, now I know, it really is not that good, story-wise.

Now, let’s talk about the characters.

First, Prince Achmed. This spoiled, arrogant prince becomes a true hero in the end learning the power of… I’m just kidding. This brat basically learned that women are not an object and then saved a seemingly powerless woman. This is definitely an example of the primitive “damsel in distress” story.

Second, Dinarsade and the Caliph. They didn’t do much besides move the story along.

Third, the Sorcerer. He was definitely a good villain. His motives were not clear at the beginning, but slowly become clear when he objectifies the Princess, which is what Prince Achmed did with Peri Banu. He’s supposed to be the hero, right? Anyway, I thought that the fight scene between him and the witch was a good scene. It was nice to know that even one of the oldest animated movies was not afraid to show death.

Fourth, the Witch. Throughout, she is an Anti-Hero, really only choosing to be good to help herself in the end. However, in the first part of her time, she acted like a sidekick, but quickly became an “ex Machina”.

Fifth, Aladdin. I quite enjoyed Aladdin and he seemed to be a good character throughout. While he was somewhat selfish, he did not seem too selfish.

Sixth, the Main Genie/Spirit. The Main Genie/Spirit was an interesting character and while he only appeared briefly for exposition, he did a good job doing so.

Seventh, the Emperor of China. He was a secondary antagonist, but I did kind of feel bad for him because all he really wanted was love.

Eighth, the Emperor’s Jester/Favorite. I feel bad for how he was treated by the Witch, since he really didn’t deserve it. Much like the Emperor, he just wanted love and he did spare Peri Banu’s life, so that’s a plus.

Finally, the Magic Horse. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the Magic Horse is just gone like halfway through the movie, starting in like Act 3, they rarely show it and it never appears in Act 4 or 5. The horse was really just a way to move the story along.

Next is the animation. The animation is amazing for what it is. The effects all around were good. I think my favorite effects were when magic was being used. You definitely feel like they are using magic. I think the cleverest effect is the wave effect. When Aladdin was brought to the rock by the wave after the storm broke his ship, as Aladdin was getting up, the wave would appear as it would, but to me, I think that was a way for them to move the character without showing movement.

Finally, I want to talk about similarities to other media. For this, it will be things that came after it purely because I have not seen a lot of things from the first half of the 20^th century and there is not a lot to compare this too. It is important to note these are not necessarily references or the media I am comparing it to is not necessarily referencing this, but it is just things that I think are similar.

The obvious one is Disney’s Aladdin. There are definitely a lot of similarities to that film. 1. The Caliph plays a similar role as the Sultan. 2. Princess Dinarsade plays a similar role as Princess Jasmine. 3. For Aladdin’s story, the Sorcerer plays a similar role as Jafar. 4. How Aladdin finds the lamp is similar. 5. Aladdin’s palace is a lot like the Sultan’s palace. 6. The fancy outfit that Aladdin wears is similar to the one that Prince Ali wears. 7. The Main Genie/Spirit is a lot like the Genie, except not as helpful and does not follow the three wishes rule, which is standard for genies is modern fantasy. 8. When Aladdin escapes being executed, it reminded me of the “One Jump Ahead” scene.

The next one that is fairly obvious is the Witch vs. Sorcerer scene is similar to the Merlin vs. Mim scene and their relationship in general, although for the story their roles are reversed, from Disney’s The Sword in the Stone. The Witch and Sorcerer were just about as random as Merlin and Mim in the selection, even ending with the Sorcerer being a dragon like Mim was.

Another similarity involving the Witch vs. Sorcerer scene is fireballs. While this is a staple of the Super Mario series, it reminds me more of Once Upon a Time, mostly the Evil Queen.

A more obscure similarity involves the Sorcerer’s appearance. He looks a lot like Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, mostly in the wide shots. It is mostly his triangular head and long pointy nose that makes him look similar. He actually looks quite a bit like Doofus Khan from the Phineas and Ferb episode, “Doof Dynasty”.

If you want to watch the movie for either good effects or historical value, I recommend this film, but you if want a good story with a good protagonist, stay far away from this movie as possible.