The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) - November 13, 2018

[MifuneFan]

Milestone Films will be releasing the classic animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) on November 13th in a 2-Disc set that includes other films from the director.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-A...lu-ray/102405/

When The Adventures of Prince Achmed premiered in Germany on September 23, 1926 it was hailed as the first full-length animated film. More than seventy-five years later, this enchanting film still stands as one of the great classics of animation — beautiful, mesmerizing and utterly seductive.

Taken from The Arabian Nights, the film tells the story of a wicked sorcerer who tricks Prince Achmed into mounting a magical flying horse and sends the rider off on a flight to his death. But the prince foils the magician's plan, and soars headlong into a series of wondrous adventures — joining forces with Aladdin and the Witch of the Fiery Mountains, doing battle with the sorcerer's army of monsters and demons, and falling in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu.

This cinematic treasure has been beautifully restored with its spectacular color tinting and with a new orchestral recording of the magnificent 1926 score by Wolfgang Zeller. Thrilling, sensuous and dazzling, Prince Achmed will enthrall children and film enthusiasts of all ages.

Content and Special Features:

• HIGH-DEFINITION RESTORATION featuring original color tinting and toning
• Documentary feature about the director (60 min)
• Vintage commercial (1921)
  
  The Secret of the Marquise (1921)
  The Flying Coffer (1921)
  Dr. Dolittle: Lion s Den - German and English versions (1923)
  Dr. Dolittle: A Trip to Africa (1923)
  Dr. Dolittle: Cannibal Land (1923)
  The Death-Feigning Chinaman (1928)
  The Caliph Stork (1935)
  The Magic Horse (1953)
  Aladdin and His Magic Lamp (1954)
  The Star of Bethlehem (1956)
  The Lost Son (1974)

[ScarredLungs]

Very cool! I hope to pick this up before the end of the year!

[bigshot]

Are the shorts in the supplement section HD or are they SD?

[imsounoriginal]

A movie from 1926 needs a Rotten Tomatoes endorsement?

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Are the shorts in the supplement section HD or are they SD?

I'd also like to know this.

Also, hasn't this been released in other regions already? Is this a different restoration?

[bigshot]

I'm sure the restoration of the feature is the BFI version on the UK bluray. I have that and it is great. I would only buy this for the supplemental shorts, but I already have them on BFI's Reiniger DVD box set. So I would only be interested if they were SD.

By the way, the choices of the shorts is rather odd. Not the best ones... kind of a random grab bag.

[mar3o]

Yeah, I have that same Reiniger DVD box set. It would be fantastic if those shorts are now in HD but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[solaris72]

Originally Posted by bigshot

I'm sure the restoration of the feature is the BFI version on the UK bluray. I have that and it is great. I would only buy this for the supplemental shorts, but I already have them on BFI's Reiniger DVD box set. So I would only be interested if they were SD.

By the way, the choices of the shorts is rather odd. Not the best ones... kind of a random grab bag.

The Caliph Stork, The Magic Horse, and Aladdin and His Magic Lamp make sense as like Achmed they are Arabian Nights stories. The Death-Feigning Chinaman is (according to David Bordwell) a sequence cut from Achmed and released as its own film. The other five are more oddball, but since they are on the BFI's blu of Achmed, and according to this review they are in HD, I presume they were included because HD masters were easily availble (which perhaps bodes well for all of the shorts being in HD).

[bigshot]

I just heard back from Milestone. The supplements on the disc are all in HD.

[jaredofmo]

Got my copy today. I was hoping for this one to get a Blu-Ray over here. I'd seen it online and was considering buying the DVD, but wound up holding out for Blu-Ray. The earliest extant animated feature film finally in my collection.

EDIT: Watched it, it looks great, but didn't watch all the shorts. The second disc contains only shorts. The press release mentioned an hour documentary about Lotte Reinger and a 1921 "commercial," but neither are on the discs or mentioned on the back cover. I was a little disappointed as I'd like to learn more about Reinger and her art.

The BFI disc contains a narration track, which would have been welcome, but it's not included here. I only have a Sony player, so getting the BFI disc has never been an option for me. The feature plays with subtitles already on and they can't be turned off. I'm fairly sure they were being shown by default and weren't hardsubbed, anyway...

[Mikezilla3k]

Which release is better? The Milestone or the BFI?

[bigshot]

They're both from the same master. But I think Milestone adds some extra films that BFI doesn't. There's an excellent UK DVD set that has even more in beautiful restorations. You really need both of those.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by jaredofmo

The second disc contains only shorts. The press release mentioned an hour documentary about Lotte Reinger and a 1921 "commercial," but neither are on the discs or mentioned on the back cover. I was a little disappointed as I'd like to learn more about Reinger and her art.

Was there ever followup on this? I assume it's the doco that's currently available on the Criterion Channel?

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by koberulz

Was there ever followup on this? I assume it's the doco that's currently available on the Criterion Channel?

I would guess it was intended to be the hour long Lotte Reiniger: Homage to the Inventor of Silhouette Film, which was included on the initial Image and BFI DVDs, but dropped from the BDs.

Some other BFI DVDs have exclusive extras not included on their BD counterparts - the DVD of Night and the City included interview with Dassin, 1972 French interview with Dassin and Two Versions - Two Scores (from the Criterion release), and Bande à part featured the 50 minute A–Z Guide to Bande à Part.

[koberulz]

Well that seems daft.

[matbezlima]

I loved this description of the movie in a review I found online:

"A beautiful testament to the fact that limitations often bring out the best in our creativity. The visual style of this seems eternal - it could be a silhouette puppet show from centuries ago, or it could've come out yesterday. I do think that the story gets a bit too cluttered for its own good at times, but even that just gives us the opportunity to see more spellbinding designs."

[vanlutz]

I'm merely putting this out there, if anyone in the US is interested in the double blu-ray/DVD set from the BFI with locked Region B. The shorts aren't available on blu ray in the US (as far as I know)

I have a normal Samsung that with a push of a few buttons gets into the menu, and it worked fine with this blu ray. I was happy to be able to see all the extra shorts that were included.