Double treat for Whanganui animation fans at film society screenings

A still from the 1926 German film The Adventures of Prince Achmed to be screened by Whanganui Film Society.

Lovers of animated film will have a chance to see a rare screening on Monday night.

Whanganui Film Society, in conjunction with the Goethe Institute, will present The Adventures of Prince Achmed - the oldest existing animated feature ever made.

German animator Lotte Reiniger created the silent film in 1926 using delicate, hand-cut silhouette animation.

The enchanting film depicts tales of The Arabian Nights and Reiniger spent three years creating 250,000 frames.

"Watching the African Sorcerer stretch himself into a kangaroo or duel with the Fire Witch as a sinuous, snapping succession of animals [a sequence so effective that it was recreated in Disney's The Sword in the Stone many year's later], you can see an inventive fierceness about the film's set pieces," wrote Sight & Sound reviewer Kate Stables.

The film shares a double bill with René Laloux's mesmerising psychedelic animated feature Fantastic Planet.

Fantastic Planet, which won the Grand Prix award at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of "Oms", human-like creatures, kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue giants called "Draags".

The story takes place on the Draags' planet Ygam, where we follow our narrator, an Om called Terr, from infancy to adulthood.

Whanganui Film Society president Helen Marie O'Connell said Fantastic Planet was an adult film whereas The Adventures of Prince Achmed was suitable for younger viewers and will screen at the earlier time of 6pm so families can attend.

"The session is an 'Animation Double Bill' with different start times to our usual and the first of the two films is open to non-members," she said.

Memberships can be purchased before the screening or online at whanganuifilmsociety.org.nz.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed screens at 6.30pm followed by Fantastic Planet (members only) at 8pm at the Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum, Watt St, Monday, April 30.