The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the world's first full-length animated film. It is hardly recognised as this in the US, even though it predates Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by 11 years. The film was directed by German director Lotte Reiniger and her small team working like slaves for about 3 years. The story follows Prince Achmed from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights as he battles an evil magician and the forces of darkness in order to save his sister as well as his future queen. He does this with the help of a powerful witch, an army of genies, and Aladdin (yes, that Aladdin). This is a silent film and the animation is done using intricate cutouts and stop-motion animation. There is so much to be seen in any given scene due to the level of effort and detail put into this film.

Take for instance, the war scene. At the height of the climax, the Witch summons forth an army of genies to battle the army of demons. The genies are blurry, shapeless figures that fly into the demons in a haze. Nothing specific can be seen and instead their battle essentially becomes the background to the fight between Achmed, Aladdin, and a Hydra-esque creature, who are all still clearly visible. So this begs the question: why is the epic battle in the background so blurry and hard to make out? There are a number of possible reasons, one being that it is meant to be the background. This explains the heroes being in focus. Another reason could be to convey the brightness of the genies, thus making it hard to decipher the action. Yet another reason could merely be that is leaves more to the imagination. Finally, the implications of these out-of-focus genies could very well be implying something about the power of women in a spiritual sense. I would argue that it is for all these combined.

As I mentioned before, the art style of the film uses various intricate cutouts, which gives the film a “shadow puppet” quality. The cut-outs are highly detailed and used in a large quantity for various scenes. In this particular scene, the entire demon army consists of these cutouts, while the genie army is made up of lighter shapes. The contrast between the two is notable. On the one side we have a clearly defined mass of dark arms, legs, and fingers reaching out in all directions, trying to kill the protagonists, while on the other side we see an innumerable amount of glowing shapeless objects that plow through the darkness. Due to the high number of forces on both sides of the conflict, their actual battle is messy and chaotic, making it hard to clarify the action even if it were in focus. The clash of the armies is put into the background. It is safe to assume that this is the background, as the heroes of the story are clearly presented to the audience in focus on the screen. All the chaos of the battle is there, but it does not overlap with the heroes and their particular fight against the demon with the multiple heads.

There is more evidence to suggest a depth of vision in the scene. For instance, when both sides of the armies are charging towards each other, on the demon’s side, half of them are in their usual black shapes, while the other half is obscured, a bit brighter, and out of focus. This image presents two layers of depth in the shot. The foreground and the background contain demons, implying that there is a significantly high amount on screen at once. During the conflict there are again two layers of action: in one we see the forces of light colliding with the forces of darkness while in the background (and it is meant to be the background because there is no overlapping with the creatures in focus) we can see a stream of constantly moving genies. These beings move across the screen behind the action because they have not yet engaged the enemy in their different and separate space. This use of foreground action is visibly used during the fight with the Hydra and the heroes because, like the heroes who remain in focus, the ground they are standing on does as well. The use of in-and-out-of-focus actions is a necessity for the art style chosen to tell the story. Had the film been made using clay and hand-made sets, this use of altering focus would not have been necessary to establish different planes of depth. Because of the two-dimensional cutouts, the imitation of out-of-focus objects in the background is a necessity in order to show depth in a scene. I would argue that one of the primary reasons for the use of the war being out of focus is to establish a background action. The heroes’ remaining not only in focus, but in the foreground, is to keep the action personalized. This is not unlike any war film in which, during the battle, the camera follows a specific character(s) instead of focusing on the battle in its entirety. The war of the demons and genies is pushed to the back while the focus (literally) remains on heroes and what they are doing during the war. This keeps the viewer grounded and this is where the animation style that was used is especially useful.

The dark cutouts are clear amongst the blurred battle in the background. Had the scene been animated in any other way it might have been too chaotic and overwhelming. Compare for instance some of the major war scenes used today with CG, the madness of the battle of Helm’s Deep in the Lord of the Rings The Two Towers (which not only took place at night, but in the rain). There may be more to it than simply simulating background action, however; another major reason for the out-of-focus genies may be an attempt to simulate overexposure with a light source. The genies, from the beginning of the scene, are out of focus. They retain no specific shapes and are vaguely reminiscent of horizontal rain drops. They are most obviously lighter than the demons, as the Demons are black and associated with creatures of darkness. The genies are meant to be on the side of good, and to contrast with the demons they are not black but a light blue tint. This color distinguishes them from the background, which is a darker blue and the black demons, which is most useful during the battle scene in the background. Why give them no shape? The genies are meant to literally be the light in the darkness. I think that they are given no shape and are instead shown out of focus to portray a vast amount of light bombarding the hoard of demons. In many ways this is reminiscent of the “Night on Bald Mountain” segment from Disney’s Fantasia. The forces of darkness are beaten back by shapeless, beings of light. In this sense the scene invokes a holy, pseudo-Christian aspect to it, which is interesting considering the one unleashing the holy light is a witch. From the first shot they are out of focus, so it is already not the same as when the demons are charging and half of them are out of focus, establishing depth. The genies, when they are the sole focus of the shot, are always out of focus and this is to simulate a blinding light emanating from all the genies combined. When a genie is first shown in an earlier scene, he lights up the cave and appears inside a cloud of smoke. There is a barely visible face and perhaps a beard. His body remains clouded. With this in mind, the army of genies, moving at battle speeds, would be very difficult to see. Add all this to the sheer number of genies meant to be on-screen at the same time and we have simulated overexposure.

Another primary reason for the way these genies are depicted could best be explained through the character of the witch. The witch is one of the central protagonists and is, by far, the most useful and powerful character in the film. I would note that even the hero slaying the hydra could not have been accomplished without her help. The witch manages to gain possession of the lamp and summons the genies. She stands triumphant as they all emerge out of her as if a statement on the life-giving power of women. The genies are beings of light and freedom, as they battle against the forces of the demons, whose sole purpose is oppressing the princess. In this I would argue that the witch then becomes a figure of a liberated female, using her powers to save one who is not. The genie's blurriness is comparable to that of the nude woman’s in Berthold Bartosch’s L’Idee. The woman is usually shown out-of-focus and in particular during a scene in which she meets a man under a bridge, she stands in front of the river which is moving west. Likewise, the genies all travel west; signifying freedom and liberation for the heroes and the princess. All of this emerges from the Witch. The last shot of her is particularly revealing of her standing in the film. She stands triumphant on top of a mountain, alone with her arm lifting the lamp into the air. The heroes leave her alone, because she is independent and strong; stronger than any of them. This last shot of her reveals her as the true hero and savior of the film, but being a strong and independent woman, she is not allowed to reap the rewards of the king with the rest of the heroes. She is not yet a normal presence in society.

While these reasons are the primary explanation for the way that this scene is filmed, another aspect of its setup could be to involve the viewer in the film. After establishing with the audience a sense of depth and light, the rest is for their imagination. The viewer becomes involved in the battle, imagining the chaos and insanity of a battle between an army of demons and spirits. The interaction with the audience not only keeps their attention, but adds a great deal of investment in the scene. The intensity builds as the characters battle a demon as literally all hell is breaking loose behind them. The way the scene is displayed is done in a way that is specific for various reasons. The animation style demands that certain methods be used in order to establish action in a foreground and background. The out of focus battle serves as a background action while the protagonists remain in focus and are therefore implied to be in the foreground. The out of focus genies emulate the brightness of the light emanating from the genies, thus making it hard to decipher the action as well as adding a holy-light, spiritual atmosphere to be surrounding the genies. Finally, the use of focus in the scene also leaves more to the imagination of the audience, thereby involving them more in the action. This is merely one scene and the entire film contains the same level of detail and intricacy. The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a forgotten masterpiece and the original animated movie. If you manage to view it, you will not be disappointed.

Brave Story (2006)

Directed by Kôichi Chigira (Full Metal Panic!), Brave Story is an adaptation of a light novel of the same name by author Miyuki Miyabe. The story follows a young boy named Wataru (Takako Matsu) who discovers a door into another world. Though this setup echoes Alice in Wonderland, the purpose of the door is a bit different. Wataru is a 5th grader whose parents recently split up. On top of all this, he comes home one day to find his mother unconscious on the floor. Whether this is a result of some kind of illness or suicide attempt is unclear. Wataru doesn’t understand any of this and comes across the door which promises him a wish. He enters the door hoping to save his mother and restore his family. A bit before he enters the door, he meets and befriends another depressed boy named Mitsuru (Eiji Wentz) who is also somehow connected to the mysterious door.

The film really picks up once Wataru enters the world of Vision. He is first tested to determine whether or not he should be allowed in and after passing the test, he is quickly explained the premise of his role in the world and simultaneously the plot of the film. He is given a sword with five slots in it. If he fills up every slot with a magic gem, he can summoned the Goddess of Destiny and make his wish. So he begins his journey traversing the world looking for these gems with a few companions including a large lizard man named Kee-Keema (Yô Ôizumi) and a cat-girl name Meena (Chiwa Saito), who he has a half-attempted romance with. The world of vision is vast and varied, filled with all sorts of bizarre humanoid creatures as well as a few humans here and there. There are marketplaces and huge cities, deserts, dragons, and all kinds of interesting things to look at. The characters are all interesting enough, particularly Wataru and Mitsuru. Their reasons for attempting the dangerous quest may be honorable, but the way they go about it is considerably different. Of the two, Mitsuru is more complicated and even though he plays a more villainous character, his motivation and experiences in life make him not only believable, but sympathetic. These characters are not meant to be epic heroes; they are scared children attempting to alter their fate rather than face it. This presents one of the major ideas of the film, which is the lesson that the ends do not justify the means and that no matter where you go you cannot escape your problems (reminiscent of Where the Wild Things Are). There are some other themes that are also developed during the journey such as selfishness, friendship, and sacrifice. Wataru is just a child and he never turns into a swashbuckling adventurer. He is brave and innocent and at the end learns a pretty good lesson. The score to the film (by Ben Watkins) is also very good and suits the settings well.

I have only a few complaints with this film and one is the pacing. At only 108 minutes long, there could have been more to the journey. Early on there is about a two minute sequence set to a song that is basically a montage of some of Wataru’s journey with his new friends. This montage seemed incredibly unnecessary considering that this could have been an ideal time to further develop relationships between some of the characters. It is never really explained why Kee-Keema joins Wataru on his journey and Meema’s reason is never resolved. Granted the montage is only two minutes, but considering the scope of the quest, that portion of the film could also have been used to showcase more the world of vision. They travel to all kinds of strange and interesting places within that montage that are never mentioned again or explained. I guess they were a waste of time concerning the main plot, but if that’s the case why bother to show them at all? Given the plot and the scope of the world, this premise might have worked better as a series or at least more than one film. My other complaint is the ending of the film. Not the climax or the conclusion to the story, but the very last scene before the credits. I won’t spoil it, but to me it felt like a massive cop out. Brave Story, despite its minor shortcomings, is a really good fantasy film with some great animation and an interesting scenario. Overall it's worth a viewing and is a colorful and engaging film that may surprise you with its emotional depth.

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Clash of the Titians is an epic fantasy retelling the story of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus’ mother was sacrificed for having an illegitimate son by her father, the king of Argos. Zeus (played charismatically by Laurence Olivier) himself was the father of her child and as punishment for the blaspheme (trying to kill his son) he summons the Kraken to cause a tidal wave and annihilate every living thing in Argos. Perseus is allowed a happy childhood and lives in peace on an island with his mother. The goddess Thetis, who wants revenge for Zeus’ punishment of her evil son Calibos decides to bring Perseus to the cursed city of Joppa where he can meet with real danger. Perseus then sets out to reclaim his kingdom and save the princess of Joppa, who is the target of both Calibos and Thetis.

There is not much to say about Perseus. He is brave and heroic. End of story. Harry Hamlin plays the role well enough, but he doesn’t really add anything to the character. The more interesting characters are the Immortals. For anyone familiar with Greek Mythology, the gods are plagued with human emotion. They are jealous and petty; Zeus admits to seducing a vast number of beautiful maidens and is extremely biased when dealing with his own son’s fate. He gives him magical weapons and armor and even guides him on his journey. This naturally upsets some of the other gods, particularly Thetis (Maggie Smith). Her son was vile and arrogant and Zeus cursed him with an extreme deformity (Calibos is played in part by Neil McCarthy for close ups and a stop motion counterpart for the action scenes).

The setup of Mount Olympus is an interesting one, particularly the miniature arena with a wall lined with little statues of the people of earth. Zeus toys with their lives and literally sets them up as pawns in his schemes and judgments. The film relies heavy on special effects and the preferred effects are mostly blue screen effects, miniatures, and stop motion creatures. The miniatures are well detailed and combined with a lot of close ups and elaborate interior sets so the settings work well for the most part such as the outside of Medusa’s layer which is shot on location in a real ruin in Spain while the basement is a hand crafted set. The settings are never too distracting aside from the bizarre light show going on behind Zeus’ throne. The creatures are hit and miss; mostly miss. The more minor creatures like the giant vulture and the two-headed dog are among the most artificial looking, while the Kraken is so dated that it looks like it belongs on Skull Island in the 1933 film, King Kong. The Pegasus is adequate for the most part; they constantly switch between a real horse for close-ups and a stop motion one for the flying scenes, though a green-screen is used for when Perseus needs a close–up in the air. The green-screen effects aren’t great, but they’re better than the ones used in Krull.

The highlight of the film for not only the special effects, but simply in general is the fight with Medusa. Perseus descends into her layer with a couple of nameless, faceless, and voiceless soldiers who are certain to be killed. The layer is a well designed set illuminated with only the light from the torches surrounding the pillars and walls. There is no music as they attempt to find an enemy that they are not allowed to look at. Medusa is also a stop motion creature, but is by far the most convincing. This is due not only to the meticulous detail in the creatures’ grotesque face and body, but to the setting. The darkness and flickering shadows makes the stop motion effect seem like it belongs in the scene and adds to the believability of the scenario and the growing sense of suspense and danger. Outside of this one major sequence there isn’t much else to say for this film. It’s by no means terrible, but it’s not particularly memorable either. It’s light and forgettable, like something to watch on a lazy Saturday morning.

Legend - Director's Cut (1985)

Legend is director Ridley Scott’s attempt at the fantasy genre. There are various versions of this film, but the best version to see is the 113 minute directors cut. The US theatrical version of the film is only 89 minutes long and features a different score by a group called Tangerine Dream, which resembles more generic 80s music because that’s exactly what it is. The director’s cut contains some notable differences and with the added running time is just better put together. As far as changes go, aside from some extended scenes and altered ending, the pacing and editing in general shows improvement and the original score by Jerry Goldsmith is much more suited to the tone and look of the film.

The story follows a young and adventurous Princess named Lily played by Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) who loves visiting a farm and exploring the forest with her friend Jack. Jack is a wild “forest child” (played by a young, pre-braces Tom Cruise) who can do front-flips and communicate with animals. Although Lily is a Princess, her castle and kingdom is never shown (and for the sake of the story, the world outside this particular forest is never explained or even described). Jack takes Lily to see the last two Unicorns and she decides to touch one of them, despite Jack’s warnings. Even though she meant no harm, by distracting one of the Unicorns, it gives plenty of time for a Goblin to shoot it with a poison-dart so that he may steal its horn for his master, the Lord of Darkness. The idea behind this is that with both unicorns dead, the sun will never rise again and the earth will be plunged into an eternal night. With this, the Lord of Darkness can rule the world with the power of the unicorn horns. After taking the horn of one of the unicorns, the goblins end up capturing the princess along with the other. This leads to Jack teaming up with the an Elf named Gump (David Bennet), a couple of dwarves, and a fairy in order to rescue the Princess, the Unicorn, and restore the world back to normal.

There are a few plot-holes that if dwelled on can significantly hurt the flow of the film. One is that when the first Unicorn’s horn is chopped off the world is turned into a dark frozen land of death. While this is all fine, it begs the question: why didn’t Princess Lily freeze to death? When she runs back to the farm she finds that the inhabitants, including the baby in a crib, are completely frozen. She was outside running around and she didn’t freeze solid. Why not? Jack didn’t freeze either, but he was swimming under water (which spared him, oddly enough). The other major plot-hole is the remaining Unicorn. The goblins killed the first Unicorn on sight, yet the other one they decided to capture and bring back to their Master unharmed. The bad guys could have won before the story even began, but they didn’t. But the biggest shortcoming of this film is the characters (or lack thereof). The story relies heavily on arch-types; the naïve princess, a mystical forest dweller, an elf, dwarves, a Demon, etc. The characters all serve their purposes well enough in terms of plot, but there isn’t a whole lot under the surface. This same problem is echoed in other fantasy films of the time like The Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer, and Krull. This seems to be a problem for fantasy films of that period and sadly the result is a spectacle that is lacking in an emotional attachment to the characters. Even more than the obvious plot holes; this is what hurts the film the most: the lack of compelling characters. In the entire film there is only one character that truly stands out, but we’ll get to that later.

What this film lacks in character depth, it attempts to make up for in the visuals and atmosphere. The magic forest is lush and full of vibrant colors. The entire thing was built as a massive set and uses no CG whatsoever. Even more impressive is the Domain of Darkness. The Lord of Darkness lives in what looks to be a colossal dead tree. But inside it is a labyrinth that goes down for miles and displays rooms with enormous pillars, dank dungeons, and pits of fire. The enormity of the castle of Darkness is evident in every room. There are scenes where the camera follows characters running through a gigantic room, weaving around the columns and it really gives a sense of the scale of the place. Dead bodies and skeletons are scattered in nearly every hallway; some rooms seem like they belong in the pits of hell. The inside of the castle is as varied as the forest outside of it. Like the forest is full of fog and mist, the different rooms of the castle are shrouded in smoke and webs. Ridley Scott maintains a dramatic and mysterious sense of wonder throughout the entire film.

Yet even with some of these spectacular sets, there is one aspect of the film that dwarfs nearly everything else and that is the villain. His name is simply Darkness and he is an 8-foot tall, giant-horned, red-skinned demon. Underneath the impressive make-up is Tim Curry who brings the character to life. The only part of him that can actually be seen is his mouth, but the way that his lips curl as he snarls every line makes the frequent close-ups engaging. The first appearance of this character is extremely memorable: Lily is being seduced by his attempts to play to her vanity; a new dress, shining jewels. As she looks at herself in the enlarged mirror, he literally enters the room through her reflection; everything evil or wrong in a human being physically embodied in an enormous and grotesque form, complete with hooves for feet. It’s quite an entrance. There is not a whole lot of action in this film. It’s much more reliant on the atmosphere and look of the sets and characters. There isn’t really a journey in this film as Darkness’s domain is literally about a mile from where the plot starts. But the scenes with Darkness attempting to seduce and charm the princess are as interesting as watching a duel. There is a great scene where he tries to convince her to sit down at the enormous dinner table he has laid out for her. The chair he asks her to sit in is somehow linked to him, though exactly how is ambiguous. As she approaches it, it literally begins to throb as it waits for her to sit down. The chair is some kind of sexual object to him and she realizes this and teases him with the idea of her sitting on it. When she finally doesn’t he loses his temper and the control of their discussion shifts in her favor and she actually begins manipulating him. It’s a really fascinating engagement as he is so dominated by his lust that she is able to use it to her advantage and reverse the control of power in the room. Legend has its share of problems and is by no means a great film. It’s mildly entertaining and visually striking, but it doesn’t really offer much outside of its villain and set design to warrant a recommendation.