Vox has an article about Lotte Reiniger – commemorated in today’s Google Doodle – who in 1926 released the first animated feature film which was apparently beat Disney to the punch by 10 years. The film was so unprecedented “no theatre dared show it.
Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation: Hand-making detailed black cardboard cutouts put together with wire hinges, she would bring her puppets to life by capturing small movements frame by frame on a multi-plane camera with a strong backlight. It took Reiniger, and her partner Charles Koch, three years and 96,000 frames to make The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
