Before beginning my review, I must take exception to another reviewer who holds that the first animated movie was by Windsor McKay. Although a great artist, he was by no means the first; Émile Cohl was regularly producing animated films in 1908 -- among the best remembered is FANTASMAGORIE --and you will find quick-sketch artist work by Tom Merry earlier on.... and works by Émile Reynaud like THE CLOWN AND HIS DOG from 1892.
But let us discuss Lotte Reiniger and this short subject. Reiniger worked in a corner of animation that few did: silhouette animation, for which she created carefully-articulated figures and moved them against a light background. This gave an air of intimacy to her work, as if the audience were eavesdropping on its subjects, that has never been equaled.
In this one she tackles not just the story of Mozart's Magic Flute, but its music and the courtship of Papageno and Papagena, in her usual fine mixture of beauty and humor.... sometimes black humor, as the viewer will note the ugliness of the snake that interrupts their courtship and the parallel hideousness of his suicide's rope. Notice the awkwardness of Papageno's movements and the grace of his love's. But most important of all, see it and marvel at her artistry that is so great that almost no one has dared to attempt it.
But let us discuss Lotte Reiniger and this short subject. Reiniger worked in a corner of animation that few did: silhouette animation, for which she created carefully-articulated figures and moved them against a light background. This gave an air of intimacy to her work, as if the audience were eavesdropping on its subjects, that has never been equaled.
In this one she tackles not just the story of Mozart's Magic Flute, but its music and the courtship of Papageno and Papagena, in her usual fine mixture of beauty and humor.... sometimes black humor, as the viewer will note the ugliness of the snake that interrupts their courtship and the parallel hideousness of his suicide's rope. Notice the awkwardness of Papageno's movements and the grace of his love's. But most important of all, see it and marvel at her artistry that is so great that almost no one has dared to attempt it.