Magic of Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger makes fairy tales into fantastical movies.

I had never heard of this movie genius until recently but her work with fairy tales merits a look.  Working in the 1920s she created amazing “silhouette movies” with cut out images.  In Once Upon a Time, Maria Warner mentions her movie The Adventures of Prince Achmed in which  the shape shifting of the witch and her adversary, the Demons of Waq Waq.

Here are some excerpts to introduce her work:

 

And this short film that explains how she does this will also illustrate the transformation of human-like beings to animals: