Educational Media Reviews Online

This beautiful piece of animation features Goethe’s poem, “The ErlKing”, as set to music by Franz Schubert. The poem is sung in a beautiful baritone voice by Paul Berkolds. The piece is sung in German, with no subtitles. It is translated into English, however, on the back of the video cover. The poem tells the story of a father and his infant son as they ride their carriage through the woods toward home. During the ride, the boy is tempted by the ErlKing, a fantastical creature who whispers promises in his ear. The father reassures the boy not to be afraid, that it is just a trick of the woods. The ErlKing is persistent, however, and continues to tempt the child. Finally, the ErlKing succeeds in taking the child, for when the father arrives home, he discovers his son is dead.

The musical poem is illustrated with stunning animation by Ben Zelkowicz. Using a sand-on-glass technique, Zelkowicz creates images that resemble woodcuts, the perfect visual accompaniment to this haunting piece. The sand animation creates a fluidity that allows the animator to “melt” one image into another. It’s a great visual method to accompany a story in which fantasy and reality also blend together. For those who are interested in finding out more about the sand-on-glass technique, you can visit the Erlking website .

This video would be a great addition to an academic or a public library collection. My only reservation in recommending it, however, is that the entire video runs less than six minutes, and therefore, it may not be worth the investment for many libraries. Hopefully, The ErlKing will eventually be included on a compilation video. That way, libraries could get a bit more fore their money rather than purchasing only a single animation. If you’ve got the money to spend, however, The ErlKing is a quality investment for your library.