Movie Review The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Last night I went to the movies with my lovely wife, and watched the newest Disney feature The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The movie starts out during the time of Merlin and King Arthur. There are three apprentices to Merlin which are Horath, Baltazar, and Veronica, and Horath betrays Merlin to Merlin’s nemesis which is Organa. Then Veronica and Organa are trapped into a Marushka Doll which they call a Grimm Keeper. Merlin dies and leaves his ring in the hand of his apprentice Baltazar to find a chosen kid that is so gifted he can take the place of Merlin. For centuries Baltazar searches for this gifted kid and during that time he traps evil sorcerer’s in the Grimm Keeper. This all takes place within a matter of minutes from the opening. It sets up the story, and for the most part is the story. The rest of the story is a lot of action and special effects as the Sorcerers battle over trying to release the others from the Grimm Keeper.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a teenager named David and he turns out to be a physics genius but lacks social skills. He accidentally releases Horath from the Grimm Keeper and Horath is determined to release the others trapped in the Grimm Keeper. The Sorcerers need the help of rings in order to project their magical powers. However, the Prime Merlin (the gift individual to replace Merlin) does not need a ring to project his powers once he is trained. In addition, the reason why these Sorcerer’s have this magic ability is due to the usage of their brains. There is a place where Baltazar says that the normal person uses only 10% of their brain, and the Sorcerer uses 100% of their brain. This is a ridiculous statement, since it does not compare proportionality.

The movie lacked good acting. The character of David who was supposed to be a Physics genius but looked more like a mentally challenged individual that had no clue as to what was going on around him. It takes a long time for him to learn any magic, and then at the end he is just automatically a master at it. There needed to be a better transition of time in the movie.

This Disney movie had the classic references back to other Disney production. There was the Buzz Light-year toy in the teenager’s room. The biggest link was the scene of the mops and brushes cleaning and left alone to go out of control which was in the movie Fantasia that had Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerers Apprentice and in the Sword and the stone where Merlin sets the cleaning supplies to work as he leaves to train young King Arthur.

This movie has its connections back to a German poem written by Goethe called “Der Zauberlehrling”, and it was written in 1797, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the English title to that poem. Overall, it is carried by its special effects and visual mysticism. The actual sorcery is down played to mental superiority and physics. It is a movie to watch when one does not want to really think and wants to see a lot of action on the big screen. The movie is clean of any sexual perversion. Overall, it makes it a movie for young teenagers and pre-teens. Still a recommend to watch, however more of an early matinee movie you can take your kids to watch, and explain when they have questions about the movie.