The sorcerer's apprentice

Year of release : 2010

Run time : 1h49min

Genre : Fantasy / Adventure

Cast : Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell, Monica Bellucci

The movie is adapted from Disney's 1940 short segment,Fantasia (as Nicolas Cage wanted to play a sorcerer), which is inspired by Paul Dukas' 1897 symphonic poem "The sorcerer's apprentice", and Goethe's 1797 ballad "The sorcerer's apprentice".

 

In 740 AD,Britain, Merlin shared his secrets with 3 trusted apprentices. But one of them joined Morgana Le Fey,who wanted to resurrect the dead,enslaving humanity.

In order to keep her contained, one of Merlin's trusted apprentices, Veronica, trapped her inside herself,but Morgana was too strong. So, Balthazar,who loved Veronica, trapped Veronica in a nesting doll to save her life,and keep Morgana contained.

In 2000, a fourth grader,ends up in Balthazar's store,looking for a note he passed to the girl he liked .

Balthazar shows him Merlin's dragon,which turns into a ring on his finger,meaning he is Merlin's reincarnation.

Unluckily for him,the nesting doll gets out,attracted to the ring,and Horvath gets out,planning to get the nesting doll to free Morgana.

In an epic fight,Balthazar manages to trap Horvath and himself in an ancient Chinese urn.

10 years later,Dave is a physics student. Looking for his papers,he manages to find,again,the girl he was in love with,in fourth grade. He walks with her to the radio station where she works,and fixes the radio's antenna,as it was struck by lightning.

Horvath releases himself from the urn,and starts his search for the nesting doll. His first stop, Dave's place. Balthazar rescues him,and they decide to work together,Balthazar teaching Dave how to unleash his innate powers,to defeat Horvath and Morgana.

The movie was funny,it had good action scenes blended with the two love stories,of Dave and Becky,Balthazar and Veronica.

 

The visual effects pass the test of time,they still look great today.

The soundtrack was good,especially the artists' songs.

The actors were great,I particularly loved Alfred Molina and Toby Kebbell.

The movie received mixed reviews, and grossed 215.3 million dollars against a budget of 150 million, being considered a flop.

CinemaScore audiences gave the movie a B+ on an A+ to F scale.

The movie is on Disney+ with subscription; is for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home; and on Bundle - Disney+ with Hulu, Disney+ with Hulu and Max, Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN+.

Rating : Worth a watch !