Review of The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

This is very much a modern day movie but with one scene harking back to the famous sorcerors apprentice scene/section from Disney's classic Fantasia. Fantasia is much more child friendly than this movie in terms of being suitable for younger children, this movie I'd imagine would be pretty scary to toddlers and younger children below the age of eight or nine at least - the special effects are quite convincing, with one involving lots of insects (I think they were cockroaches) coming together and forming the villain (a bit like the sort of thing that featured in The Mummy, I suppose, though its not quite as scary as that, I *think* The Mummy is a 12 rate and this film is only rated PG), things like that would have scared me as a very young child.

Away from that issue, the movie itself felt perhaps a little limp, even perhaps forced at the start, after an introduction to the background of Balthazar, his story, the history that paints the scene before we rejoin our reluctant hero in the present day but as it progresses, it becomes more engrossing - yes its very much a fantasy movie, you just have to go with the story but then I really can't lower my score for this movie because of this, I mean obviously the title gives a decent clue as to the type of movie it is and its Disney, plus for its target market I don't think they've gone too far wrong, though I may find it a bit cheesy that there's the inevitable sub-plot with Dave becoming romantically involved with a girl (or desperately trying to, as he's seen as the rather socially awkward out cast, which is the norm for these movies), which again might put off younger kids who'd be bored with such a sub-plot (or think its gross that he likes a girl hehe), eh its the usual Disney fodder I suppose but I felt that overall it was a pretty solid movie, for what it is and most importantly, I was really quite engrossed in the ending, I found it quite entertaining and thought it featured some impressive scenes along the way.

If your familiar with the two National Treasure movies which Nicolas Cage also played a lead role in, then this movie will perhaps seem similar and its not just because Cage appears in it but also because Jon Turteltaub directed all three movies. I would say that as a comparison, in this movie the emphasis is more on Jay Baruchel as Dave than Nicolas Cage as Balthazar. I wonder what it is with New York somehow ending up being the place where there's supposedly so much nasty supernatural activity and the ability to summon up evil just happens to lie dormant? thinking about it, I'm reminded of the Ghostbusters movies which of course were similar, especially I think it was the sequel involving an evil possessed painting and a baby - in this movie the baby is of course love struck and rather unassuming Dave - the good ol' reluctant hero.

There are some fairly fast action scenes and these are what, to me, made the movie - the storyline is perhaps a bit complicated to follow and there are some scenes which break up the faster action scenes, ie dialogue based scenes, which is another reason why I suppose younger children wouldn't necessarily enjoy this movie but its good that there's a balance between plot and visual effects. My favourite scene involves a long car chase which is very engrossing and even features a magic mirror trick, whereby Dave and Balthazar end up in a parallel version of the same road they were on before, only in this one everything is back to front I think, which made for a pretty cool effect seeing all the billboards etc. back to front.

This is a Disney fantasy movie set in modern times (well 2010 anyway), so its pretty much what you'd expect and for that, I can't really fault it, so I'm going to be generous and give it the maximum star score as I felt overall I really quite enjoyed it and although I was perhaps a bit sceptical about the storyline at first, by the end I felt gripped and I certainly thought it was entertaining with some good effects, so I can't really complain, for me its a very good movie of its type.