We all laughed at Disney when they announced a feature film based on a ride that had “A Pirate’s Life for Me” on repeat as characters dressed as pirates moved about in that jerky, lifeless way that only animatronics can. We laughed. We derided them for taking something completely devoid of plot, having merely a premise of “pirates”, and turning it around into a motion picture. It seemed like classic Disney milking any resource they had for all its worth. Well, I guess they showed us (unless you count the two sequels which were less clever), and so to prove that they continue the process of deriving entire franchises from two-minute concepts, they adapted the brief musical interlude from Fantasia wherein Mickey co-opts a wizard’s hat to make a broom come to life and do his work. While that inspiration gets a brief nod, just like with Pirates of the Caribbean, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice creates its own universe and rules and clearly looks to be aiming for a franchise, and if Jon Turteltaub’s inferior National Treasure series was able to manage it, then The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is more than worthy.
The story starts back in the time of Arthurian legend with Merlin and Morgana having a final showdown between good and evil. Unfortunately for good, one of Merlin’s three apprentices is a turncoat, leaving the final battle for the loyal two, Veronica (Monica Bellucci) and Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), to resolve by having Veronica meld with Morgana and locking herself in a doll that holds her and the many followers throughout history that would attempt to free her imprisoned. As the two wizards are locked away, Balthazar scours the Earth and time for the Prime Merlinian, the sorcerer that will be able to defeat Morgana once and for all. After a few centuries, Balthazar reaches present-day New York and meets Dave as a child and quickly identifies him as the Prime Merlinian thanks to a possessive ring. Unfortunately, as Balthazar steps away to fetch a scroll, the doll that holds Morgana pops out of its hidden recess and Dave releases Merlin’s traitorous apprentice Maxim (Alfred Molina). After a battle in the shop, Dave is left traumatized and doubting the event ever took place until Balthazar tracks him down again 10 years later (now played by Jay Baruchel) and begins training him for the final events leading up to Dave’s showdown with Morgana. And, as expected, there’s a romantic interest for Dave thrown in in the guise of Becky (Teresa Palmer), who hasn’t seen him since he came screaming crazily out of the building wherein he witnessed the wizard fight 10 years ago.
Performances are pretty solid all around with Baruchel proving himself a better actor with each and every film. Nicolas Cage brings a majority of the film’s comedic moments, and some of the funniest come from his time with both Baruchel and Molina, who always does well as the charismatic villain. Palmer’s role doesn’t require much of her beyond showing up at opportune moments to see how much Dave has changed or put a kink in his training process. She feels like a romantic interest added as an afterthought more than an integral part of the story, but she does well with what she’s given.
The film’s special effects aren’t top of the line, but they have the necessary visual bluster to keep the film feeling as magical as its name intones. The hi-def transfer is exactly what you’d expect from a new film with a concentration on candy-coated presentation, and the Blu-ray has great picture and sound. It’s the right kind of film for hi-def viewing and Disney did a proper job in making an enjoyable film with a higher end spectrum of visual bravado. Definitely warrants a Blu-ray purchase over DVD – but in this case both come packaged together, so you don’t need to worry about that choice.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The featurettes run the gamut from pieces about shooting a film in New York City, to focuses on the car and the history behind sorcery. Before moving on to the basic extras like deleted scenes and outtakes and a piece on the special effects, I’d recommend the short but good retrospective about drawing a feature-length film from a classic segment of Fantasia. It’s a good thing to address as an extra, and had there been an audio commentary I would like to imagine it would have been addressed with more detail there. But as is, this is a decent enough look at that. All of that is on the Blu-ray, the DVD only has the film, the digital copy, and a “making of” piece.
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is on sale November 30, 2010 and is rated PG. Action, Comedy, Fantasy. Directed by Jon Turteltaub. Written by Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal. Starring Alfred Molina, Jay Baruchel, Monica Bellucci, Nicolas Cage, Alice Krige, Teresa Palmer.
