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Film Title: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

 Best for ages: 7 & Up

Movie Website:  Click Here

Year Released: 2010

Rated: PG (US)

The Review

     One thing I love about Disney is the studio's ability to take ideas from some of its more famous films and incorporate them into live action movies without making the film appears to be the same as the animated classics. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice mirrors the idea and magic brought forth in the Fantasia Mickey Mouse version of the same title. This live action version is a bit different from that film, yet still shares a lot of the same ideas and magic.

   In this version, an apprentice of Merlin, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage), escapes his prison in a vase along with many of the villains of his time. When a young boy, Dave (Jay Baruchel), sneaks into an antiques store, he is given a doll which he is told is sacred. However, Balthazar and his nemesis, Maxim (Alfred Molina), have a duel and the both of them end up trapped back in the vase. Ten years later, Maxim and Balthazar escape the vase and the battle begins again. Maxim goes looking for Dave to find out what he did with the doll, while Balthazar wants to train Dave to be the next best sorcerer. Balthazar and Dave must stop Maxim and the forces of evil from destroying New York City and the rest of the world. But it’s going to take a lot of training on Dave’s part and a lot of patience on Balthazar's for things to go as planned.  

   I have read a lot of mixed reviews for this film and I was kind of hesitating to go into this one with some of the negatives I had read about it. I found myself right from the beginning dreading that I was even watching it until the story started to pick up and the real action began. The first twenty minutes of the film are painfully slow, but after you get over that hump, the film gets better, with some slapstick comedy, dangerous magical adventures and some Harry Potter-like duels. It is not as painfully bad as some people made it out to be, not one bit. In fact, I’m sure the average person, including kids, will really enjoy it.

   The Disney Blu-ray combo pack comes with the film on both Blu-ray and DVD.  The features on the Blu-ray disc include featurettes such as Magic in the City, The Science of Sorcery, The World’s Coolest Car, Making Magic Real and Fantasia: Reinventing A Classic. The Disc also includes five deleted scenes, the film's outtakes and many other features. The DVD features deleted scenes and the featurette The Making of 'The Sorcerer’s Apprentice'.

    Overall, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fun film that takes a lot of its magical ways from the film Fantasia. You’ll see magic mirrors, mops that clean floors by themselves along with other self-operating cleaning supplies, a fight with a dragon, a flying steel eagle and many more magical things. The film does not have a lot of graphic violence and is, in fact, very tame when it comes to its action sequences. I say on the safe side, this film is fine for kids over the age of seven to watch, but if you have a four-year-old that you think can take on action films with limited violence, there is no harm in letting them watch this one. There is some rude humor and some insults thrown around, but overall it’s a safe film for most kids. With Disney behind it, you really can’t go wrong. As with all Disney films, they have a team with the parents in mind to make sure all their family films are suitable. I, for one, really enjoyed this film and think it’s well worth picking up and adding to your collection.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is available on Blu-ray and DVD on November 30th 2010 from Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Jerry Brunckheimer Films.

BUY THIS MOVIE.