What’s this all about?
In 2010, high on the success of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, Disney looked around and said, “what other crappy intellectual properties do we own that we can milk dry?” They came up with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a movie apparently based on a single scene from the forgettable Fantasia, in which Mickey Mouse murders some magic brooms. Or something.
In this film, a young boy learns that he’s fated to be a great wizard, but before he can do so, he must study the art and science of magic, and battle an evil wizard who was banished, but has now returned.
I wonder where they come up with these wild plots? Maybe they learned to write them at Hogwart’s.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick plays “Balthazar,” (not the same one as the wise man from the Bible story) the last living apprentice of Merlin, the legendary wizard. He has trapped Morgan le Fey and some other evil wizards in a Matryoshka doll, and spends his time searching modern day New York for a pee-pants kid who was foretold to be able to be the next great wizard.
Nick has a terrible wig throughout the movie, and dresses like a Jewish hobo cowboy. His performance is OK. There’s a lot of screaming and nonsense, so he fits right in.
Who else is in this one?
Jay Baruchel plays the 20-year-old version of “Dave,” the pee-pants kid destined to be a great wizard. He would have been 29 when this film was made. It shows.
Alfred Molina plays “Horvath,” an evil wizard who Nick has imprisoned, but who breaks out and becomes the primary villain in the film. He’s fine. It’s Alfred Molina.
Omar Benson Miller plays Dave’s college roommate, who loves going to keggers and hitting on girls. He was 32 when this film was made.
Did you see that?
Early in the film, young Dave is riding on a school bus, vandalizing the windows by drawing on them with a sharpie. When he finishes, he waits a moment for the Empire State building to appear in the distance, then shouts, “now!” His scribbles, for an instant, look like King Kong fighting off biplanes superimposed on the real-life building.
Later in the film, his love interest mentions remembering how cool that was.
Strangely, during the bus scene, she was sitting across the aisle and behind Dave, so her angle on the scribbles and the distant building would never have lined up. There’s just no way that could have worked.
Also, are we to think that Dave has practiced this little trick, or are we supposed to think his spatial relationship skills are just that good? He never does anything remotely like this again in the movie, so I don’t know what it was supposed to tell us. -Michael
The entire movie the good guys were protecting “The Grimhold” while the bad guys were after it. The Grimhold was a fairly large Matryoshka doll. You know, that Russian kind of doll where one nests inside of another and inside another until you get to a tiny one. When the bad guys finally got it from the good guys, Nick looks at our hero and says, “They got the doll.” The whole rest of the movie he only calls it The Grimhold, but for this scene, it became the doll. Just a little something I caught. – Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
There’s a scene in which Nick and Dave have caused some mayhem in Chinatown, and several uniformed cops arrive. Nick uses his magic to morph himself and Dave into cops, and Nick quickly defuses the situation by telling some wild tale.
Nick’s ability to change his accent and voice to a pretty solid NYPD cop impression was well executed and funny. -Michael
This is really tough for me. I feel like Nick did a great job and a very consistent job throughout this movie. But, since I have to pick, I was really impressed with the scene where he walked on a rug and it latched on to him and he started sinking like he was in quick sand. Obviously most of the effects here were done post filming. I thought he did a great job looking as if all that shit was really happening. -Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
During Dave’s first encounter with Nick, Dave spazzes out and releases an evil wizard from the doll. As Nick battles the wizard, he turns to Dave, and very casually says, “Leave, Dave. Leave, now.” The delivery was weirdly non-chalant, as Nick battles for his life. I’m not sure how the director decided that was the take to use. -Michael
Again, Nick was super consistent in this flick. Nothing really stands out to me as poorly acted. I suppose I felt the scene where he met our hero as a 10-year-old, felt a bit odd. He’s been waiting literal centuries to meet our hero and upon it finally happening, he didn’t really have a big enough reaction; in my opinion anyway. -Sarah
How was the movie?
I found the movie to be beyond stupid. The “magic” felt like two eight-year-olds trying to one-up each other.
“I’ll make this wolf photograph come to life and attack you!”
“No, I’ll make an eagle statue come to life and rescue me! And he’s metal!”
“Oh yeah? My car is an old time limousine! Then it transforms into a Dodge Viper!”
“I’ll make you crash into a mirror which will trap you in another dimension!”
It was all very nonsensical.
The characters were one-dimensional and dull. Dave spends most of the movie trying not to be the “chosen one” just because he doesn’t seem to want to try.
Dave’s girlfriend thinks he’s weird and gross until he fixes her radio transmitter, and then she thinks he’s the coolest guy in the world.
Also, Dave’s title is “The Prime Merlinean,” which is maybe the dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard. It’s like someone misheard “prime meridian,” and then made a movie out of it. What a Merlinean could be is never explained, not is Dave’s “prime” nature, or how he came to have it.
They strung together a bunch of stock characters and senseless CGI magic until they had 90 minutes of it on film. Absolutely nothing impactful happens from start to finish.
The movie made $215 million on a budget of $150 million. That’s what Hollywood calls a “flop.” -Michael
The movie was an over the top fantasy that was geared to probably 8-12 year old children. For that, it was great. If you are hoping for an adult, sci-fi fantasy, not so much. -Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it? (Michael/Sarah)
Nope. Nick wasn’t the worst part, by far, but the movie was lame. -Michael
I greatly enjoyed it. I even recommend it. -Sarah
Where can I watch it?
It’s on Disney+.
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