Dir. John Turteltaub, 109mins, USA , 2010
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell
Review by Matthew Rodgers
If you've been rolling your eyes at the number of familiar titles cluttering up the multiplex timetables of late - a combination of reboots and remakes - then you will approach this as another nail in the coffin of narrative originality, for The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a feature length film based on a short segment from Disney's Fantasia . Seriously.
It's also from the same director/star team that brought us the bland adventure series, National Treasure ; the dependable yet uninspiring Turteltaub, and the newly resurgent Nicolas Cage, here appearing in exactly the kind of lazy, big-budget offering that preceded his brilliant recent turns in Kick-Ass and The Bad Lieutenant .
Apprentice however manages to be something of a coin from behind the ear or a bunch of flowers up the sleeve, because it is a surprisingly enjoyable, entirely serviceable affair that evokes memories of the best of the Disney family film traditions.
Returning once more to the world of myth and magic, after carrying out voice duties in How to Train Your Dragon is Jay Baruchel as Dave, the awkward descendant of Merlin the magician and reluctant apprentice to Nicolas Cage's bedraggled Balthazar. Balthazar was in turn Merlin's apprentice and has been searching for Dave for thousands of years in an attempt to train him to protect the world from the evil Horvath (Alfred Molina).
Ignoring the fact that this could just as easily be called Percy Jackson, the Lion, the Witch and the Philosophers Stone, this move still has a lot going for it.
The very basic structure of the plot allows for some im press ive sequences without the need for a pair of 3-D specs on the end of your nose. A ticker tape covered China Town action scene that features a huge dragon chasing our magical novice through a sea of colour is utterly thrilling, and gimmicky as it might be, the mop and bucket homage to the source material is enormous fun for those in the Disney know.
The cast also have a great deal of fun. Baruchel doesn't stretch himself too far from his usual routine but his chemistry with inconsequential love interest Teresa Palmer and the wonderfully wacky Cage succeed in preventing this from becoming a mere smoke and mirrors spectacle.
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