The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Disney/Bruckheimer

Rating: PG

108 minutes

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a decent film for children and young teenagers, even though it has a parental guidance (PG) rating.

Nicolas Cage plays one of Merlin’s apprentices from King Arthur days who has survived to modern day looking for a boy with special powers to be his apprentice. Their mission is to prevent Morgana (Arthur’s evil half sister) being released from a capsule where she was imprisoned so she can’t raise the dead.

Cage’s unlikely apprentice (played by Jay Baruchel) is a geeky nerd who has a hard time accepting his sorcerer powers. Some of the funniest scenes involve him trying to learn how to use those powers. Alfred Molina, once again, plays the villainous opposing sorcerer, but he plays the bad guy well.

Long time Disney fans will appreciate the updating of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, complete with the title music, from Disney’s 1940 animated epic Fantasia, when Baruchel, a la Mickey Mouse, gets brooms and mops to clean up his place before girlfriend (Teresa Palmer) arrives. However the hand drawn animation from 1940 still looks better than the modern day computer generated effects.

Much of the film, before the final battle between good and evil, involves Cage and Molina as duelling sorcerers, until Baruchel arrives to save the day. All this is very dependent on special effects and there wouldn’t be much of a movie without them, since the plot rambles all over the place and not much acting is required.

Rating: three deer of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.