The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010 film)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Promotional poster with original release date
Directed by	Jon Turteltaub
Screenplay by	Matt Lopez Lawrence Konner Mark Rosenthal Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (poem)
Story by	Doug Miro Carlo Bernard Matt Lopez
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Starring	Nicolas Cage Jay Baruchel Alfred Molina Monica Bellucci Teresa Palmer
Cinematography	Bojan Bazelli
Edited by	William Goldenberg
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Production companies	Jerry Bruckheimer Films Saturn Films
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date	July 14, 2010 (2010-07-14)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	$150 million
Box office	$236,893,283

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a 2010 fantasy adventure film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the team behind the National Treasure franchise. The film is named after the The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment in Disney's Fantasia (with one scene being an extensive reference to it), which in turn is based on the late 1890s symphonic poem by Paul Dukas and the 1797 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ballad.

Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan, fighting against the forces of evil, in particular his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), while searching for the person who will inherit Merlin's powers. This turns out to be Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a physics student, whom Balthazar takes as a reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling apprentice a crash course in the art and science of magic and sorcery, in order to stop Horvath and Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige) from raising the souls of the evil dead sorcerers ("Morganians") and destroying the world.

Plot

In 740 AD, one of the apprentices of Merlin (James A. Stephens), Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), joins forces with the evil sorceress Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige), betraying Merlin. Morgana mortally wounds Merlin before his other apprentices, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) and Veronica Gorloisen (Monica Bellucci), can stop her. While Balthazar battles Horvath, Morgana prepares to kill Balthazar, but is stopped by Veronica, who absorbs Morgana’s soul into her own body. As Morgana tries to kill Veronica from within, Balthazar stops her by imprisoning Morgana and Veronica in the Grimhold, a magic prison in the shape of a nesting doll.

Before dying, Merlin gives his remaining apprentice a dragon ring that will identify the Prime Merlinian, who will become Merlin's successor. Only the Prime Merlinian will be able to defeat Morgana. Throughout history Balthazar imprisons Morganians, sorcerers who try to release Morgana, including Horvath, into successive layers on the Grimhold while he searches for the successor.

In 2000, 10-year-old Dave Stutler (Jake Cherry), encounters Balthazar in a Manhattans antique store, who is as youthful as when Merlin gave him the ring. Hoping he is the successor, Balthazar gives him the dragon ring, which comes alive and wraps itself around Dave's finger. Dave accidentally opens the Grimhold, releasing Horvath. While battling for possession of the Grimhold, Balthazar and Horvath are imprisoned in an ancient Chinese urn with a ten-year lock. Dave is humiliated when he is discovered by his teacher and classmates with his pants wet due to a vase that broke in his lap. There is no trace of the battle, so everyone believes Dave made it up.

In 2010, Dave (Jay Baruchel) is a physics student at New York University and has made the reacquaintance of a childhood crush, Becky (Teresa Palmer). The mystical urn opens, releasing Horvath and Balthazar. Horvath finds Dave, who is the last person he remembers possessing the Grimhold. Dave threw the Grimhold away after the battle, so he has no idea where it is. When Dave cannot tell him, Horvath unleashes a pack of wolves. Balthazar rescues Dave, and they escape atop a steel eagle.

Dave initially refuses to help Balthazar, wanting only a normal life, but agrees to help as long as Balthazar will leave Dave alone once the Grimhold is found. They track the Grimhold to Chinatown, where Horvath has released the next Morganian, a wizard named Sun Lok (Gregory Woo). Dave defeats Sun Lok, and Balthazar retrieves the Grimhold. Dave finds that he wants to learn to use magic after all, and agrees to become Balthazar's apprentice. He becomes romantically involved with Becky against Balthazar's wishes.

Horvath enlists celebrity magician Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell) to help him retrieve the Grimhold and defeat Balthazar and Dave, whom Horvath realizes is the Prime Merlinian. They attempt to kill Dave, but Balthazar saves him. Cued by Horvath, Dave demands to know the truth about Balthazar’s quest. Balthazar reveals that Morgana is trapped in the Grimhold, as well as Veronica; if Morgana escapes she will attempt "The Rising", a spell that will raise sorcerers from the dead and use them to enslave mankind. Dave, as the Prime Merlinian, and heir (albeit distant) to Merlin and his powers, is the only one who can defeat Morgana. Dave however curtly refuses to be taught magic any further following an incident in a scene heavily based on the namesake Fantasia segment.

Horvath and Drake steal the Grimhold; once that is done, Horvath uses the "parasite spell" to steal Drake's energy, possibly killing him, and takes his ring. He releases the witch, Abigail Williams (Nicole Ehinger), from the last layer around the Grimhold and uses her to kidnap Becky. Once Abigail completes that, Horvath steals Abigail's energy and her pendant as well. Horvath threatens to kill Becky, forcing Dave to surrender the Grimhold and his ring. Balthazar goes to defeat Horvath and Morgana, knowing that without the ring Dave will be killed.

Horvath releases Morgana, who still possesses Veronica's body, from the Grimhold. Morgana begins the spell. Horvath animates the Charging Bull sculpture at the north end of Bowling Green park, which attacks Balthazar. Balthazar's eagle saves him by flying away with the bull.

With Becky's help, Dave reaches them in time to try to defeat Horvath and stop Morgana from completing the Rising. Balthazar takes Morgana's soul from Veronica's body into his own. Morgana’s spirit escapes Balthazar's body, and begins to shoot energy bolts at him, which causes him to take the damage, killing him. Her ethereal projection is about to incinerate them until Dave stops her, using magic without the ring, proving he is the Prime Merlinian. He battles Morgana, and using the same experiment that he had shown to Becky earlier, he defeats her, destroying Morgana forever. Dave then saves Balthazar by jump-starting his heart. Balthazar reunites with Veronica, gifting her with a necklace he bought for her before she sacrificed herself. Dave and Becky kiss, and fly to France on Balthazar's eagle.

After the end credits, Mickey Mouse's Fantasia wizard hat is seen in a glass jar, with Horvath's hat on a nearby table. A hand reaches out and takes it.

Cast

• Nicolas Cage as Balthazar Blake, a thousand year old sorcerer based on the magician.
• Jay Baruchel as David "Dave" Stutler, an average college student who becomes Blake's apprentice.
  • Jake Cherry as Young David "Dave" Stutler
• Alfred Molina as Maxim Horvath, an evil sorcerer and Balthazar's rival.
• Alice Krige as Morgana le Fay, Merlin and Balthazar's greatest enemy.
• James A. Stephens as Merlin, the legendary wizard killed in 740 AD by Horvath and Morgana.
• Monica Bellucci as Veronica Gorloisen, a sorceress, and the love interest of Balthazar Blake.
• Teresa Palmer as Rebecca "Becky" Barnes, the love interest of Dave.
  • Peyton R. List as Young Becky
• Toby Kebbell as Drake Stone, a celebrity illusionist, who joins forces with Horvath.
• Gregory Woo as Sun Lok, a Chinese wizard.
• Nicole Ehinger as Abigail Williams, a witch in the second-to-last layer around the Grimhold, who was accredited for starting the Salem witch trials.
• Robert Capron as Oliver Twistmeyer, Dave Stutler's best friend as a child.
• Omar Benson Miller as Bennet Zurrow, Dave's roommate.
• Ethan Peck as Andre Dunlap

Production

The basic idea for the movie was mostly Nicolas Cage's, who wanted to make a feature length movie based upon the Fantasia segment of the same name. On February 12, 2007, this film was announced by Disney.

In the early morning hours of May 4, 2009, a Ferrari F430 being driven during filming of a chase sequence, lost control and careened into the window of a Sbarro restaurant in Times Square, injuring two pedestrians, one of whom was struck by a falling lamppost. Filming resumed the following night, when yet another accident occurred. The two accidents were blamed on rain making the roads slick.

• 
  Lighting equipment parked on lower Broadway, Downtown
• 
  Commerce continues behind lighting equipment
• 
  Filming the movie reduced parking on some streets

Reception

Critical reception

The film has received generally mixed reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 43% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 155 reviews, with an average score of 5.3/10. The critical consensus is: It has a likeable cast and loads of CGI spectacle, but for all but the least demanding viewers, The Sorcerer's Apprentice will be less than spellbinding. Another review aggregate, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from 0-100 of top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 46. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter has said that "The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a tired relic of summer-movie cliches, clearly beaten to death by far too many credited writers." Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four and wrote "This is a much better film than Airbender, which is faint praise, but it's becoming clear that every weekend brings another heavily marketed action "comedy" that pounds tens of millions out of consumers before evaporating". In July 2010, Parade Magazine listed the film #1 on its list of "Biggest Box Office Flops of 2010 (So Far).

Box office

The Sorcerer's Apprentice made an opening gross of $3,873,997 on its first day (Wednesday July 14, 2010). It finished at #3 on its first weekend with $17,619,622 behind Inception and Despicable Me in the U.S.A. and Canada and gained another $8,928,216 on its first weekend overseas (in 13 countries) for a worldwide opening of $26,547,841. On October 28, 2010, The Sorcerer's Apprentice closed at the box-office in the United States and Canada with $63,150,991 and, as of December 12, 2010, it has earned $152,132,612 in other countries totaling up to $215,283,603 worldwide. Except the U.S.A. and Canada, other countries where it grossed more than $10 million were Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States ($13,630,194), France and the Maghreb region ($12,930,320) and Japan ($10,632,660). Its largest overseas weekend was August 13–15, during which it grossed $14,091,169 in 42 countries. It occupies the fourth place on the all-time chart of Sword and Sorcery movies in the U.S.A. & Canada & the third place on the same chart worldwide.

Home media

It has sold 1,288,735 DVD units (equivalent to $21,609,680) since its release in DVD. Adding in its box-office revenue, the film's earnings sum up to $236,893,283.

Soundtrack

The score for this film was conducted and recorded by Trevor Rabin. The soundtrack was released on July 6, 2010.

Untitled

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Sorcerer’s Apprentice"	3:14
2.	"Story of the Prime Merlinian"	4:02
3.	"Note Chase"	0:39
4.	"Dave Revives Balthazar"	2:41
5.	"Classroom"	1:25
6.	"The Urn"	1:39
7.	"The Grimhold"	1:39
8.	"Morgana Fight"	2:59
9.	"The Ring"	1:43
10.	"Walk in the rain"	0:43
11.	"Merlin Circle"	2:01
12.	"Dave Has Doubts"	0:53
13.	"Becky and Dave on Rooftop"	1:24
14.	"Car Chase"	3:54
15.	"Seeing Veronica"	0:55
16.	"Story of Veronica"	1:44
17.	"Horvath Made Off With the Grimhold"	1:13
18.	"Kiss from Becky"	0:33
19.	"Bull fight"	2:10
20.	"Balthazar Saves Veronica"	1:13
21.	"Sorcerer’s Apprentice Suite"	2:28
22.	"Fantasia Original Demo"	4:22

External links

• Official website
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice at IMDb
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice at Metacritic
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice at Box Office Mojo