The Sorcerer's Apprentice (film)

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 three apprentices of Merlin (James A. Stephens), Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), betrays him by joining forces with the evil sorceress Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige). Morgana mortally wounds Merlin before another apprentice, Veronica Gorloisen (Monica Bellucci), absorbs Morgana's soul into her own body. As Morgana tries to kill Veronica from within, the final apprentice, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) stops her by imprisoning Morgana and Veronica in the Grimhold, a magic prison in the shape of a nesting doll. Before dying, Merlin gives Baltazhar a dragon ring that will identify the Prime Merlinean, Merlin's successor who will be the only one 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 Manhattan antique store. 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 as he is discovered by his teacher and classmates with his pants wet due to a vase that broke in his lap, and as his teacher enters the store, there is no trace of the battle, so it is believed Dave made it up.

Ten years later, 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 goes after Dave in search for the Grimhold, and Dave is eventually rescued by Balthazar, riding an animated steel eagle created out of a Chrysler Building gargoyle.

Dave initially refuses to help Balthazar, but agrees to help as long as he is left alone once the Grimhold is found. They track the Grimhold to Chinatown, where Horvath has released the next Morganian, 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 also becomes romantically involved with Becky against Balthazar's wishes.

Horvath enlists celebrity magician Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell) to help him retrieve the Grimhold. 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, is the only one who can stop her.

After an incident involving out of control animated mops, Dave decides to give up on magic, but changes his mind when he meets Becky again. He returns to his laboratory just as Drake and Horvath try to kill Balthazar after stealing the Grimhold. Once that is done, Horvath uses the "parasite spell" to steal Drake's energy, and takes his magic ring. He releases the witch Abigail Williams (Nicole Ehinger) and uses her to kidnap Becky. Once Abigail completes that, Horvath steals her energy and pendant as well. Horvath threatens to kill Becky, forcing Dave to surrender the Grimhold and his ring. Balthazar then goes after Horvath in Battery Park, knowing that without the ring Dave will be killed.

Horvath releases Morgana, who still possesses Veronica's body, and she begins the spell as Horvath animates the Charging Bull sculpture to attack Balthazar. With Becky's help, Dave reaches them in time to try to defeat Horvath and stop Morgana from completing the Rising, and Balthazar's eagle flies away with the bull.

Balthazar takes Morgana's soul from Veronica's body into his own, and then Morgana's spirit escapes his body. Morgana tries to incinerate them, but Dave stops her - proving he is the Prime Merlinian by using magic without the ring. The ethereal projection then shoots energy bolts that kill Balthazar before battling Dave, who destroys her after creating a Tesla coil with the square's lamp posts. Balthazar is then revived after Dave jump-starts his heart, and reunites with Veronica. Dave and Becky kiss, and fly to France on Balthazar's eagle.

After the end credits, Horvath takes his hat from Balthazar's shop.

Cast

 * Jay Baruchel as David "Dave" Stutler, a highly intelligent college student who becomes Blake's apprentice
 * Jake Cherry as Young David "Dave" Stutler
 * Nicolas Cage as Balthazar Blake, a thousand year old sorcerer based on the magician.
 * 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 Roi 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.
 * Capron 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
 * Sierra, Takoda, Samson, and Bandit from Howling Woods Farm as the wolves.

Production
The basic idea for the movie was mostly Nicolas Cage's, who wanted to explore a mystic world and play a character with magical powers, and following a suggestion by his producer friend Todd Garner, decided to make a feature length movie based upon the Fantasia segment of the same name.[7] [8] On February 12, 2007, this film was announced by Disney.[9] References to the original animation include the scene where Dave animates broomsticks to clean his laboratory, and having Mickey Mouse's hat in the post-credits scene.[8]

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is set in New York City, and most scenes were shot on location, in places such as Washington Square Park and Chinatown's Eldrige Street. Dave's laboratory was filmed in either an abandoned subway station located under the New York City Hall or a studio recreation of it.[8] 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.[10]

To make the magic more believable, it was decided to an emphasis of practical, on-set effects, such as making real fire, with fluids or flash powder being used for colored flames. To provide a lighting reference for the plasma bolts, the actors wore gloves with LED displays to make them glow before adding the computer-generated shot. For floating objects, they were either thrown with wires or held by stuntment wearing green chroma key suits.[8]