Trailer Tuesday: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time isn't the only film coming out next year from the movie-making power-combo of Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. There's also fantasy action-adventure The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Although Disney and Bruckheimer are best known for achieving unexpected success by turning a theme park ride into a massive movie franchise with the Pirates of the Caribbean series, they've also made a fortune from the popular National Treasure movies, with their goofy mix of treasure hunting and mystery solving.

It's clearly the hit status of the latter that has led to the greenlighting of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The film is in fact made by the exact same team behind National Treasure, complete with the same director (Jon Turteltaub) and leading man (Nicolas Cage). And if you thought basing a film on a theme park ride was a risky move on Disney's part, with The Sorcerer's Apprentice they're attempting something even more unusual: a live-action reimagining of one of their most famous pieces of animation - the musical Mickey Mouse Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of Fantastia, which is in turn based on the orchestral work by Paul Dukas, and the 18th century ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.


In the new Sorcerer's Appprentice, Nicolas Cage stars as powerful magic-caster Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) who defends modern-day New York City against his evil arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar recruits apparently ordinary college student Dave (Tropic Thunder and Fanboys' Jay Baruchel) to help him, and as the sorcerer's apprentice, Dave learns to harness powerful magic to stop the ancient forces of darkness. And maybe win the heart of his dream girl in the process... Rounding off the Sorcerer's Apprentice cast is the Matrix's Monica Bellucci as Veronica, a sorceress and busty love interest for Cage's character.


Watching the trailer for The Sorcerer's Apprentice, my skepticism levels are high. On the one hand, the magic and its related special effects look fantastic! Clearly Disney is trying to give Warner Brothers and their Harry Potter franchise some competition in terms of depicting magical action in a contemporary urban setting. On the other hand, the performances in The Sorcerer's Apprentice look spectacularly crap. I'm not a fan of Nicolas Cage when he plays cocky weirdos with silly hair styles, and in The Sorcerer's Apprentice he seems to have taken that persona to its zenith. Bah!

I suppose I'll have to see some more footage and reviews closer to the film's release to really get a sense of its quality. Right now it looks like it's a moderately intense, but still family-friendly, fantasy film that could go either way.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is set for release in the United States on 16 July 2010. No release date has been set for South Africa yet, but I'm sure we can expect it in local cinemas around the same time.


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*Please note that tomorrow, 16 December, is a public holiday in South Africa so I will only be taking a break from blogging. I'll be back posting as usual on Thursday.*

Comments

MJenks said…
I think I'll pass. The Harry Potter movies are bad enough. Putting that special touch of Disney and Nicholas Cage on them is enough to make me vomit.
4:20 PM
Pfangirl said…
I know what you mean, Mjenks. I disliked the National Treasure films intensely, and I don't think making Cage more kooky and throwing magic into the mix is really going to help me overcome my built-in resistances.
12:21 PM
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