The Sorcerer’s Apprentice parents guide

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Parent Guide

With plenty of engaging action for older children and teens, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" feels like a video game with increasingly difficult challenges to overcome.

Overall B

In this grandiose, live-action remake of a short film that appeared in the 1940 and 2000 versions of Fantasia, Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel) is taken under the wing of sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Nicholas Cage) so he can learn the tricks of the trade and help defeat the power-hungry Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) and the wicked Morgana (Alice Krige).

Release date July 14, 2010

Violence C+
Sexual Content A-
Profanity B+
Substance Use A

Why is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice rated PG? The MPAA rated The Sorcerer’s Apprentice PG for fantasy action violence, some mild rude humor and brief language.

Run Time: 109 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

Sorcery and science fuse together in this live-action adventure film that reunites Nicholas Cage and Jon Turteltaub, the star and director from the National Treasure franchise. Cage plays Balthazar Blake, one of three sorcerers trained by Merlin the Magician (James A. Stephans). At Merlin’s untimely death by stabbing, Balthazar is given his master’s precious dragon ring and a charge to find the one person who can destroy the wicked Morgana (Alice Krige) when she is freed from the confines of a magical matryoshka doll.

Setting out on his quest, Balthazar roams the world for centuries. At last he stumbles upon an unlikely candidate in modern day New York City. At the time, Dave (Jake Cherry) is an awkward 10-year-old whose clumsiness results in a decade long imprisonment in a clay urn for Merlin’s wandering apprentice. When the magician is finally released, he revisits Dave who is now a geeky—and still awkward—physics major at NYU. Balthazar then reveals the young adult’s role in saving mankind from the forces of evil.

Dave is skeptical and only half-hearted about his training. He is even more distracted after he runs into Becky (Teresa Palmer) and becomes enchanted by the old grade-school flame. However when the villainous Horvath (Alfred Molina) and his apprentice Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell) kidnap Becky and threaten her life, the college student seriously concentrates on developing his sorcery skills.

With plenty of engaging action for older children and teens, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice feels like a video game with increasingly difficult challenges to overcome. While it contains few language and sexual concerns, the film’s theme of sorcery and witchcraft (including the possession of bodies, incantations and the raising of the dead), may be problematic for some family viewers. The young Dave also runs away from his class during a fieldtrip, ending up alone in a shabby shop where he meets Balthazar. There he is almost killed during an ensuing battle between two sorcerers. Stabbings, electrocutions, fire breathing dragons and needles used as weapons are other intense depictions of violence and peril.

Yet for audience members who have no problem with Harry Potter and his classmates at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, this story offers similar suspense and action. Combining his physics education with his recently acquired magical abilities, Dave embraces his new skills as a sorcerer’s apprentice to challenge the destructive forces of evil.

Directed by Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Turteltaub. Starring Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Monica Bellucci, Alfred Molina. Running time: 109 minutes. Theatrical release July 14, 2010. Updated

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Rating & Content Info

Why is The Sorcerer’s Apprentice rated PG? The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is rated PG by the MPAA for fantasy action violence, some mild rude humor and brief language.

Violence: Scenes of swordplay and hand-to-hand combat are shown along with impaled corpses. A man is stabbed through the chest and dies. Characters are engulfed in fire, electrocuted, threatened, choked, chased by animals and nearly hit by a train. Cars drive dangerously through downtown. A boy runs away and finds himself alone in an old building. School children mock a peer. A man’s windshield is crushed. A character’s coat is impaled with flying needles. A man is hit in the buttocks with a mop. He also uses an axe to chop a magical broom. An incantation goes wrong and household objects go out of control. Other magical spells bring spirits back from the dead. Characters dissolve like dust. Other depictions of transfigurations, frightening images and peril are shown.

Sexual Content: Couples kiss. Infrequent references are made to crude bodily functions.

Language: The script includes brief profanities.

Drugs/Alcohol: None noted.

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The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Parents' Guide

Dave uses science to help him fight the evil Morgana. How is science depicted in this story? Are any of these portrayals inaccurate?

What generational differences do Dave and Balthazar experience? What are they able to learn from one another?

Can teasing have a long-term impact on a child? How is Dave affected by his classmates’ ridicule?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice movie is November 30, 2010. Here are some details…

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is releasing on DVD and Blu-ray on November 30, 2010.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice on DVD offers:

- The Making of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

- Deleted scene: Blathazar recruits Dave

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice on Blu-ray (Two-Disc Blu-ray / DVD Combo) includes:

- The Making of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

- Deleted scene: Blathazar recruits Dave

- Featurettes: Magic In The City, The Science Of Sorcery, Making Magic Real, Fantasia: Reinventing A Classic, The Fashionable Drake Stone, The Grimhold: An Evil Work Of Art, The Encantus, Wolves & Puppies and The World’s Coolest Car.

- Deleted Scenes: A Candidate In Calcutta, A Model Student, Balthazar Recruits Dave, Oh No, It’s Andre and Man’s Best Friend.

- Outtakes

- Easter Eggs

- 3 Visual Effects Demos

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is also available as a Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo+Digital Copy.

This version offers all the same bonus extras as the 2-Disc Blu-ray edition, along with a DVD copy and Digital copy of the movie.

Related home video titles:

In the animated film The Sword in the Stone, Merlin the Magician takes the future king of England under his care. Clive Owen stars in a more grownup version of the King Arthur story. Another young man discovers that he is the one chosen to save his people from an evil ruler in Eragon.

This movie was inspired by Disney’s 1940 and 2000 versions of Fantasia, which featured a short film starring Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.