L'Apprenti sorcier

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a great family movie!

It has many good points, one being the special effects and the other the characters and story line!

This movie will appeal to any child who enjoys a fun, entertaining, magical film!

This film definitely was brought to us by the same South African country that gave us such whimsical fare as The Fairy King of Ar and The Little Unicorn about the biggest little unicorn ever! This one features Merlin and the exact same house used in The Little Unicorn to bring us a film about a kid moving into a new place and magic! Not much magic mind you, but there is a bit on display here if you consider the ability to make a bully dump a strawberry milkshake on himself a super magical event!

The story, a boy who may be bi-polar moves to a large estate cause his dad got a new job as a curator. Why do I say he is bi-polar? Because, he constantly yells at people that he hates them, doesn't want anything to do with him and then he is back within minutes saying he is sorry and didn't mean it. He tries to become friends with the neighbor who has the exact same problem and we are fraught with a movie full of go away! I'm sorry! Let me teach you magic! No, I will not teach you magic! Meanwhile, Kelly LeBrock who I hadn't seen since Hard To Kill is the villain.

The cast of these films always feature a star of note or two as the fairy king had Corbin Bernson and Malcolm McDowell and the unicorn one had George Hamilton and a couple of others. This one gives us Kelly LeBrock and Ray Davi, so it apparently had a smaller budget than the other two. Ray best known as one of the gang in Goonies and the big time cocaine dealer from License to Kill and Kelly Weird Science and Hard To Kill and being a model. Still, Ray does a fairly good job, I just wish he did not feel the need to sing in this one...

So we get bullying and the boy trying to make it with the local cutie while Merlin shows the kid like two spells that any magician can do and we have our movie with two action pieces to bookend the movie. Of the three films I have seen from this company, this is the weakest; however, it is not exactly like the others were way better or anything.

1st watched 4/16/2021 - 4 out of 10(Dir-David Lister): So so drama involving Merlin being sent into the modern world - with an evil Morgana on his trail to get a magical crystal and the staff (also, known as the sword in the stone) to gain power over the world. On the modern side, it's about a young boy who likes magic, and has a struggling relationship with his father, and starts to take the liking to a neighbor named Milner who shows him unusual tricks. The human story is more appealing as Ben, played by Byron Taylor, is new to the neighborhood and is trying to survive at his new school. He is bullied and with the help of Milner and his girlfriend he starts to turn the tides. Morgana's pack - a cat and mouse turned human - start stalking Milner(who is really Merlin) and the kid trying to figure out where the crystal is. The evil characters are really what pulls this movie down. Morgana, played by Kelly LeBrock, is over the top and the mouse/cat combination just isn't that appealing or funny. The relationship that builds between Milner(Merlin) and Ben is good, but by the time it's improving we get to the finale with the battle between the good and evil folks. Kids might enjoy parts of this movie, but there isn't enough depth for others. It was watchable, that was about all.

This movie should prove enjoyable for the pre-teen set, but there's nothing much here to appeal to adults or older young people. Acting is so-so, effects are pretty bad and story has plenty of holes. Older viewers will be interested to see once-famous actors like Robert Davi and Kelly Lebrock in major roles. I guess this is the kind of movie you do when your career is in a slump and/or you need the money. Families can watch this one with no qualms: there is no objectionable material other than occult elements (as you would expect with a movie called The Sorcerer's Apprentice).

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is yet another adaption of the battle of good vs evil involving Merlin and Morgana. For the most part, it's a wholesome family movie. The acting is decent and the script is fairly well written. However, there are some things that detract from the entertaining qualities of the movie. The lead character comes across as more irritating and annoying than anything else. Kelly LaBrock's performance is rather lackluster. The cinematography and effects in the film is more that of the late 1970's rather than a film done in 2000. The style might even be considered reminiscent of the many Disney movies of the late 60" to mid 70's. Despite it's shortcomings, I still believe the movie was entertaining.