While this film isn’t quite a remake, it does qualify as one more unoriginal Hollywood adaptation. This time, the source material is the 1940 animated Disney film Fantasia. Of course, with childhood-nostalgia-destroyer Jerry Bruckheimer producing, and hack National Treasure director Jon Turtletaub directing, you can expect such a departure from the inspiration that you won’t even recognize the characters. Probably the worst example is that Mickey Mouse, played by Jay Baruchel, doesn’t have big black ears or wear red pants with two horizontal white buttons. In fact, he isn’t even a mouse! In another miscalculation by Disney, Nicholas Cage reprises his role as Ghost Rider, only this time he doesn’t have a flaming skull and he isn’t riding a motorcycle. Comic book fans were initially wary when Disney bought Marvel Comics, but not in their worst nightmares did they expect the corporation to so blatantly misuse their new property. It just goes to show how dangerous cultural monopolies are, and how they destroy all artist integrity.
Plot-wise, Apprentice offers pretty much the standard Hollywood formulaic dribble. You have an awkward kid who gets picked on by the other kids at school because he doesn’t know how to shoot fireballs. The kid accidentally saves the puppy of a great sorcerer, and sorcerer repays the kid by teaching him how to shoot fireballs. The kid finds out that the bullies at school are actually dark wizards, and then its up to the kid and the sorcerer to stop them. Using fireballs. Is it more interesting because the kid is Mickey Mouse and the sorcerer is Ghost Rider? Surprisingly not. There was potential here for one of the most amazing team-ups in all of fiction, but it was ruined by the studio’s disregard for the source material. This disappointing waste of digital camera battery is yet another example of why Disney should stick to what it is good at: nothing. It should stop doing anything. It should stop making movies, it should stop making rides and amusement parks, it should stop extending copyrights. Disney should just stop existing.