Not recommended under 10, PG to 13 (Violence; scary scenes)
This topic contains:
Children under 10 | Not recommended due to violence and scary scenes |
Children aged 10-13 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes |
Children over the age of 13 | OK for this age group |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Fantasy violence and threatening scenes |
Length: | 109 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
The Sorcerers Apprentice opens in 740 A.D. with a battle between Merlin the wizard and the sorceress Morgana (Alice Krige). Morgana wants to steal Merlin’s Great Book of Spells. We hear that Merlin had three apprentices Balthazar Blank (Nicholas Cage), Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci), and that through Horvath’s betrayal Morgana was able to defeat Merlin. Before Morgana is able to escape with Merlin’s Great Book, Balthazar and Veronica arrive and do battle with Morgana and Horvath. During the fight Veronica overpowers Morgana by sucking her soul into her own body, but Morgana fights back trying to kill Veronica from the inside out. To save Veronica’s life, Balthazar imprisons both Veronica and Morgana in a wooden nesting doll, a magical prison called the “Grimhold”. Before dying Merlin hands Balthazar a tiny metal dragon telling Balthazar that he is to use the dragon to find the Prime Merlinian, Merlin’s successor and the only one who can defeat Morgana.
The film cuts to the year 2000 where ten-year-old Dave Stutler (Jake Cherry) accidentally stumbles into an antique shop where he encounters Balthazar, who has not aged a day. Sensing something different about Dave, Balthazar place the metal dragon on Dave’s hand and the dragon immediately animated wraps itself around Dave’s finger. Dave is the Prime Merlinian! While Balthazar is out of the room for a few minutes, Dave finds the Gimhold and accidentally releases Horvath. Unable to defeat Horvath, Balthazar tells Dave to take the Gimhold and run, then imprisons both himself and Horvath in a magical urn for ten years.
The film cuts to the year 2010, where Dave (Jay Baruchel) is now a physics nerd at NYU where he conducts experiments in electromagnetism. Dave has all but forgotten his encounter with Balthazar, and is having a relationship with Becky (Teresa Palmer). However ten years have passed, and both Horvath and Balthazar escape from the urn and go in search of Dave and the Grimhold.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
The supernatural; immortality; relationships; betrayal
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice contains frequent intense fantasy violence. Examples include:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight. Many of them involve transformations and inanimate figures coming alive. Examples include:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the violent and scary scenes described above
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the violent and scary scenes described above
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by this film.
None of concern
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice contains occasional putdowns and brief mild coarse language. Examples include:
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, partially based on scenes in the Disney classic Fantasia, is a fantasy action drama that targets older children and early adolescents (ten to fifteen years). The film is more than capable of entertaining its targeted audience, but parents are warned that the film has many scenes which are likely to disturb younger children.
The main messages from this movie are:
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
Which doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining, because it certainly is. (How could it not be, given how engineered the whole thing feels?) As in Spider-Man 2, Molina proves brilliant at villainy, balancing smart and sinister at the same time. And Baruchel isn't your average hero, which is a good thing: He’s one of a few elements in the movie that has a refreshing edge.
One section that does feel inspired? The mops-and-buckets-go-awry sequence inspired by Fantasia, the classic animated feature to which The Sorcerer's Apprentice owes some debt of gratitude. For a moment there, the movie evokes the whimsy and mayhem it could have more wholeheartedly embraced. As the popcorn fare it is now, it’s loads of fun -- but it could have been genius.
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
In order to save Becky’s life Dave hands over the Grimhold to Horvath knowing that it could destroy the world. Was Dave right to risk the entire world in order to save Becky, or should Becky have been sacrificed in order to save the lives of countless others?
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
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