40 Fun Facts About The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Dave Stutler's runaway mops in The Sorcerer's Apprentice pay homage to which classic Disney animated film?

Fantasia supplied the title and the premise: in its best-known segment a wizard's young helper tries his master's magic and cannot control it.

Which actor plays Balthazar Blake in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a film that grew from his own idea?

Nicolas Cage wanted to play a character with magical powers, and a producer friend suggested making a feature out of the old Disney segment.

Balthazar Blake's flying steel eagle in The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a gargoyle from which Manhattan skyscraper?

The Chrysler Building has real steel eagles jutting from its 61st floor, put there as a nod to the bald eagle, America's emblem.

Which electrical device does Dave Stutler use to stun Horvath in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

A Tesla coil, a high-voltage transformer designed in 1891, saves the day twice: Dave later builds a bigger one out of lamp posts and power lines.

Which make of sports car crashed into a restaurant window while The Sorcerer's Apprentice was filming?

A Ferrari driven by a stuntman skidded out of control and mounted the pavement, leaving two pedestrians with minor injuries; rain-slicked roads were blamed.

Which Manhattan sculpture does Horvath bring to life to attack Balthazar in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Charging Bull was itself a surprise arrival: sculptor Arturo Di Modica dropped it outside the Stock Exchange without permission in December 1989.

The Grimhold, the prison holding Morgana le Fay in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, takes the form of which toy?

A nesting doll suits the job: Balthazar spent centuries locking Morgana's followers inside it, and Horvath sets them loose one at a time.

Which Disney character's famous hat turns up in the post-credits scene of The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Mickey Mouse wore the pointed sorcerer's hat in the 1940 cartoon that inspired the film, and a giant version of it stood for years as a Disney theme park's icon.

Which Leonardo DiCaprio thriller topped the box office the weekend The Sorcerer's Apprentice opened third?

Inception took the top spot and Despicable Me came second, leaving Disney's $150 million fantasy with a $17.6 million opening weekend.

Which Spider-Man movie villain actor plays the treacherous Maxim Horvath in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Alfred Molina, Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, plays Horvath as a former apprentice who turned on his master after Veronica chose Balthazar over him.

Which Canadian actor, the voice of a young Viking named Hiccup, plays Dave Stutler in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Jay Baruchel had a busy 2010: How to Train Your Dragon and She's Out of My League reached cinemas the same year as his turn as Dave.

Which legendary wizard is master to Balthazar, Veronica and Horvath at the start of The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Merlin is mortally wounded in the 740 AD prologue, and before dying he hands Balthazar the dragon figurine that will one day pick out his heir.

Which subject is Dave Stutler studying at university when Balthazar returns in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Physics is what wins the day: Dave stuns Morgana with electricity from an improvised high-voltage rig, then finishes her with a barrage of plasma.

At the end of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Dave and Becky fly to which country for breakfast?

France is the destination, and they travel in style: the pair cross the Atlantic on the back of Balthazar's steel eagle.

In The Sorcerer's Apprentice, young Dave Stutler first meets Balthazar Blake in what kind of Manhattan shop?

An antique store called the Arcana Cabana is Balthazar's front, and the crew boasted of filling its set with half a million different objects.

The director, producer and star of The Sorcerer's Apprentice had earlier teamed up on which film series?

National Treasure and its 2007 sequel were directed, produced and led by the same trio, which made this Disney fantasy their third film together.

Which producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films was also behind The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Jerry Bruckheimer turned to a frequent collaborator for the music: a rock guitarist who had already scored Armageddon and Con Air for him.

Where in Manhattan did a stunt car crash injure two pedestrians while The Sorcerer's Apprentice was filming?

Times Square was the setting for a chase sequence when the car hit a pizzeria front; two days later a second, unrelated crash near the set hurt nine people.

Which pop rock band's hit Secrets plays prominently in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

OneRepublic even released a version of the Secrets video built from scenes of the film, though the song is missing from the soundtrack album.

In The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the dragon figurine given to young Dave turns into which piece of jewellery?

A ring is more than a keepsake here: it is the conduit for a sorcerer's magic, so Dave seems helpless once Horvath forces him to hand his over.

Which Italian actress, Persephone in The Matrix Reloaded, plays Veronica in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Monica Bellucci plays the sorceress who absorbs Morgana's soul into her own body, which is why Balthazar has to lock both women away together.

Which Australian actress plays Becky Barnes, Dave Stutler's childhood crush, in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Teresa Palmer gets a heroic beat of her own: in the finale Becky disrupts the villains' great spell at the crucial moment, stunning its caster.

Which spell does Morgana le Fay seek in The Sorcerer's Apprentice to revive dead sorcerers and enslave mankind?

The Rising would bring back an army of dead sorcerers, and the spell is already under way in the finale when Becky manages to disrupt it.

Balthazar and Horvath spend ten years trapped together inside which object in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

An urn from ancient China carries a ten-year curse, which is why the story jumps a decade and Dave is a college student when the pair burst out.

In which Manhattan neighbourhood do Balthazar and Dave track down the Grimhold in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Chinatown is where Dave wins his first real fight, after a paper parade dragon is brought to life and chases him across the fire escapes.

Dave Stutler's underground lab in The Sorcerer's Apprentice is modelled on what kind of abandoned space?

A subway station under City Hall, closed since 1945, was the model, and the crew recreated it as a vast set inside an old armory.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice lost a best summer movie prize to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse at which 2010 ceremony?

The Teen Choice Awards hand each winner a custom-made surfboard, and that year's Choice Summer Movie board went to the vampire romance instead.

Which German writer's 1797 ballad is the original source of the story behind The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Goethe wrote the poem in 14 stanzas; a century later a French composer set the tale to music, and Disney's animators then put that music on screen.

Which director of Cool Runnings and While You Were Sleeping made The Sorcerer's Apprentice for Disney?

Jon Turteltaub's production leaned on practical effects to make the magic believable: real fire, wire-flown props and stuntmen in green suits.

Which Deadwood star is the uncredited narrator who opens The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Ian McShane went unbilled, so the film's producer settled the question himself by confirming the casting to a curious fan on Twitter.

Which South African actress plays the evil sorceress Morgana le Fay in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Alice Krige was already a celebrated screen villain as the Borg Queen of Star Trek: First Contact, a part that won her a Saturn Award.

Which future Disney Channel sitcom star plays the ten-year-old Becky Barnes in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Peyton List went on to play Emma Ross in Disney's Jessie and, later, the karate rival Tory Nichols in Cobra Kai.

Which former member of the rock band Yes composed the score for The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Trevor Rabin, the guitarist behind the Yes hit Owner of a Lonely Heart, left the band in 1995 and reinvented himself as a film composer.

Two villain actors in The Sorcerer's Apprentice had both just appeared in which other 2010 fantasy film?

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was the same producer's other big release that summer, and both villains were cast after working on it.

Which American rock band's 2001 hit The Middle is heard in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Jimmy Eat World took The Middle from the album Bleed American; like the film's other pop hit, it was left off the score-only soundtrack album.

Which French composer wrote the symphonic poem heard when Dave animates a broom in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Paul Dukas conducted the 1897 Paris premiere of the piece himself, and it remains by far the most performed and recorded of his works.

Which real Salem witch trials accuser does Horvath release from the Grimhold in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Abigail Williams, a girl of eleven or twelve when her accusations helped start the 1692 panic, is used to kidnap Becky and then drained of her magic.

Which star of Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla plays celebrity magician Drake Stone in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Toby Kebbell plays Stone as a vain showman whom Horvath recruits and then betrays by stealing his magic; Kebbell later played the ape Koba.

Which Diary of a Wimpy Kid actor plays Oliver, young Dave Stutler's childhood friend, in The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Robert Capron became famous the same year as Rowley Jefferson, the loyal best friend in the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid film.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice was the opening film at a genre film festival in July 2010 in which Canadian city?

Montreal saw the film six days before American cinemas did, at an annual festival of fantasy, horror, science fiction and cult cinema.