The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This comedic live action take on the old mickey short is very good.  It will make you laugh with and cheer for Dave the young Sorcerer's Apprentice.  The classic scene is there, but there is much more to the movie. The story is really about Dave finding his self confidence and the will to use his power to resolve a centuries old conflict.  Something I really like about the movie is that Dave grows up to be a scientist and that this plays an important role in the movie.

The only thing I didnt really like about the movie is that the villains are not complex characters.  They are bad guys who like being bad guys.  I would have liked to see more reason for them being the way they are.

The plot of this movie is that centuries ago Merlin and two of his three apprentices Balthazar and Veronica, attempted to defeat Morgana le Fey and Merlin's other apprentice Horvath.  In the fight Merlin dies and Veronica sacrifices herself by merging with Morgana so that she can be trapped in a nesting doll.  In the end Horvath is also trapped , and Balthazar is left to continue alone, searching for the heir Merlin spoke of that can defeat Morgana.  The movie then skips to the near present day where Dave as a child runs into Balthazar right as Horvath escapes.  Balthazar saves Dave, who he recognizes as the heir, by trapping himself and Horvath in a magic vase for a number of years.  Dave's confidence is shattered when no one will believe him about what happened, and he is deemed to have had a mental breakdown.  When Dave is older, and studying physics as a grad student, the two wizards finally escape and the story begins again.  Balthazar begins teaching Dave Magic, with a few comic mishaps including the classic cleaning scene, but it goes to his head and he quickly ends up in a bind.  His confidence is badly hurt by this latest failure on top of years of being thought crazy.  In the end he must overcome his inner demons and combine science and magic to defeat Morgana and finally set things right.

This movie should appeal to fantasy fans, and would be great for family movie night.  Its plot and side stories will keep the adults engaged and the kids will love the battles between wizards, and the good verses evil theme.

This movie can be bought on disk, or as a streaming rental or purchase on www.amazon.com.

Lilo and Stitch Movie Review

Lilo and Stitch is a fun family movie that you can watch with your kids.  This animated science fiction film is really all about acceptance and chosen family.  The film does a good job of making you identify with both Lilo and Stitch, and under the comedy both of their stories are a little sad.  I really like the fact that this can be seen as either a girl and her alien or as an alien and his little girl movie because it becomes very obvious through the film that the are good for each other.

What I didn't like about this movie is the Galactic Federation.  The movie manages to portray the society as extremely rule-bound and formal, and sort of wild west at the same time.  The reasoning behind why they would want to imprison stitch are flimsy and don't make a lot of sense for a cosmopolitan society.

Basically the story follows the life and meeting of Lilo and Stitch.  Lilo is a little girl who lives with her sister because their parents died.  she has trouble fitting in with the other kids in her town, and acts out violently at times.  Stitch is a genetic experiment made by a mad scientist in the galactic federation.  He is basically made to be a force of chaos and destruction.  He is very hard to hurt, and highly intelligent.  When Stitch's creator is put on trial he is used as evidence against him, and stitch's behavior at trial end up getting him banished to a remote asteroid.  Rightly seeking to avoid this horrible fate stitch escapes confinement, steals a ship, and crash lands in Hawaii.  Looking like a dog he is picked up and taken to the animal shelter where Lilo adopts him.  Lilo is very understanding of his violent tendencies and tries, largely successfully, to help him overcome them.  In the course of doing this Lilo comes to terms with her own situation, and deals with her own issues as well.  Eventually Stitch is pursued, and ends up dragging Lilo into his problems.  In the end they save each other.  Stitch saves Lilo from being abducted by the Galactic Federation.  Lilo saves Stitch by claiming him as a member of her family, and not letting the Galactic Federation take him away.

This movie makes a great family movie because it shows that anyone can be good, and that everyone has a place where they belong.  It says that even someone who was made to be bad can overcome that with the right family, and an understanding environment.

This movie can be found at www.amazon.com on disk or as a streaming rental or purchase.  It is also available on Netflix if you have a subscription.