This article is about the musical piece and its animated adaptation in Fantasia. For the 2010 film, see The Sorcerer's Apprentice (film).
“And now we're going to hear a piece of music that tells a very definite story. As a matter of fact, in this case, the story came first and the composer wrote the music to go with it. It's a very old story, one that goes back almost 2,000 years: a legend about a sorcerer who had an apprentice. He was a bright young lad, and very anxious to learn the business. As a matter of fact, he was a little bit too bright, because he started practicing some of the boss's best magic tricks before learning how to control them. One day, for instance, when he'd been told by his master to carry water to fill a cauldron, he had the brilliant idea of bringing a broomstick to life to carry the water for him. Well, this worked very well at first. Unfortunately, however, having forgotten the magic formula that would make the broomstick stop carrying the water, he found he'd started something he couldn't finish.”
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is the third and most famous segment in Disney's 1940 animated feature film, Fantasia, and the only returning segment in its sequel, Fantasia 2000. Based on the poem „Der Zauberlehrling“ ("the apprentice in magic") by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the musical piece « L'Apprenti Sorcier » ("the apprentice sorcerer") by Paul Dukas, it stars Mickey Mouse as the apprentice of the title.
Unlike most of the tracks in the film, which were recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra, this composition was the first to be recorded for the film by an ad-hoc 100-piece handpicked orchestra of Los Angeles-based session musicians, which Stokowski conducted. The recording was done in January 1938 at the Pathe Studios in Culver City.
On the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack album, a rerecorded version performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra of London conducted by James Levine is featured, even though the original recording is heard in the film.
At first, the scene starts with sorcerer Yen Sid, who is working on his magic while his apprentice Mickey does the chores. After some magic, Yen Sid puts his hat down, yawns, and goes to his chambers.
When he goes out of sight, Mickey puts the hat on and tries the magic on a broom. He commands the broom to carry buckets of water to fill a cauldron. Since Mickey is satisfied, he sits down on the chair and falls asleep.
He dreams that he is a powerful sorcerer high on top of a pinnacle commanding the stars, planets, and water. Before long, Mickey wakes up to find that the room is filled with water, and despite the cauldron overflowing, the broom is not stopping. Mickey tries to stop the broom without success; it walks right over him, bringing more and more water. Mickey even tries grabbing one of the buckets, but that too fails. Finally, when the water keeps rising, Mickey, in desperation, grabs a huge ax and chops the broom into pieces. Just when it is all over as Mickey is away, the little wooden split pieces, lying quietly on the floor, begin to come alive, stand upright, grow arms out of their sides, and turn into more brooms with buckets of water. They keep going to the vat and filling it up. Mickey tries to get the water out, but finds that there are too many brooms. Mickey goes to a book and looks for a spell to stop the brooms. Mickey finds himself in a whirlpool. Just then, Yen Sid comes in and sees this, and with a wave of his hands, the water descends and the army of brooms is decreased to one broom.
Yen Sid glares at Mickey, who gives him back his hat and the broom. He picks up the buckets and goes back slowly to finish his chores. At the end, Yen Sid whacks Mickey from behind with the broom, and Mickey quickly runs out of the room and leaves.
After the piece is over, Mickey runs to Leopold Stokowski as both congratulate each other and Mickey exits while Stokowski waves goodbye after he shakes hands with him. Deems Taylor and the musicians are seen applauding for Mickey and Stokowski in the original roadshow version of the film.
Originally at the part when Mickey uses an axe to chop the broom into pieces thus ruling out the exposure of their shadows, they were going to show all images of Mickey chopping the broom. After chopping the broom to smithereens, the axe had appeared to have its blade broken. Mickey pouted in disgust, threw the axe away, then sighed in exhaust. This was considered to have too much grim drama, so, in the end, they only showed their shadows. Also, in comparison, the axe had a much rougher edge than in the final animation. The deleted animation was included as a bonus feature on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the two Fantasia films, as well as the Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume 2 DVD set.
It was based on a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
It was converted into a Little Golden Book by Don Ferguson and illustrated by Peter Emslie.
While Fantasia 2000 was produced in 1:85:1 widescreen format, the segment was originally produced in the full screen Academy ratio and format (1:37:1), since it was originally created for the original film. When it was added into the sequel, it retains its original full screen aspect ratio, as opposed to being cropped to fit the sequel's widescreen aspect ratio, though the Mickey/Leopold Stokowski part at the very end of the segment has been cropped to 1:85:1 widescreen in the sequel (4:3 prints retains the full screen aspect ratio).
Also, in Fantasia 2000 Mickey's lines of dialogue in the Mickey/Leopold Stokowski part at the very end of the segment has been redubbed by his then-current voice actor Wayne Allwine.
As Mickey leaves the conductor's podium, he tells Stokowski, "Well, so long! I'll be seein' ya!" This line was reused from Brave Little Tailor, although the line originally ended with Mickey adding "I hope".
