History Main / SorcerersApprenticePlot

* In the early 90s puzzle game ''Troddlers'', the backstroy has two lazy apprentices of a wizard create hundreds of little humanoids to do their chores, but of course things don't go as planned and when they escape through a strange portal, the wizards orders his apprentices to go after them and collect as many as possible. The story is similar to the Fantasia segment while the gameplay bears some resemblance with Lemmings.

* The TropeMaker is a tale created by Ancient Greek satirist and writer Lucian of Samosata, in which the apprentice is supposed to be Lucian himself, telling his past misadventure with one of his friends who happened to be a sorcerer and agreed to teach him a few tricks. Like most of Lucian's works, it is a comical story not meant to be taken seriously at all. The TropeNamer is a PlayedForDrama reboot, Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's ballad "Der Zauberlehrling", made famous by Paul Dukas' Symphonic Poem ''L'apprenti sorcier'', made still more famous by a [[WesternaAnimation/MickeyMouse certain mouse]]. Amazingly, considering that it went through not one but ''two'' transformations, the Disney adaptation is remarkably close to Goethe's original poem.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DefendersOfTheEarth'' episode "A Demon in His Pocket": Kshin, wanting to get back on the school bullies without breaking the Defenders' Code of Honour by fighting unnecessarily, disobeys a direct order to stay away from Mandrake's sorcery books and finds a spell for summoning a demon named Shogoth. However, once Shogoth has dealt with the bullies, he refuses to return to his own dimension and goes on a rampage through the streets of Central City. With Shogoth increasing in size (and power) with each passing minute, Kshin eventually has no choice but to tell Mandrake what he has done.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* ''[[Literature/ProfessorBranestawm]]:'' In one story, the Professor builds a cake-baking machine so that Mrs Flittersnoop can keep her promise to do the baking for the church garden party. He shows her how to use it, but neglects to tell her how to turn it off when she's finished.

* Besides ''Fantasia'', Mickey Mouse has done it again in ''EpicMickey''. Y'see, while the wizard was out, Mickey poked around and found a world for forgotten characters. He visited and had fun, but accidentally creates a monster while trying to put his own image into the world. Mickey erases the beast (briefly), spills paint and thinner on the world, and escapes. Years later, it comes back to bite him.

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Not to be confused with [[Film/TheSorcerersApprentice the 2010 film]] (though that ''does'' have an homage to the original Disney short, being also a Disney movie). Compare ItWontTurnOff.

Not to be confused with [[Film/TheSorcerersApprentice the 2010 film]] (though that ''does'' have an homage to the original Disney short, being also a Disney movie).

Named for the old story best known today from its appearance in Disney's ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' -- Mickey Mouse, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, uses his master's magic to bring a broom to life and make it fetch water for him. The broom obeys [[LuddWasRight only too well]], and soon the whole castle is flooded and the sorcerer is forced to (quite literally) bail Mickey out. The Disney version is originally based on a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and the oldest version of this trope is a story by Lucian, written around A.D. 150, so the trope itself is OlderThanFeudalism.

* Sometimes happens in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', for example "Frybo" is about Steven animating the Frybo costume so Peedee doesn't have to wear it, but the thing goes crazy and start ForceFeeding people fries.
* The ''WesternAnimation/DefendersOfTheEarth'' episode "A Demon in His Pocket" is another example. Kshin, wanting to get his own back on the school bullies without breaking the Defenders' Code of Honour by fighting unnecessarily, disobeys a direct order to stay away from Mandrake's sorcery books and finds a spell for summoning a demon named Shogoth. However, once Shogoth has dealt with the bullies, he refuses to return to his own dimension and goes on a rampage through the streets of Central City. With Shogoth increasing in size (and power) with each passing minute, Kshin eventually has no choice but to tell Mandrake what he has done.

Named for the old story best known today from its appearance in Disney's ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' -- Mickey Mouse, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, uses his master's magic to bring a broom to life and make it fetch water for him. The broom obeys [[LuddWasRight only too well]], and soon the whole castle is flooded and the sorcerer is forced to (quite literally) bail Mickey out. The Disney version is originally based on a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and the oldest version of this trope is a story by Lucian, written around 150 CE, so the trope itself is OlderThanFeudalism.

* The TropeMaker is a tale created by Ancient Greek satirist and writer Lucian of Samosata, in which the apprentice is supposed to be Lucian himself, telling his past misadventure with one of his friends who happened to be a sorcerer and agreed to teach him a few tricks. Like most of Lucian's works, it is a comical story not meant to be taken seriously at all. The TropeNamer is a PlayedForDrama reboot, Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's ballad "Der Zauberlehrling", made famous by Paul Dukas' Symphonic Poem ''L'apprenti sorcier'', made still more famous by a [[WersternaAimation/MickeyMouse certain mouse]]. Amazingly, considering that it went through not one but ''two'' transformations, the Disney adaptation is remarkably close to Goethe's original poem.

[[quoteright:350: [[Disney/{{Fantasia}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s_Apprentice_1270.jpg]]]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* A distinctly adults-only version occurs in the ''XXXenophile'' story "The Sorceress' Appendage".
* The ''Tales of the GreenLantern Corps'' story "The Apprentice" does this with the GreenLanternRing.

[[folder: Film ]]

* This is essentially the plot of ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' in which an ordinary human NayTheist is given God's powers.
* ''Film/{{Dragonslayer}}'' does this a bit differently. The apprentice is lazy and doesn't develop his magic. The sorcerer is out of the picture, the apprentice takes his jewel of power, and suddenly has all the same magical competence without having to work for it. Three guesses what happens later...
* In the aptly named 2010 film ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', the literal sorcerer's apprentice Dave enchants mops to clean his lab while his master is away. It doesn't go [[HilarityEnsues so well]]. See the Disney/{{Fantasia}} example above.
* From the silent movie ''Film/TheGolem'': In the Rabbi's absence, his apprentice rashly revives the deactivated {{Golem}}, but soon loses control over him. The resulting rampage of the Golem is the movie's climax.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* The TropeMaker is a tale created by Ancient Greek satirist and writer Lucian of Samosata, in which the apprentice is supposed to be Lucian himself, telling his past misadventure with one of his friends who happened to be a sorcerer and agreed to teach him a few tricks. Like most of Lucian's works, it is a comical story not meant to be taken seriously at all. The TropeNamer is a PlayedForDrama reboot, Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's ballad "Der Zauberlehrling", made famous by Paul Dukas' Symphonic Poem ''L'apprenti sorcier'', made still more famous by a [[MickeyMouse certain mouse]]. Amazingly, considering that it went through not one but ''two'' transformations, the Disney adaptation is remarkably close to Goethe's original poem.

* ''The Wild Bunch'' by Tom Dupree (''[[ForgottenRealms Realms of Magic]]'') had a rather ingenious use of almost unusable artifact.

* In {{Tomie dePaola}}'s children's book ''Strega Nona'', a young man sees that the local witch can magically produce pasta from her cooking pot...but doesn't pay attention to how she gets it to stop. When he tries to use it while she's gone, the village is drowning in pasta by the time she gets back.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* At one point in ''{{Warehouse 13}}'', Claudia [[MundaneUtility uses a lab coat that magnetizes her to climb up to a lightbulb that's come loose]]. It works too well and suddenly she finds herself stuck to a metal girder, with more and more metal objects (including a bicycle and Artie's glasses) attaching themselves to her; eventually she needs to get Artie's help to get down.

[[folder: Theme Parks]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', we get some more details, including Mickey having ran off with an object that let him travel through worlds...without even knowing how to operate it properly. And in the prologue, we see a remade clip from the original ''Fantasia'' segment: Mickey is struggling to keep afloat on a book in a flooded room, no doubt caused in the same was as in ''Fantasia''.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In one [[Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Sunshine Warriors]] story, Arrowstar's nephew Ralph discovers his uncle's PoweredArmor and takes it for a spin. He does okay for a little while, and actually manages to stop a crime without causing too much property damage. But then he accidentally hits the suits afterburners and puts himself into orbit. Luckily, he's rescued before the suit's oxygen supply runs out.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' had Jade's constant use of the talismans for mischief or honest attempts to help.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Twilight Sparkle sort of deals with this. As the student of a [[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]], she's capable of performing amazing feats of magic, but she often messes up and makes things worse. "Lesson Zero" in particular, she tries to ''create'' a problem she can solve by enchanting her old doll with a "Want It, Need It" spell that quickly affects everyone in town. The ensuing riot keeps her from disenchanting the doll. [[spoiler:It isn't until Princess Celestia herself shows up that the problem is fixed. And just like the TropeNamer, she is ''not'' happy.]]
** And ''then'' there's the resultant fan works. "Twilight messes up a spell and HilarityEnsues" is probably in [[FandomSpecificPlot the top three most common plot outlines]].
** In ''The Cutie Pox'', Apple Bloom finds and consumes a Heart's Desire flower in Zecora's hut, which, causes her to develop progressively more cutie marks and constantly perform their respective talents, and only Zecora can provide the cure in the form of the Seeds of Truth.
** In ''Too Many Pinkie Pies'', Pinkie uses a MagicMirror pool to clone herself so she can have fun in multiple places at once, but ends up with a crowd of clones who can do little more than shout "Fun!" and wreak havoc. It's up to Twilight to ferret out the real Pinkie and dispel the clones.
** Twilight has another one in ''Magical Mystery Cure'' when she switches her friends' cutie marks by reading Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spell, resulting in Ponyville descending into chaos and ruin from the Mane Five's mismatched talents. In this case, she has to bail herself out, by showing her friends what they mean to each other so that they regain their normal marks.
** In ''Every Little Thing She Does'', a post-HeelFaceTurn Starlight Glimmer, desperate to get a bunch of friendship lessons done in a hurry, decides that the best way to hang out with Twilight's friends in an efficient manner is ''mind control''. This backfires when the mind control makes Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy LiteralMinded, and HilarityEnsues from Starlight's hastily-worded instructions. Twilight has to undo Starlight's spell and show her where she went wrong.
* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', when Franz Hopper calls [[TheSmartGuy Jérémie]] "the sorcerer's apprentice" and accuses him of screwing up Lyoko and endangering his friends' lives by using untested technology. [[spoiler: Actually, it's not Franz Hopper. The BigBad is trying to get Jérémie out of the way so he can launch his latest EvilPlan.]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', a wizard apprentice whose master was killed by a werewolf created an enchanted artifact, to fix a man who killed this werewolf but was bitten in process. This thing... didn't exactly work [[NiceJobBreakingItHero as planned]]. In a later arc the same guy appeared personally and acted like "DidntThinkThisThrough" incarnate.
--> Every properly trained wizard has heard of [[spoiler:Abraham]], the ''idiot apprentice'' who recklessly enchanted a massive diamond instead of ''selling it'' to pay someone more skilled to fix his cursed noble friend.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Computers, especially email servers, can suffer from [[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/sorcerers-apprentice-mode.html Sorcerer's Apprentice Mode]], where an improperly-configured system sends out multiple messages in response to a single message. Two such misconfigured systems talking to each other results in a traffic explosion, typically requiring the intervention of a guru to sort thing out.
* While it hasn't actually ever ''happened'' (at least not to our knowledge), this is basically the premise behind a popular hypothetical [[ApocalypseHow end of the world]] scenario called "GreyGoo", in which nanobots programmed to consume matter and convert it into clones of themselves are allowed to run free, eventually turning the entire planet into nanobots.

[[/folder]]

Named for the old story best known today from its appearance in Disney's ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' -- Mickey Mouse, the Sorcerer's apprentice, uses his master's magic to bring a broom to life and make it fetch water for him. The broom obeys [[LuddWasRight only too well]], and soon the whole castle is flooded and the sorcerer is forced to (quite literally) bail Mickey out. The Disney version is originally based on a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and the oldest version of this trope is a story by Lucian, written around 150 CE, so the trope itself is OlderThanFeudalism.

* In the aptly named 2010 film ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', the literal sorcerer's apprentice Dave enchants mops to clean his lab while his master is away. It doesn't go [[HilarityEnsues so well]]. See the Fantasia example above.

** And ''then'' there's the resultant fan works. "Twilight messes up a spell and HilarityEnsues" is probably in the top three most common plot outlines.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', when [[TheObiWan Franz Hopper]] calls [[TheSmartGuy Jérémie]] "the sorcerer's apprentice" and accuses him of screwing up Lyoko and endangering his friends' lives by using untested technology. [[spoiler: Actually, it's not Franz Hopper. The BigBad is trying to get Jérémie out of the way so he can launch his latest EvilPlan.]]

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[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', when [[TheObiWan Franz Hopper]] calls [[TheSmartGuy Jérémie]] "the sorcerer's apprentice" and accuses him of screwing up Lyoko and endangering his friends' lives by using untested technology. [[spoiler: Actually, it's not Franz Hopper. The BigBad is trying to get Jérémie out of the way so he can launch his latest EvilPlan.]]
** In a more general sense, Jérémie really is Franz' apprentice, though they rarely communicate during the show. He's taking control of AppliedPhlebotinum that he didn't build and [[HowDoIShotWeb doesn't fully understand]], and whenever he tries to develop something new, odds are better than even that he'll screw something up.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

* ''WowWowWubbzy'': In "Wubbzy's Magical Mess Up", Wubbzy borrows [[MagiciansAreWizards Moo Moo the Magician's]] wand while the latter is away from the shop and ends up creating a mess of chaos.
* An episode of ''TimonAndPumbaa'' had this happen with Rafiki's nephew.

* TropeNamer is Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's ballad "Der Zauberlehrling", made famous by Paul Dukas' Symphonic Poem ''L'apprenti sorcier'', made still more famous by a [[MickeyMouse certain mouse]]. Amazingly, considering that it went through not one but ''two'' transformations, the Disney adaptation is remarkably close to Goethe's original poem.

* Pinky from the ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' segments of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} ''had done something like this in the 'The Brain's Apprentice' cartoon, parodying the Disney Sorcerer's Apprentice short.

* In the [[Film/TheSorcerersApprentice 2010 film of the same name]], the literal sorcerer's apprentice Dave enchants mops to clean his lab while his master is away. It doesn't go [[HilarityEnsues so well]]. See the Fantasia example above.