Release: Aug 15, 2017
Film: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Tagline: Some Jerk with a Camera joins the review, seeing why Nicolas Cage as Mickey Mouse surprisingly doesn’t work.
This review contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: The Critic accidentally refers to Becky Barnes as "Bucky Barnes" due to her being forgettable, so the duo decide to simply call her "Winter Soldier" from that point onward.
- Actor Allusion: Two In-Universe cases:
- The opening sketch and the review itself makes a lot of references to Nicolas Cage's (Balthazar) previous films.
- When Dave (Jay Baruchel) gets chased by a dragon, the Critic dubs into him lines that he has no idea how to train these.
- All Just a Dream: Subverted — the opening sequence (a Shout-Out to the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia) is apparently just a nightmare the Critic was having, until he sees multiple Nicolas Cages demanding that he see The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
- Call-Back:
- At the opening sketch the audience can see the whiteboard with the words "I Will Not Breathe" written repeatedly by Malcolm and Tamara as punishment for giving the Critic Monkeybone in the previous episode.
- When the present day of the film is revealed as the year 2000, the Jerk announces it in a booming voice similar to how the Critic described the year 3000 of Battlefield Earth.
- Jim reprises his role as Jared Leto from the Suicide Squad (2016) review, but this time playing Chernabog for the "Fantasia Cinematic Universe", and apparently he was still mailing sex toys.
- At the end of the film, Balthazar and Veronica (now freed from Morgana's thrall) share a kiss while the "psychotic Looney Tunes ending credits" from the Face/Off review (another Cage film) plays.
- The Cameo:
- Team Four Star member Anthony "Antfish" Sardiniha prank-calls the Analysts disguised as Cage demanding that he play Mickey Mouse. He also doubles as Cage's singing voice in a few skits throughout the review.
- Awesome Comics cast member Walter Banasiak appears as Dave in the Parody Commercial for a "Fantasia Expanded Universe".
- Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor and his son Griffin (both self-acknowledged fans of Nostalgia Critic) appear alongside Chester A. Bum, Black Willy Wonka, Hyper Fan Girl and Rob Scallon as they leave for a tour aboard an ice cream truck (which the Critic, mistaking it for a prank, refuses to join in).
- Crossover: With Tony "Some Jerk with a Camera" Goldmark.
- Crying Wolf: Just as the Critic learns not to be gullible anymore, he misses out on going on tour with Slipknot in an ice cream truck.
- Damned by Faint Praise: The Critic and Jerk grudgingly compliment a scene where Balthazar opens a book on magic that continually unfolds itself.
- Dull Surprise: The duo criticize the film for lacking traditional Nicolas Cage freak-outs, instead showing him muttering quietly most of the time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Analysts, as greedy as they are, at least have had some reservations over Nicolas Cage
- He Really Can Act: The Critic thinks Alfred Molina performed well as Horvath.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Jerk complains about a scene where a shot dissolves into the exact same shot, he goes off on a long tangent, and the passage of time is indicated using the aforementioned effect.
- In Name Only: The Critic and Jerk consider the film to have practically nothing to do with the short from Fantasia it was based on.
- Long List: When Balthazar seemingly dies at the end, the Critic feigns shock while the Jerk sarcastically rattles off a list of all the Disney characters that have undergone Disney Deaths.
- No-Sell: The laughing woman doesn't react to anything the Critic throws at her.
- Parody Commercial: In between two halves of the review is an advertisement for the "Fantasia Cinematic Universe", featuring Doug as Balthazar, Walter as Dave, Malcolm as Leopold Stokowski (or rather, a gray-haired Nick Fury), Jared Leto (Jim) as Chernabog from "Night on Bald Mountain", Scarlett Johansson (Tamara) as the ostrich from "Dance of the Hours", Jack Black (Tony) as Bacchus from "The Pastoral Symphony", Selena Gomez (Tamara) as Sugar Plum Fairy from "The Nutcracker", Daniel Day-Lewis (Rob) as a dinosaur from "The Rite of Spring", and Bryan Cranston (Doug) as Walter White from "Breaking Bach" (Toccata and Fugue in D Minor), with a cameo by Bette Midler (Tamara).
- Poor Man's Substitute: The Critic thinks Jay Baruchel is a poor man's Andrew Garfield.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The song Nicolas Cage sings in Critic's dream.
- Running Gag: The Critic gets repeatedly fooled by prank calls.
- Satellite Love Interest: The Critic and Jerk think Becky's only role in the film is to be supportive of Dave, no matter what.
- Self-Deprecation: The Jerk claims that in hindsight going to the Critic's studio in Chicago all the way from Los Angeles wasn't worth the cost, as now he's broke and had to sleep for days at the roof, and now he has to crowdfund his way home.
- Shout-Out:
- The opening sketch is the Critic's take on the actual The Sorcerer's Apprentice short of Fantasia, with the Critic as Yen Sid, and a picture of the Jerry Bruckheimer Films logo as Mickey Mouse turning the Critic's Blu-ray disc of Fantasia into Nicolas Cage.
- The Critic jokes that Balthazar and Dave are in Chinatown to find the Mulan Szechuan sauce.
- The four-armed Sun Lok is described as Goro's less impressive younger brother.
- The Chinese dragon chasing after Dave and Balthazar was considered so blatantly CGI the Critic thinks Susan Sarandon's dragon was more convincing.
- When Dave and Becky fly away on a mechanical eagle at the end of the film, the Jerk thinks that they are going to Isengard to save Gandalf.
- When Dave defeats Morgana using a mop, the Critic and the Jerk wear shades and exclaim that "the mop cleaned up this mess", while a makeshift Big "YES!" from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" plays.
- Take That!:
- The Jerk thinks that a scene of Dave's dull dialogue was guest-directed by Judd Apatow.
- When Balthazar tries to explain the "science of magic" to Dave, the Critic thinks that's how the Star Wars franchise got the midi-chlorians.
- When Toby Kebbell (Drake) appears in the film, the Critic and Jerk claim he can be taken more seriously than his other role as Doctor Doom.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The duo consider this to be the case when Maxim summons Abigail to kidnap Becky, saying that she didn't have a lot of screentime before Maxim took her power away, and they didn't even show the kidnapping itself.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Even the Jerk, a well-known Disney theme parks enthusiast, stops smiling upon realizing that he and the Critic are about to review this film.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The Critic dares the audience to identify any scene where Cage was invested in his performance. After a few samples of Cage performing otherwise, the Jerk proudly proclaims that it was a trick question.
"Uh, uh, uh, what the heck is this?"
