The Sorcerer's Apprentice

At first I was incredibly skeptical about this, but it turned out to be something really special.

I read the the book at school - quite a lot of years ago. And as I remembered it, it was quite good. But what almost made me not watch it was the style of animation. It reminded me of South Park but just more old school and stiffer in the way it's animated. I thought this is not going do be interesting but it was the opposite. Especially the style of animation made its atmosphere and deepness. It creeped me out some times.

The story is good. But what makes it is the way it's told. You see the main character become a grown-up in some ways and it's darkness and violent moments. One of the main feelings is despair in this movie.

Its really hard to explain but this is really something unique as far as I know. The combination of animation, the story, the character development and music is just unique.

Everybody should see this.

I saw this movie on a children's program on Dutch TV when I was on basic school, I cannot remember if it was before or after 1980. What I do remember is the impact it made on me : an atmosphere that could be called "Gothic" in the Romantic sense of the word, I still cannot believe this was broadcast on TV for youths when I especially recall the hand-shaking ceremony of the master wizard, by this magically taking the new apprentice of the mill as his magical disciple. I did not know much about the Satan's pact of the popular witchcraft stories, but GOSH, that moment was creepy to the bone!!!! The exclamation of the master wizard when the young apprentice is taken into the magical brotherhood of the other young disciples "Now the mill grinds again!!" is forever engraved in my mind!! If anyone knows where this masterpiece is distributed, send me word...

I saw this movie two years ago at a Zeman retrospective in Montreal and I was amazed. Not only was the story excellent, but who could have imagined that such an old movie from Czechoslovakia could be so well animated ? This is not Pixar, but there is a true master of animation at work here. I saw a couple of other movies from Zeman, but this was the best. Cross your fingers and hope your local art house shows this movie someday.

I saw this movie twice in my youth. It played (both times) on Canada's French CBC channel-Radio Canada in the early 1980's. The film was shown on the (now defunct) Saturday matinée series Ciné-Famille . The film itself had been dubbed in French. To this day I can remember the film as being hauntingly beautiful, captivating, mesmerizing. Everything from the transfiguration of the Miller's disciples into Ravens, to the Master Disciple(s) having to build their own coffins before their final confrontation with the Miller. This film is a masterpiece thru and thru. Sure wish I could find a French or English copy of it. I saw it today on E-Bay, but it was the German version, no subtitles ($30 + US after shipping). I should still put a bid on it. Even a version in a foreign (to me) language is worth getting.

At first, when I watched this film online (subtitled), I confused the title for the version of a poem by German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that inspired French composer Paul Dukas to write his famous musical piece with the same title. But really, the film is based on a book called "The Satanic Mill" by Otfried Preußler and the Sorbian folk tale upon which the book is based. I thought the cutout animation was really good; it's like the illustrations of some ancient book come to life.

Well, anyway, the film is about Krabat, a beggar boy in early 18th-century Lusatia who is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. Together with a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill under slave-like conditions while learning black magic, such as posing as a raven and other animals. Every Christmas, one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel of life and death, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use his secret grimoire: "The Koraktor" or the "Force of Hell."

One Easter while performing an annual ritual near a small village, Krabat meets a girl (whom he dubbed the "Kantorka," or "the girl who sings") and falls in love with her. But Krabat has to keep his romance secret in order to protect her. After witnessing one after another of his friends being helplessly slaughtered by the master every Christmas, Krabat starts to sneak up at night to study the forbidden book. On the last page of the book, Krabat finds a phrase saying, "Love is stronger than any spell."

That's all I could tell you, folks. You will have to see the film for yourself to see how it ends. Overall, I enjoyed this dark fantasy film. And I should mention that watching this film was my first exposure to Czechoslovakian animation.