The Title in Popular Culture
Following Goethe's poem and Dukas' symphonic piece and the film Fantasia, the term "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" has had numerous iterations as the title of various media pieces. These include several novels and nonfiction books, including novels by Elspeth Huxley, Hanns Heinz Ewers, and François Augiéras. It is also the title of a Doctor Who novel by Christopher Bulis. Nonfiction books with this title include a travel book by Tahir Shah, and a chess book by David Bronstein and Tom Fürstenberg.
Among the various radio and television episodes with this title, the title is used for a CBBC show in which a professional magician chooses his apprentice. There is also a BBC radio play of the same name starring Paul Rhys and Harry Towb originally broadcast in 2007 and re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7.
The Sorceror's Apprentice, is a 1962 public domain episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents featuring Brandon deWilde as mentally-troubled youth Hugo, after the magic wand of a kindly magician.
"Top Secret Apprentice", a segment of the Tiny Toons Adventures episode broadcast on February 1, 1991, is a modern version of the story, with Buster Bunny messing around with Bugs Bunny's cartoon scenery machine and getting himself into a big heap of trouble. Like the Fantasia segment, there is no dialogue.
There is also a live action film, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, featuring a scene based on Goethe's poem (and the Fantasia version), produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Nicolas Cage.
A key episode in Ursula Leguin's "Earthsea" series concerns a young trainee magician summoning spirits in a piece of magic which he cannot control, with very serious consequences - which, though different in concrete details, is evidently inspired by the above.
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