Book Review: The Answer is Yes: The Art and Making of The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This is the making of 2010's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, directed by Jon Tureltaub, starring Nicolas Cage.

In case you don't know, The Sorcerer's Apprentice is actually the English name of a poem by Goethe written in 1797, as I found out from this book and on wikipedia. And then there's that animated short starring Mickey Mouse which also goes by the same title. Alright, there's a picture (or two) of Mickey and Walt Disney, some history written but that's about all. This 2010 movie isn't anything related to that animated short except for an inclusion of a scene which pays homepage to it.

It's written by unit publicist Michael Singer, who also wrote We Make Our Own Destiny: Behind the Scenes of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Thankfully, it's has much less of the self-congratulatory compliments. The writeup is, for the most part, pretty interesting as they talk about how the special effects are created, like the quicksand rug, the flying Chrysler eagle, creating coloured flames, etc. The actors bios are covered, of course.

This book lacks much of the behind-the-scenes photos I was expecting, and I'm not referring to photos of cameramen at work. While they can explain how the effects were created, the photos included are oftentimes film stills and not production shots. Production shots, a series of them, would have been more helpful and interesting.

The concept illustrations and set designs included didn't really wow me. There are some cool pieces but generally they seem too safe -- is it because this is a Disney movie?

I'll recommend this more to fans of the movie.

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.

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This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.