The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Magical trainee tale
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a tale about a novice who uses magic beyond his skill, setting off a disaster he cannot control.
The story, best known from Goethe's 1797 poem and the Mickey Mouse sequence in Disney's *Fantasia*, has become a metaphor for unleashing forces you lack the expertise to manage: The intern's attempt to automate the database turned into a sorcerer's apprentice situation.
- magicSupernatural or illusory power
- broomBristled cleaning stick
- bucketsOpen-top carrying vessels
- waterClear essential liquid
- floodOverwhelming water overflow
out of control · spell · wizard · learn the hard way · Fantasia · pointed hat · enchantment · chaos · mischief · incantation · Goethe · classical music · symphony · hat · stars · mop · overflow · conjure
- Nicolas Cage FilmsFace/Off, The Rock, Ghost Rider, Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona
- German ClassicismWeimar, Mary Stuart, classical aesthetics, literary legacy
- GoetheFaust, Mephistopheles, Gretchen, Mephisto, Weimar
- Program Musicsymphonic poem, tone poem, tone poems, Don Juan, Don Quixote
- Fantasy FilmsLabyrinth, The NeverEnding Story, Willow, The Dark Crystal, Pan's Labyrinth
sorcerer, sorcery, sorcerous, sorceress, apprentice, apprentices, apprenticeship, apprenticed