A version of the title episode from Fantasia (1940) doesn't appear in Jon Turteltaub's plodding potboiler until two-thirds of the way through, but by that point, so many other blockbusters have been plagiarized, I was surprised that (SPOILER!) the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was a no-show.
A comparison, though, between Disney's multiplying-mops sequence and this CGI simulation is instructive: the former still stuns; the latter is tedious, grim, and messy. So's the plot: the sorcerer Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), the last of Merlin's acolytes, must find the "Prime Merlinean" before dapper baddie Horvath (Alfred Molina) can unseal the Grimhold and release the evil Morgana (Alice Maud Krige), who plans to raise the dead.
Too bad the PM is nerdy NYU student Dave, who's played by annoying Jay Baruchel. (Is he tapping into Cage's performance in Peggy Sue Got Married?) Cage and Molina add magic, but not enough.
