Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s time for another Disney+ Roundup from me on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. I’ve watched two films I’ve never seen before on Disney+, including one that’s a sequel to another film that I saw earlier this year. It was sadly removed from the UK version of Disney+ recently, which is rather disappointing. 😦
That specific film was ‘The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again’, a 1979 film that is the sequel to the 1975 film ‘The Apple Dumpling Gang’. I can’t say ‘The Apple Dumping Gang Rides Again’ is as good as the first film, but I enjoyed seeing it. 🙂 I’m glad I saw it before it got taken down from on Disney+.
One of the disappointing aspects about ‘The Apple Dumping Gang Rides Again’ is that Bill Bixby isn’t in it. Neither is Susan Clark and the three orphans who were in the first film. Instead, the sequel focuses on the comedic duo of Tim Conway as Amos and Don Knotts as Theodore from the first film.
I’m not saying Tim Conway and Don Knotts shouldn’t have the spotlight in this film. It’s very intriguing the film focused on them for a change. But with the first film, I rooted more for Bill Bixby’s character, and I wish there were cameos of him, Susan Clark and the three kids in the second film. 😐
In some respects, the Bill Bixby character is replaced by Tim Matheson as Jeff Reed, an army intelligence officer posing as an enlisted soldier to uncover a conspiracy of military robberies. He also ends up falling in love with Elyssa Davalos as Millie Gaskill, who replaces Susan Clark’s character.
There’s also Harry Morgan (who I’ve seen in ‘Orchestra Wives’, ‘State Fair’, ‘The Glenn Miller Story’ and he was in ‘The Apple Dumpling Gang’ as a different character) as Major Gaskill, Millie’s father. And there’s Kenneth Mars as Marshall Wolly Bill Hitchcock, who pursues Amos and Theodore in this.
The second film I saw recently on Disney+ was ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, starring Nicolas Cage. Apparently, this 2010 film is based on a segment featuring Mickey Mouse with a wizard’s hat called ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’. It’s from the 1940 film ‘Fantasia’ as well as the 1999 film ‘Fantasia 2000’.
I have vague memories of the original ‘Fantasia’ film (I’ve not seen ‘Fantasia 2000’ yet), but I do recall it being a musical anthology film with no dialogue in it. The 2010 film ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ is quite a contrast, especially with the characters talking and it’s all an action-adventure.
The film has Nicolas Cage as Balthazar Blake, a Merlinean sorcerer who ends up in modern-day Manhattan fighting against the forces of evil. In particular, he must confront his nemesis Alfred Molina as Maxim Horvath. It was nice to see Alfred Molina in another villain role outside of Doc Ock.
Nicolas Cage as Balthazar also must search for the person who will eventually inherit Merlin’s powers – the Prime Merlinean. It turns out to be Jay Baruchel as Dave Stutler, a physics student whom Balthazar takes on a reluctant protégé and is given a course in the art and science of sorcery.
There’s also Alice Krige (the Borg Queen from ‘Star Trek’) as Morgana le Fay; Teresa Palmer as Becky Barnes, Dave’s love interest; and Monica Bellucci as Veronica, Balthazar’s love interest. I know this film was a box office failure at the time of its release, but I enjoyed checking it out lately on Disney+.
It’s fair to say I enjoyed ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ more than ‘The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again’, but both films have intriguing levels of quality in terms of how they tell their stories. It’s also fitting that Nicolas Cage (Spider-Man Noir) fought Alfred Molina (Doc Ock) in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’. 😀
Stay tuned for another Disney+ Roundup on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ soon. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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