Mickey’s pointy blue hat with the two stars and the moon is an image that pops up again and again. Especially at flea markets in the used VHS or DVD section. It’s synonymous with magic. Despite being the cover image of Disney’s Fantasia (1940), Mickey Mouse does not start out with the iconic hat. He drags two buckets full of water from the fountain down the stairs and takes a little rest. Then he sees the big etheral butterfly that the sorcerer has formed using his magic and that he puts back (into a skull on the table). The hat is right next to it, blinking. The sorcerer is tired and goes to bed. Mickey leaves the buckets of water, takes the magical hat, and starts to send spells towards a broom lying in the corner.
What follows is ten minutes of ups and downs, set to the tune of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice by French composer Paul Dukas, who wrote the music in 1897. Inspired by the ballad Goethe wrote and Schiller published exactly a hundred years earlier (in 1797, a year filled with ballads). The content of this ballad and Mickey’s performance are pretty similar, though there is the added drama of Hollywood gestures compared to less dramatic scenes in the German sorcerer household. The apprentice is weary of his work and grasps the opportunity to use the magical power he is supposed to be learning through long and repetitive tasks.
Carrying water over steep staircases can be found in a number of training situations with masters and apprentices.
Back in Fantasia, Mickey quickly delegates the task of carrying the buckets to the broom and hops over to his boss’s desk to take a well-deserved nap in the armchair, only to conduct the water delivery from his dreams, on top of a cliff, with the music getting more and more dramatic, swooshing around stars and big waves, until he finally tumbles out of the chair with the water literally up to his chest. He does the reasonable thing, grabs an axe, and chops up the broom before everything is flooded.
But that’s not how it works, unfortunately.
The brooms start multiplying, getting more and more water, before Mickey is moments from drowning, just to be saved by the Sorcerer last minute. The sorcerer is not really mad either, having anticipated, or maybe even provoked, the shortcut for Mickey to try out and fail. He sends Mickey back to work, carrying those buckets.
Goethe was inspired by a story written down over 1500 years before his day by Roman writer Lucian. The setting there is Egypt, and instead of a broomstick the tool that is being enchanted is a pestle, but it is the same plot. Goethe without a doubt was also inspired by revolutions taking place in Europe and the US and the approach of industrialization.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Ferdinand Barth (1882)
There are several questions that can be asked from the original story, the poem, and the Disney clip. What happens if there is a shortcut to knowledge (and thus power) readily available? Will the apprentice take it in every situation?
Beaming to modern days, what are the implications for knowledge that can be applied at any time, without the tedious task of carrying the literal and metaphorical buckets of water? Are they necessary in the first place? The office worker that is taking a nap in his chair while agents reply to his emails, run reports, and get the grunt work done. Are the dreams in 2026 the same as Mickey’s? Conducting and celebrating the work that the machines are doing.
In the Disney clip Mickey does not speak. The music in the background sets the tone (as in all the Fantasia clips, there is only dialogue in between, with the orchestra). But the words are central aspects of Goethe’s apprentice, who uses them to invoke the magic. “Walle Walle” (flow flow), the magic starts by him speaking, and quite a few words follow. In the Lucian story, the apprentice overhears the master uttering just three syllables to bring the wood to life. One of the most famous magical words is absolute gibberish or means “create while you speak”, depending on what source you consult.
A lot of the GPT technology causing stirs these days is based on words. What letter comes next, and how probable that letter is compared to other letters. Words that if applied in the right sequence and intonation, create websites, charts, and powerpoint presentations. Move trillions of dollars and cause discussion about a broad range of topics, including the water needed to cool data centers.
What does the workday or school day look like if everybody has a chance to use magic. And is it even magic anymore if everybody has access to it? Are the sorcerers going to retire because nobody needs to learn the spells anymore? Or carry the waterbuckets?
Or is magic going to be found beyond words, if all that has been written and can be spoken into existence has been exhausted?
At the very end, before he dives into the water, Mickey is surfing on the book of spells, grabbing on and looking for the right words to stop the madness. In the poem, the apprentice is not able to remember the word.
Only the sorcerer himself knows it. And stops it. And tells the tools that he is the only one that is allowed to use them.
But the apprentice is not fired.
So is the story really a warning?
Or an observation?