The Sorcerer's Apprentice poem's story is alluded to in several episodes of the fairy-tale drama "Once Upon a Time", especially in "The Apprentice". A variation of the Dukas piece also plays in certain scenes. The apprentice himself is a recurring character, while the sorcerer is shown to be Merlin. The "Fantasia" version appears in the video game series "Kingdom Hearts", with the sorcerer Yen Sid serving as an adviser to the heroes, teaching Mickey, Sora, and Riku the Keyblade skills needed to guard the universe from his former friend Xehanort's plan. A world based on the "Fantasia" version also appears throughout the series,
The Sorcerer's Apprentice cartoon scenery machine and getting himself into a big heap of trouble. Like the "Fantasia" segment, there is no dialogue, save for a line by Buster in the end. There is a live action film, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (2010), featuring a scene based on Goethe's poem (and the "Fantasia" version), produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Nicolas Cage. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels alluded to Goethe's poem in "The Communist Manifesto", comparing modern bourgeois society to "the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells." The