Maxim Horvath

"Time for a little revenge."

- Maxim Horvath

Maxim Horvath is the central antagonist in the 2010 Disney fantasy movie The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He is an evil wizard who once worked with the powerful sorcerer Merlin as one of his 3 chosen apprentices. However he turned to the dark arts out of jealousy, after his love interest favored his best friend. He acts the main antagonist for most of the film, but he is actually a minion to the true main villain.

He is portrayed by Alfred Molina who also played Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2.

Past
Maxim Horvath was, along with Balthazar Blake and Veronica Gorloisen, a disciple of Merlin and a force of good more than a thousand years ago. But their mutual love for Veronica split the colleagues apart and Horvath has instead become an ally of the wicked Morgana le Fay, who murdered Merlin and is sought to conquer the world with an army of undead sorcerers. Fortunately, though he succeed in helping Morgana obtain a script that contain the most dangerous spell known as The Rising that would help them raise dead spellcasters from the grave from Merlin's Encantus, their effort to proceed their plan further fails at hands of both Veronica and Balthazar, but at a terrible price; Veronica asborbed Morgana's soul in an attempt to prevent her from achieving her plan. They were then locked in the Grimhold together. Horvath then disappeared, but not before preparing himself to execute other plans and to recruit other wicked sorcerers to his side.

Horvath's Revenge
Horvath and Balthazar have battled through the ages, finally bringing their conflict to modern-day New York City. Balthazar is maintaining the Merlinean standard of magic as a power that’s used for the benefit of mankind; while Horvath is the de facto "leader" of the Morganians, evil spellcasters who take the very different view that magic should be used to subjugate humans.

This conflict lasted until Balthazar defeated and sealed him away in the Grimhold, the same near unbreakable object that sealed Morgana away hundreds of years ago. Then 10 year old Dave Stutler accidentally freed Maxim and after a struggle with Balthazar, the two were stuck in an urn for ten years. After the 10 years were up, Maxim went after Dave, sending a pack of wolves after the boy. Yet Balthazar, who had escaped as well, rescued Dave and began his sorcerer training. Indeed, Dave was none other than the fabled Prime Merlinian, the heir of Merlin's power who was to defeat Morgana once and for all. Horvath took the Grimhold with him and vowed to destroy Dave and free Morgana, so that her wrath would be unleashed upon the world.

To that end, he recruited the foolish illusionist Drake Stone as his apprentice and sent him after Dave. He pursued Dave and attacked him, only to get locked in a mirror, and at some point chased Dave and Balthazar in a car race, transforming the car following his needs. He also released Morganians from the Grimhold, including Horvath's old apprentice Sun Lok (recently dead before recruiting Drake Stone) and the legendary witch Abigail Williams to enlist their help. After his cohorts outlived their usefulness, Horvath used the Parasite Spell to dispose of them and stole their catalysts, magic items (such as rings and talismans) to gain their power. He eventually abducted Dave's love interest Becky Barnes and held her hostage in exchange for Merlin's ring.

Horvath went to Battery Park and freed Morgana, who began casting the Rising. He then animated a bull statue to kill Dave and fought Balthazar, but Dave defeated him with a telsa coil, and Balthazar blasted him away.

His current whereabouts after Morgana's death are not known, though the film's stinger shows an unidentified hand (heavily implied to be his own) retrieving his hat from the Cabana Arcana.

Appearance
Maxim Horvath is a short and portly man with dark hair and brown eyes. He wears a grey coat and a tie with a spider jewel on it, black rubber gloves, and a bowler hat. Horvath's Staff, the Morganian wizard's own prized possession, is a long black stave-like cane with a blue crystal that glows whenever he cast spells to channel his magic. (Originally, the cane was a long, medieval sword with the same, blue crystal on its pommel, which he had transformed into a staff.)

Powers and Abilities
Horvath is a highly powerful sorcerer, who can use magic to pick things up and throw people (or other things) against a wall, to conjure illusions, to animate objects and statues and bring drawings to life (such as the bronze statue of a charging bull and wolves from a wildlife calendar), to transform things, to command animals and compel people into doing what he wants, to conjure fire, to bewitch objects (such as when he creates a Hungarian Mirror Trap or a Persian Quickrug), to blast his foes with powerful plasma bolts, and to cast a wide array of spells (including the dangerous Parasite Spell).

During the course of the film, he aquires Merlin's Dragon Ring (by stealing it from the primary protagonist Dave Stutler), and the catalysts of both Drake Stone and Abigail Williams, attaching them all to his staff, making it extremely powerful.

Personality and Traits
Maxim Horvath is a sophisticated, well-mannered and cultured man, always impeccably collected and polite, even when about to kill someone. But this refined facade hardly veils his cruelty. He is cold-hearted, cares only about himself and disposes of his followers and allies without second thoughts.

However, he does have (or had) strong feelings of love for Veronica, and retains a grudging respect for Balthazar. Also, as long as he gets what he wants, he holds his parts of bargains and leaves his foes alive (when he has no interest in killing them, that is).

Trivia

 * The enchanted bull statue conjured by Horvath, is based the real-life Charging Bull statue statue in Bowling Green Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, New York.
 * In terms of his backstory prior to his betrayal, his former friendship with Balthazar, and also his status as de facto leader of Morganians, Horvath is similar with Megatron in the Transformers franchise, particulary in the Transformers film series:
 * Both organizations that they affiliated with shares similar racial ideology and beliefs.
 * In the movie opening where Horvath was introduced via his depiction in the Encantus, he appears to held a bottle of some kind of potion, suggesting that he held a degree of knowledge in magical potion brewery and/or even alchemy albeit his said talent never seen in the movie itself.
 * In the early script of The Sorcerer's Apprentice film that can be seen here, Maxim Horvath was intended to be Morgana le Fay's successor as leader of Morganians and also Balthazar's former master (whom also originally intended to be a Morganian assassin).
 * Though he is intended to be British, "Maxim" is a Russian given name and "Horvath" (Horváth) is a Hungarian surname.