In Bob Brier's wonderful lecture series on DVD from the Great Courses 'The History of Ancient Egypt', Bob Brier mentions coming across the story of the Sorcerer's Apperntice as a tale from ancient Egypt. He mentioned how Walt Disney was telling a story that had been told in ancient Egypt.
As a classical music fan, I know that Walt Disney got the story from the piece of music composed by Paul Dukas that he set to animation in Fantasia.
Well, it turns out that Paul Dukas got the story from Goethe, who wrote a narrative poem of the story.
And Goethe got the story from an ancient Roman writer, Lucian, of the second century AD, when ancient Egypt was still alive. And Lucian attributes the story to Egypt.
And that is how a piece of folklore from ancient Egypt found its way into a Disney movie!
If you want to know more, there is a paper titled 'In Search of the Sorcerer's Apprentice: Between Lucian and Walt Disney' by Damien Kalitan that you can look up on the internet.
Have fun!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson