The Sorcerer's Apprentice (and this is not limited to the Disney Mickey Mouse incarnation), attempting to lighten his assigned chore of fetching water from the well during the Sorcerer's absence, snuck a peek into his master's spell book and cast a spell on a broom so that it would do the fetching for him. The broom proceeded to fetch pail after pail of water, dumping them until the water started to get too deep. The Apprentice found himself unable to reverse the spell and get the broom to stop. He then tried smashing the broom to pieces, but each piece set to work at the original task, compounding the problem. The havoc continued until the Sorcerer returned.

Goethe wrote a poem about it:
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/goethe/zauber_e3.html
and I doubt if he saw the movie, either.