Ivan the Terrible and Fantasia
Don't you think the old magician in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is remarkably similar to the character of "Ivan" in this film?
Eisenstein probably wanted Ivan to look like him.
You're absolutely right!
It even looks like Eisenstein wrote articles about Disney:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenstein_on_Disney
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-SFBGCJNNM
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Great to know this! If it is true that the stylized posturing of characters in "Ivan" is based on animals (Ivan the crow, Efrosinia the snake, Alexei the dog, as Wikipedia states), it is very likely he got this idea from Disney, also because he described this in his essays as examples of totemism in Disney - animals used to parody human features.
Disney's "Fantasia" was in turn influenced by the devil from Murnau's "Faust". Interestingly, both the Sorcerer and Chernabog (the devil) in "Fantasia" were animated by Vladimir Tytla, whose parents came from the Ukraine, and who drew on Slavic mythology to create his imagery.
Dicky