- Merlin (Shrek)
Shrek character
name=Merlin
caption
gender=Male
form=Wizard
spouse=N/A
family=
voiced by=Eric Idle , Jon Curry (in the video games)
appearance=Shrek the Third |Merlin is a retired wizard
teacher from Artie's high school, Worcestershire in "Shrek the Third " roughly based on the mythologicalMerlin , as well as hisDisney version fromThe Sword in the Stone . He is voiced byEric Idle . [ [http://movies.about.com/library/weekly/blshrekthethirdpicsv.htm Eric Idle voices Merlin in DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third," to be released by Paramount Pictures in May 2007.] ]History
After their ship crashed into sharp rocks, Shrek, Donkey, Puss, and Arthur get stranded on an island (possibly Lovers' Beach in Far Far Away) where they met Arthur's retired teacher Merlin after Artie tries to separate himself from Shrek. Since he retired due to a nervous breakdown (although he calls it "third-level fatigue"), Merlin seems rather crazy and his magic spells usually go wrong. In order to help Shrek and Arthur reconcile, he makes them look into a thick cloud of smoke to reveal their thoughts. Shrek sees a baby carriage, but lies and says that he sees a "rainbow pony". Merlin is pleased and moves on to Arthur, who sees a bird and its father. The father bird abandons the chick, leaving him frightened and confused. Merlin then is happy they decided to look into their soul and as he retreats to his hut, Shrek takes this opportunity to show Arthur that they're not so different after all. When Captain Hook and his cronies ambush the four, he plays his piano and Merlin is beside him playing it too, before being shoved off. After the villains retreat, Artie convinces Merlin to use a spell to teleport them to
Far Far Away . But the spell causes Donkey and Puss to switch bodies. After Prince Charming's defeat, Merlin returns, and Puss and Donkey force him to put them back in their own bodies. The spell works, but causes their tails to switch. Merlin tries to tell them, but decides not to (though their tails are inexplicably shown to have returned to normal later). At some point in the novelisation of the film, Merlin refers to someone as a 'useless sack of flying fairy bubbles' possibly referring to the Fairy Godmother, which could lead fans to speculate that he is Prince Charming's father.Trivia
*Merlin was voiced by
Eric Idle , who was one of the lead actors in a comedy film about Arthurian mythology,Monty Python and the Holy Grail , although Merlin did not appear in said film. In addition, "Shrek the Third" made a reference to that film, in which stagehands at the dinner theater clapped coconuts together to simulate horses' hooves clapping. Idle was reportedly enraged due to this part of the film and considered suing the film's producers over it.References
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