Merlin (Shrek)

Merlin is a retired wizard teacher from Artie's high school, Worcestershire in Shrek the Third and a parody of the wizard Merlin. He is voiced by Eric Idle.

History

After their ship crashed into sharp rocks, Shrek, Donkey, Puss, and Arthur get stranded on an island where they met Arthur's retired teacher Merlin. 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. 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 film, he 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.