Merlin the Magic Mouse is an animated cartoon mouse, who starred in five

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

'' Looney Tunes'' shorts late in the series, from 1967 to 1969. The first cartoon was '' Merlin the Magic Mouse'', directed by Alex Lovy. In 1967, Jack L. Warner reorganized the Warner Bros. animation department, and hired Lovy away from

Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

to create new characters for Warners. The two that Lovy came up with were Merlin the Magic Mouse and Cool Cat.

History

Merlin was a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

magician (he usually preferred to be called a prestidigitator, though he could never pronounce this correctly) who traveled around for work. Much of the humour of the character derived from the fact that, while he was often regarded as a cheap stage magician, he knew some very real and powerful magic tricks. His magic words were typically "

Atascadero Atascadero (Spanish language, Spanish for "Mire") is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, San Luis Obispo County, California, about equidistant from Los Angeles and San Francisco on U.S. Route 101 in California, U.S. Route 101. Atascade ...

Escondido!" Merlin also has a sidekick, appropriately named Second Banana, which is a slang term for a magician's assistant.

Daws Butler Charles Dawson Butler (November 16, 1916May 18, 1988) was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for the Hanna-Barbera animation production company where he originated the voices of many familiar characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry H ...

provided the voice of Merlin and Second Banana in the first short, ''Merlin the Magic Mouse'';

Larry Storch Lawrence Samuel Storch (January 8, 1923 – July 8, 2022) was an American actor and comedian best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for cartoon shows such as Mr. Whoopee on ''Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales'' and hi ...

performed the voices for the other four films.Merlin the Magic Mouse
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on February 17, 2016. Merlin's vocal mannerisms are based on that

W.C. Fields WC or wc may refer to: * Water closet or flush toilet Arts and entertainment * ''W.C.'' (film), an Irish feature film * WC (band), a Polish punk rock band * WC (rapper), a rapper from Los Angeles, California * Westside Connection, former ...

Titles

* '' Merlin the Magic Mouse'' (1967) * ''Hocus Pocus Powwow'' (1968) * ''Feud with a Dude'' (1968) * ''Fistic Mystic'' (1969) * ''Shamrock and Roll'' (1969)

References

External links

* * * * * Fictional characters who use magic Fictional mice and rats Fictional stage magicians Looney Tunes characters Film characters introduced in 1967 {{looney-tunes-stub