Merlin the Magic Mouse is an animated cartoon mouse who starred in five
Warner Bros. ''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
'' 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
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-born American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's ca ...
reorganized the Warner Bros. animation department and hired Lovy away from
Hanna-Barbera Productions to create new characters for Warner Bros. The two that Lovy came up with were Merlin the Magic Mouse and
Cool Cat.
History
Merlin was a
nightclub
A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...
magician (he usually preferred to be called a
prestidigitator, though he could never pronounce this correctly) who traveled around for work. Much of the humor 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 Escondido!" Merlin also has a sidekick, appropriately named Second Banana, which is a slang term for a magician's assistant.
Daws Butler provided the voice of Merlin and Second Banana in the first short, ''
Merlin the Magic Mouse'';
Larry Storch 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 of
W.C. Fields.
He was featured in ''
Tiny Toons Looniversity'', voiced by
J. P. Karliak.
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
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Fictional characters who use magic
Anthropomorphic mice and rats
Fictional stage magicians
Looney Tunes characters
Male characters in animation
Cultural depictions of W. C. Fields
Film characters introduced in 1967
{{looney-tunes-stub
Animated characters introduced in 1967