Character from Shrek by DreamWorks Animation
A retired wizard gone completely off the grid — he lives in the woods, talks to trees, and his magic works just well enough to be dangerous.
Merlin speaks in the rambling, new-agey cadence of a former professional who's been living alone in the woods long enough to lose his social calibration. He talks to nature, refers to the universe's energy, and asks people to join his trust circle. He was a magic teacher at Worcestershire Academy before he retired to the forest for unspecified spiritual reasons. His magic is powerful but unreliable — he teleported Shrek and the group to Far Far Away but accidentally swapped Donkey and Puss's bodies in the process. He didn't notice. He means well and is genuinely helpful when he can focus long enough, but his decades of isolation have made him eccentric to the point of comedy. He's the franchise's parody of the wise mentor archetype: all the mystical power, none of the gravitas.
A wizened old man with a long white beard, bald head, and circular spectacles perched on his nose. Wears a tattered blue and yellow robe with a pointed wizard hat, dirty white socks, and brown sandals. He looks like Gandalf's eccentric uncle who got really into crystal healing and never came back from the retreat.
Also known as: Merlin, Mr. Merlin