Merlin Jones is the titular lead character from The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964).
History[]
Merlin Jones was a young aspiring scientist and inventor who attended Midvale College. At Midvale, Merlin had a girlfriend named Jennifer and often experimented on the college's test-chimp, "Stanley". Merlin even adopted Stanley as his, "Nephew" to raise him as a human and also have a live-in lab-rat for his experiments. Jones frequently got into shenanigans, hijinks and legal-trouble due to his experiments which have involved hypnotism, mind-control, a flying-machine, and a sleep-learning system.
Appearances[]
Film[]
The Misadventures of Merlin Jones[]
Merlin is the lead character in this film revolving around his different science shenanigans. This leads to a judge contracting Merlin to help him write a mystery plot for his upcoming crime book, only for Merlin to hypnotize people into committing actual crimes as inspiration. The judge subsequently convicts Merlin and sends him off to jail only for Jennifer to try and bail him out by confronting the judge about his own guilt.
The Monkeys Uncle[]
In this sequel, Merlin attempts to win a grant for the school from one Mr. Astorbilt by designing a flying-machine powered by man-power rather than fuel or electricity. For this, Jones creates a lightweight, pedal-powered airplane and helps his jock bullies cheat in-return for them using their athletic abilities to fly it. Ultimately, it is revealed that Astorbilt was actually an escaped mental-inmate and Midvale receives no grant-money.
Disney Parks[]
Journey Into Imagination with Figment[]
Within this attraction, Merlin Jones is referenced as a member of EPCOT's Imagination Institute under chairman Dr. Nigel Channing. While passing through the offices between the sight lab and sound lab, a wall can be seen directing to the offices of Merlin Jones alongside Dexter Riley and Professor Quigley from The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969) and Wilby Daniels from The Shaggy Dog (1959).
Jungle Cruise[]
Merlin Jones is referenced within the queue of Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise. Within the Jungle Navigation Company's boathouse is a crate addressed to Thomas Kirk, Esquire at the M. Jones Cartographers Ltd.s office on the island of Bora Danno. Thomas Kirk, Esquire is an allusion to Jones' actor Tommy Kirk who also portrayed Ernst Robinson in the Swiss Family Robinson (1960), a film also referenced by crates in the boathouse.
Gallery[]
