Merlock the Magician

"At last, after all these centuries, the lamp will be mine again!"

- Merlock rejoicing how close he is at reclaiming the lamp. "You won't get away from me, you little web-footed runt. When I'm through with you, Daisy will only be able to speak about my awesome power! Hahahaha, HAHAHAHA!!!"

- Merlock to Donald before the final boss fight.

Merlock the Magician (simply known as Merlock) is the main antagonist in Disney's 1990 animated film, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. He is an evil sorcerer who supposedly tries to gain unlimited wishes from the magic lamp combined with his talisman. He also appears as the main antagonist in the video game, Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers.

He was voiced by the famous legendary actor, Christopher Lloyd, who also played Doc Brown in the Back to the Future film franchise, Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Switchblade Sam in Dennis the Menace, and Rasputin in Anastasia.

Personality
Merlock is a highly cunning, deceitful, manipulative, and powerful sorcerer. Like many sorcerers, Merlock is power-hungry and egotistical, so he seeks dominance over everyone which carries out by the harsh way he treats his minion named Dijon, using threats and verbal abuse to keep his loyalty in check but in the end it proved to be his end when Dijon used his wish to ask for a fortune and betray Merlock. His obsessive nature and ruthless pursuit for the Genie and his unlimited wishes show signs of a mental health disorder. While in control of the lamp, Merlock becomes a power-crazed and overwrought madman who commits terrible crimes even for his petty needs, such as sinking the island city of Atlantis into the sea for refusing his hotel reservations, causing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius for the creation of anchovy pizza which he hated. In his final moments, Merlock showed to be highly reckless as when Scrooge McDuck fell out of his flying fortress and he transformed into a griffin to reclaim it once again but him losing his talisman mixed with his greed attributed to his demise.

History
Merlock is an anthropomorphic wolf sorcerer who possesses a magic green talisman that gives him the ability to transform into (non-anthropomorphic) animals, including a hawk (a form he most commonly uses to get around over long distances), a vulture, a rat, a cockroach, a griffin, a bear, and a cougar. When placed on the Genie's magic lamp, the talisman grants Merlock an unlimited number of wishes to be granted, instead of the usual three for everybody else. When he first possessed the lamp, some of the sorcerer's wishes that were unwillingly granted by Gene the Genie including his own eternal life, the sinking of Atlantis into the sea (which, in this case, was not just a city but a luxury resort that was so popular that Merlock failed to obtain a hotel reservation), the eruption of Mount Vesuvius due to Merlock's hatred of Pompeii, and the creation of anchovy pizza.

In the movie, Merlock is obsessed with retrieving the Genie's lamp, which he apparently lost to the thief Collie Baba (a parody of Ali Baba) several millennia before. Collie Baba buried the lamp, along with a large amount of treasure, in the middle of a desert. When Scrooge McDuck and his family came searching for that very treasure, Merlock with the the aid of his henchman, an Arabic explorer named Dijon, attempts to use Scrooge's ambition to obtain the lamp for himself.

In the end of the film, Merlock finally combined his talisman with the Genie's Lamp once more and wishes to transform Scrooge's Money Bin into his gloomy flying castle. Scrooge and his nephews confront the sorcerer who merely wishes Scrooge to be blown overboard. Scrooge's nephews manage to get the lamp and toss it towards Scrooge so that he can wish to save his life.

Merlock turns himself into a griffin and recovers the lamp from Scrooge, who grabs him and smacks him repeatedly with his cane, making him lose the talisman (thus turning back to normal) and apparently fall to his death. At the end of the film, when Genie was freed, Dijon, whom Merlock wished Genie to turn into a pig, turned back into his original form. This indicates that all of the other wishes previously granted by Genie, including Merlock's wish for immortality, were also undone.

Video game appearance
Merlock makes another appearance in the video game Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. How the game is related to the DuckTales movie, and if so how did he survive the fall is currently unknown. In this game, he is known as the Sorcerer of Darkness and is responsible for stopping the River of Time and threatening the Tree of Life in the process. Mickey Mouse must defeat Merlock in order to restore everything to what it once was. He mainly uses fire and lightning to attack. Eventually, he will change into a dragon, changing his strategy entirely. He will breathe fire at Mickey, fly to the other side of the screen, and toss a spiked ball in front of him.

Merlock also appears as the main antagonist in the video game, Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers. Once again, the game's relation to the movie is unknown. He captures reporter Daisy Duck after she infiltrates his temple, and Donald Duck sets out to rescue her. In the final level movie, Donald Duck reaches Merlock's lair, and the final battle between him and Merlock begins. Merlock has three attacks. The first one is to make the floor tiles disappear. Second, to unleash arrows, and the third is the fire attack. In the end, Donald rescues Daisy.

Trivia

 * Merlock is a portmanteau of "Merlin" and "warlock"; since Merlock is an evil sorcerer, it is fitting.
 * Merlock is comparably similar to Rasputin from Don Bluth's 1997 animated film, Anastasia. as both are sorcerers with long term goals who abuse their minions that turn on them and reform. Rasputin is also voiced by Christopher Lloyd.
 * It is possible that he survived the fall since he wished to be immortal.
 * Although, if he did survive, as opposed to his wish merely preventing him from dying of old age, he likely would have aged into dust when the genie's wishes were undone, much like Mother Gothel and Edgar Volgud, due to having wished for immortality in Collie Baba's time.
 * Merlock is considered the most evil villain in DuckTales, as he is shown to have no redeeming qualities. He also has no problem of trying destroy anyone that stand in his way and forcing Gene the Genie to do the worst things.
 * Merlock is similar to Jafar from Aladdin; they seek to acquire the Genie's lamp and use it to obtain unlimited power.
 * Merlock's fate in Goin' Quackers depends on the game platform used, as there are different scenes throughout each version.
 * He is sometimes preferred by himself "Master" as also mentioned by the thief Dijon out of fear of the sorcerer.
 * Judging from the scene where Merlock transforms the Money Bin into his palace and causes all the treasure in it to vanish, it can be assumed that the wizard has no value for wealth or currency of any kind, since with a Genie at his command, he can have anything he wants without spending a cent.
 * If this is true, than he can be considered an evil opposite to Scrooge McDuck.