History Film / MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders

* CymbalBangingMonkey: The villain of the second part of the film.

* {{Satan}}: Appears to give Cooper a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after he abuses the spellcasting.

[[caption-width-right:200:And if you don't believe in it, [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Merlin WILL kill you]].]]

Born of quite possibly one of the most moronic cases of ExecutiveMeddling ever, '''''Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders''''' started as a horror anthology directed by Kenneth J. Berton. Unfortunately, the movie studios didn't want any more horror as family films were all the rage then. As a result, a flimsy FramingDevice about a child and his deeply unhinged grandfather (a poorly veiled AuthorAvatar played by a disturbingly big Creator/ErnestBorgnine) who tells his grandson stories during a power cut was attached (the program the grandson was watching before the power went out reminded Grandpa Borgnine "of a story [he] once wrote for TV"), a scene involving a séance turned into the ShowWithinAShow ColdOpen, and umm...not a lot else changed.

* HopeSpot: Despite the very forces of nature fighting him, David buries the monkey, and everyone's happy... but someone digs it up and sells it to his mother, who decides it would make a good present for her grandson. Well, time to die! [[{{Bowlderization}} Err...]], barely escape with your lives, [[EndingFatigue again]], [[DeusExMachina when Merlin saves you]]!

* HopeSpot: Despite the very forces of nature fighting him, David buries the monkey, and everyone's happy... but someone digs it up and sells it to his mother, who decides it would make a good present for her grandson. Well, time to die! {{Bowlderization Err... I mean}}, barely escape with your lives, [[EndingFatigue again]], [[DeusExMachina when Merlin saves you]]!

Born of quite possibly one of the most moronic cases of ExecutiveMeddling ever, ''Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders'' started as a horror anthology directed by Kenneth J. Berton. Unfortunately, the movie studios didn't want any more horror as family films were all the rage then. As a result, a flimsy FramingDevice about a child and his deeply unhinged grandfather (a poorly veiled AuthorAvatar played by a disturbingly big Creator/ErnestBorgnine) who tells his grandson stories during a power cut was attached (the program the grandson was watching before the power went out reminded Grandpa Borgnine "of a story [he] once wrote for TV"), a scene involving a séance turned into the ShowWithinAShow ColdOpen, and umm...not a lot else changed.

-->'''Servo:''' Based on a story by Creator/SigmundFreud.

* PainfulTransformation: Johnathan's transformation after taking the youth potion. There's a lot of screaming and most of it isn't even shown on screen, but what little we do see involves [[BodyHorror a pretty sickening effect]] accurately described by the MST3K crew as "a mouse under [Johnathan's] bald wig."

* TheCatCameBack: The CymbalBangingMonkey.

* HappilyEverAfter: The last scene was originally a DownerEnding, but was changed so Merlin saved the family. The film even added clumsy sounds of the family getting out of the house (offscreen, of course). The monkey shown in the Merlin footage is clearly '''not''' the same toy. Or the house. Or the lighting.

* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms: The opening of the film, in which the horror movie the kid is watching (actually the full version of the film used for the second half) gets cut off by a lightning storm knocking out the power. Grampa Borgnine remarks that he shouldn't be watching a scary movie anyway...
** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint ...before telling his son scary stories (one of which is ''based'' on said movie to boot!).]]

** TheCatCameBack: Seriously, no matter '''what''' David does, that damn thing won't stay gone.

* PostersAlwaysLie: Hee, hee, check out elderly Zurella in the poster.
** Along with that, there is no castle, the troll and dragon are only seen for a few seconds at the shop (we only see parts of the dragon) and Merlin never does magic. Nothing to denote the actual plot either.

* CastFromLifespan: Mr. Cooper finds out the hard way that this is what happens when you cast spells willy nilly. Only a rejuvenation spell can make you young again. (Presumably Merlin and Zurella are immortal so they don't have this problem, even if they choose to '''look''' old for some reason.)

* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms: The opening of the film, in which the horror movie the kid is watching (actually the full version of the film used for the second half) gets cut off by a lightning storm knocking out the power. Grampa Borgnine remarks that he shouldn't be watching a scary movie anyway.

* FramingDevice: The grandfather telling his kid '''horrifying''' stories, thus showing the action of the film. Even sillier when you consider the long scenes of nothing happening in ''The Devil's Gift''.

* HopeSpot: Despite the very forces of nature fighting him, David buries the monkey, and everyone's happy... but someone digs it up and sells it to his mother, who decides it would make a good present for her grandson. Well, time to die! Err... I mean, barely escape with your lives, [[EndingFatigue again]], [[DeusExMachina when Merlin saves you]]!

* DisproportionateRetribution: Johnathan threatens to write a bad review about Merlin's store. Merlin retaliates by having him turned into a baby to be raised by his former wife. Well, okay, she's still kind of his wife, but still.

->''"It's called Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders - and it's a ''[[BlatantLies delightful]]'' Disney/{{Bambi}} [[BlatantLies romp through a flowery fairyland of happy, harmless, frou-frou]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment family fun for the whole family of all ages]]. '''OR IS IT!?!''' Taste the rainbow of fruit pain!"'' (EvilLaugh)

* BabiesEverAfter:

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor

* JerkAss: The critic in the first segment
* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms: The opening

** One look at the two of them and the audience is certainly threatened
* MoodWhiplash: Thanks again to that ExecutiveMeddling: the creators' attempt to neuter the more steadily ([[{{Narm}} cough]]) macabre second half was to add intentionally comical scenes of Merlin, in full regalia, wandering around town looking for a cymbal-banging monkey. The effect is something like randomly cutting together ''TheTwilightZone'' and ''PeeWeesPlayhouse''.

-->'''Crow''': That's what most wives think they do anyway.

* ThePublicDomainChannel

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened To The Mom?]]: The girlfriend of the family in the second half disappears about halfway through that story. That's because in ''The Devil's Gift'', [[spoiler:the monkey possessed her to make her try to drown the boy. She then broke her head on the front door after being stopped.]]

** "[[WesternAnimation/BalloonLand I'm the ol' PIN-CUSHION MAN! Terror of Balloony-land!]]" David's son watches the old Ub Iwerks cartoon ''WesternAnimation/BalloonLand'' (a.k.a. ''ThePincushionMan'') in one scene.

* ActingNatural / ActingUnnatural: Dad's attempt to "accidentally" dump the CymbalBangingMonkey in the trash quickly goes from the former to the latter.

* ActNatural / ActUnnatural: Dad's attempt to "accidentally" dump the CymbalBangingMonkey in the trash quickly goes from the former to the latter.

[[caption-width-right:200:and if you don't believe in it, [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Merlin WILL kill you]].]]

Born of quite possibly one of the most moronic cases of ExecutiveMeddling ever, ''Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders'' started as a horror anthology directed by Kenneth J. Berton. Unfortunately, the movie studios didn't want any more horror as family films were all the rage then. As a result, a flimsy FramingDevice about a child and his deeply unhinged grandfather (a poorly veiled AuthorAvatar played by a disturbingly big Creator/ErnestBorgnine) who tells his grandson stories during a power cut was attached (the program the grandson was watching before the power went out reminded Grandpa Borgnine "of a story [he] once wrote for TV"), a scene involving a séance turned into the ShowWithinAShow ColdOpen, and umm... not a lot else changed.

The first story is about an uptight critic with an infertile wife who won't shut up about it who tries to criticize Merlin (who has apparently downgraded from serving the great King Arthur to running a joke shop in a strip mall in a bland Northern Californian town) for not being magical. So, Merlin gives him a spell book, to teach him a lesson. Naturally, this goes badly, and the man summons a demon, sets fire to the cat, almost impales himself and almost crushes himself. In the end, while trying to [[FountainOfYouth make himself younger]], he conveniently turns into a baby, and his wife (now his mother) enters into possibly the most {{Squick}}y relationship ever to appear in a "family" film.

[[caption-width-right:200:and if you don't believe in it, Merlin WILL kill you.]]

--->'''Mike Nelson''': (As Grandpa Borgnine telling the story) And then he puttered around the kitchen for a bit and got himself a snack.

** "[[BalloonLand I'm the ol' PIN-CUSHION MAN! Terror of Balloony-land!]]" David's son watches the old Ub Iwerks cartoon ''BalloonLand'' (a.k.a. ''ThePincushionMan'') in one scene.

** Averted, the other cartoon shown is ''The Series/{{Ultraman}} Anime''.

Born of quite possibly one of the most moronic cases of ExecutiveMeddling ever, ''Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders'' started as a horror anthology directed by Kenneth J. Berton. Unfortunately, the movie studios didn't want any more horror as family films were all the rage then. As a result, a flimsy FramingDevice about a child and his deeply unhinged grandfather (a poorly veiled AuthorAvatar played by a disturbingly big ErnestBorgnine) who tells his grandson stories during a power cut was attached (the program the grandson was watching before the power went out reminded Grandpa Borgnine "of a story [he] once wrote for TV"), a scene involving a séance turned into the ShowWithinAShow ColdOpen, and umm... not a lot else changed.