Cellbound | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tex Avery Michael Lah |
Story by | Heck Allen |
Produced by | Fred Quimby |
Starring | Paul Frees William Hanna |
Music by | Scott Bradley |
Animation by | Kenneth Muse Ed Barge Irvin Spence Michael Lah |
Layouts by | Ed Benedict |
Backgrounds by | Vera Ohman |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 6:13 |
Language | English |
Cellbound is a 1955 cartoon short featuring Spike and directed by Tex Avery and Michael Lah. [1] The story was by Heck Allen, and Paul Frees voiced all the characters. Its title is a pun on "spellbound."
This cartoon and Deputy Droopy were the last two directed by Tex Avery for MGM, before he left to return to Walter Lantz Productions in 1953, where his career in animation began. [2] [3] It was the last 1950s MGM cartoon that was not filmed in CinemaScope. This cartoon and Good Will to Men were the last two to be produced by Fred Quimby before his retirement.
Spike plays a prisoner doing 500 years at Sing Song Prison. However, he has come up with an escape plan and starts digging a tunnel under his cell floor using a teaspoon, only temporarily stopping whenever a guard or the warden walks by. 20 years (and 6,500,004,385,632 teaspoons) later, Spike finally digs up through the outside of the prison wall. He returns to his cell to get his disguises but stops all escape activity when the warden comes walking by again. When Spike mentions to the warden it is his 20th anniversary in prison, the warden suddenly remembers it's his wedding anniversary and runs out to get his wife a gift. This prompts Spike to grab his disguises, and run through and out of the tunnel. Finally free, he gets into a train boxcar, where he guts out a television set to hide in it. Seconds later, the TV is hauled onto a truck and taken to Sing Song Prison. As Spike talks about the many places he plans on visiting, he suddenly sees the warden at his desk on the phone and goes into a panic; it turns out that the TV is the anniversary gift for the warden's wife.
After the warden finishes his phone call, he goes over to the TV to check it out using the listings from the newspaper. Spike realizes he must play out everything the warden wants to watch, using his disguises and careful positioning on the TV screen to do it; first is a Western movie, followed by a boxing match. The warden wants to watch horse racing next, but Spike uses a watering can to pour water across the screen and posts a sign: RACES CALLED OFF: RAIN. So the warden decides on a musical program instead, with Spike playing a "one-man band" that he greatly enjoys. After this, the warden turns the TV off, satisfied that his wife will enjoy it. An exhausted Spike, not wanting to go through any more, breaks through the bottom of the set and starts digging through the ground just as the warden picks the TV up and heads home with it. Shortly thereafter, Spike reaches the end of his path, only to end up back inside the same TV set, now in the warden's living room. The warden proceeds to show his wife how well it works, but when he "turns it on", Spike pops up, prompting the warden to say to his wife, “I saw him today, you’ll like this guy; he’s crazy.” Realizing that he must do the same routine from this point on, Spike screams and subsequently goes into a [mental breakdown]. The End
Cellbound was the final released MGM cartoon to be directed by Avery. In the same year that the cartoon was released, he began his career in television at Cascade Studios, which Lah introduced him to, working on commercials for Raid and Kool-Aid (advertisements for the latter featured Bugs Bunny, who Cascade was unaware Avery had created). [4] [5] In 1978, the studio shut down, and Avery began working at Hanna-Barbera a year later; it would be his final job before his death.
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, The Wolf, Red Hot Riding Hood, and George and Junior.
The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound synchronized cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started to lose popularity to the newer medium of television. Animated media from after the golden age, especially on television, were produced on cheaper budgets and with more limited techniques between the late 1950s and 1980s.
Droopy is an animated character from the golden age of American animation. He is an anthropomorphic white Basset Hound with a droopy face. He was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Essentially the polar opposite of Avery's other MGM character, the loud and wacky Screwy Squirrel, Droopy moves slowly and lethargically, speaks in a jowly monotone voice, and—though hardly an imposing character—is shrewd enough to outwit his enemies. When finally roused to anger, often by a bad guy laughing heartily at him, Droopy is capable of beating adversaries many times his size with a comical thrashing.
Barney Bear is an American series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by MGM Cartoons. The title character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing except for peace and quiet. 26 cartoons were produced between 1939 and 1954.
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released with the movie Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case on May 8, 1943, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994, it was voted number 7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked MGM cartoon on the list. It is one of Avery's most popular cartoons, inspiring several of his own "sequel" shorts as well as influencing other cartoons and feature films for years afterward.
The Heckling Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 5, 1941, and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, written by Michael Maltese, animated by soon-to-be director Robert McKimson, and with musical direction by Carl W. Stalling. In a style that was becoming typical of the Bugs character, he easily outwitted and tormented his antagonist through the short, his only concern being what to do next to the dog.
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show is an American animated television series produced by Filmation for MGM Television featuring the popular cartoon duo Tom and Jerry. The show first aired on September 6, 1980 on CBS and continued until December 13 the same year. Its episodes were eventually added to syndicated Tom and Jerry packages in 1983. The series was broadcast on Pop in the United Kingdom in October 2013. Episodes of the show also occasionally appeared on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
Preston Erwin Blair was an American character animator, best remembered for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio.
Edward Allan Benedict was an American animator and layout artist. He is best known for his work with Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he helped design Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound.
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters, which included popular cartoon characters Tom, Jerry, Droopy, Butch, Spike, Tyke, and Barney Bear.
Michael Richard Lah was an American animator of Slovene origin. He is best remembered for his work at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, primarily as a member of Tex Avery's animation unit. He first worked on Tom and Jerry shorts before going to work on Droopy/Tex Avery shorts.
Blitz Wolf is a 1942 American animated propaganda short film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A parody of the Three Little Pigs told via a World War II perspective, the short was directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons but lost to Der Fuehrer's Face, another anti-Nazi World War II parody featuring Donald Duck.
Irven LeRoy Spence was an American animator. He is best known for his work on MGM's Tom and Jerry animated shorts. Spence has been credited variously as Irven Spence, Irvin Spence, and Irv Spence.
Don Patterson was an American producer, animator, and director who worked at various studios during the Golden age of American animation, including Disney, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, Walter Lantz Productions, Grantray-Lawrence Animation, and Hanna-Barbera. He was the older brother of animator Ray Patterson.
Bad Luck Blackie is a 1949 American animated comedy short film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Northwest Hounded Police is a 1946 American animated short film directed by Tex Avery, produced by Fred Quimby, and featuring Droopy and Avery's wolf character. A remake of Droopy's first cartoon Dumb-Hounded, the short revolves around the wolf on the run from Droopy, who is trailing the wolf in order to capture him. The title is a play on words on the film North West Mounted Police (1940).
Little Rural Riding Hood is a 1949 MGM animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery, conceived as a follow-up to his 1943 cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood.
Gilbert H. Turner was an American animator, comic book artist and producer.
Tex Avery Screwball Classics is a series of single-disc Blu-ray and DVD sets by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Warner Archive unit collecting various theatrical cartoons from animation director Tex Avery during his tenure at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio's cartoon division between the years of 1942 and 1955. It is the first comprehensive collection of Avery's MGM shorts to be released on home media in North America since The Compleat Tex Avery series of laserdiscs in the 1990s, with many of the shorts having been previously unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray.