''Cellbound'' is a 1955 MGM Cartoon featuring Spike and directed by

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (; February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of America ...

and

Michael Lah Michael Richard Lah (September 1, 1912 – October 13, 1995) 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 w ...

. The story was by Heck Allen, and

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986), better known as Paul Frees, was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass and Walt Disney the ...

voiced all the characters. Its title is a pun on "spellbound."

Background

This cartoon was the last cartoon directed by Tex Avery for MGM, before he left to return to

Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1949 and then from 1950 to 1972, and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Pictures. The studio was originally formed as Universal Carto ...

in 1953, where his career in animation began. Due to his animation unit being disbanded by MGM that same year, Avery and co-director

had to utilize the Hanna- Barbara unit for its animation, alongside the 1955

Droopy 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 c ...

cartoon Deputy Droopy. It was also 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.

Plot

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 A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

Cast

as Spike, Prison Warden and Prison Warden's Wife *

William Hanna William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, voice actor, and musician who is best known for co-creating ''Tom and Jerry'' and providing the vocal effects for the series' title characters. Alongside Joseph B ...

as Spike's Scream

Aftermath

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 RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

and

Kool-Aid Kool-Aid is an American brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Heinz based in Chicago, Illinois. The powder form was created by Edwin Perkins in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate named Fruit Smack. History Kool-Aid was invented by E ...

(advertisements for the latter featured Bugs Bunny, who Cascade was unaware Avery had created).Of Fords And Fritos: Animation's Forgotten Ad Studios
/ref> In 1978, the studio shut down, and Avery began working at

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

a year later; it would be his final job before his death.

References

External links

* {{Tex Avery 1955 animated short films 1955 films 1950s American animated films Films directed by Tex Avery Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films with screenplays by Henry Wilson Allen Films produced by Fred Quimby Films scored by Scott Bradley Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films 1950s English-language films English-language short films