So ends the final scene of the final cartoon directed by Tex Avery at MGM. Cellbound was co-directed by Mike Lah, who animated it along with the Hanna-Barbera unit. Avery and his unit had been let go by the studio two years before its release in 1955.
Along with "Symphony In Slang" and "The Legend of Rockabye Point", this was probably the best use by Tex of the more limited UPA-style animation to still get laughs from the audience.
ReplyDeleteLah would pretty much take the prisoner design here and turn it into the new look for Spike, who also got renamed Butch for the CinemaScope Droopy cartoons that were to follow (Avery didn't use Spike after he returned from his hiatus, and since Bill & Joe wanted the name for their own dog and were now the producers at MGM, Lah's dog had to be rechristened).
This cartoon I think was designed by Ed Benedict he told me that joe barbera said to him that how he draws looks like mr magoo and that people what round and cute characters but bill Hanna convinced him to use it because it work great on a television budget
ReplyDeleteFrom your friends - John k
One of my favorites, it's full of Avery logic, such as the prisoner having an unlimited supply of disguises AND musical instruments, and a watering can!
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite gag is the VERY brief shot of the staid, dour Warden's unhinged dancing just before he turns the set off in his office.
Maybe I am thinking too much but was Avery trying to express some of sort criticism of television ? Maybe he was stating that the constant demand for entertainment would not only burn out an entertainer, it would destroy the quality of the entertainment ?
ReplyDeleteI'd say "yes," and "perhaps." He wasn't the first to do either. Fred Allen took all kinds of shots at TV, publicly and privately, expressing his disdain at the tired old forms of entertainment it was broadcasting.
DeleteSeveral others, including Jack Benny, talked about potential burnout.