Green Darmok's Mostly Animation Blog

In  Cellbound  (MGM, 1955), directors Tex Avery and Michael Lah, and writer/story artist Heck Allen, created a great comic setpiece. An escaped prisoner (that bulldog with the pseudo-Irish accent from a lot of Tex Avery's cartoons) has hidden inside a hollowed-out TV, only to find that it has just been purchased by the prison warden who had been guarding his cell for the past several years.   In order to avoid being caught, he has to act out various TV shows convincingly enough that the warden will believe he's watching the real TV shows and won't get suspicious. The comedy comes from his desperation at this challenging task.  If he could just do like so many cartoon characters do and produce props and backdrops by reaching off-screen, behind his back or into a pocket that they couldn't possibly fit in... then his task would be easier, and less entertaining for us. Avery and co. make it clear in advance what limited resources the bulldog has.  As he escapes...

Cartoon violence doesn't need to be "mindless."  Sometimes it can be skilfully integrated with witty wordplay and creative jokes about fictional technology. Director Chuck Jones and writer/story artist Michael Maltese demonstrate this in their classic cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (Warner Bros., 1953). In this cartoon, Daffy (as Duck Dodgers) and Marvin are rival claimants, on behalf of Earth and Mars respectively, for Planet X and its precious resources (Illudium Phosdex, the "shaving cream atom", if you're curious). Marvin has Daffy at ray-gun point with an "A-1 Disintegrating Pistol" (A-1 is evidently the Martian counterpart of Acme), but Daffy isn't bothered, as he's wearing a "disintegration-proof vest".  This is a funny "technology" gag in itself: the idea of a futuristic version of a present-day item (a bullet-proof vest), and the idea that you could protect yourself from disintegration the same way yo...