One of the WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons from [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1955]], co-directed by Michael Lah. Set mostly in the "Sing-Song prison", it features a jailbird (voiced by Creator/PaulFrees with an [[{{Oireland}} Oirish accent]]) who, after years of arduous digging, manages to escape from his cell and sneaks aboard a train, hiding inside an old TV. The plan goes terribly wrong, though...

It is Avery's last cartoon for MGM, which he co-directed with unit animator Michael Lah.[[note]] Tex is credited on the later cartoons "Millionaire Droopy" and "Cat's Meow", which are [[ShotForShotRemake Cinemascope reworkings]] of his old 4:3 cartoons "Wags to Riches" and "Ventriloquist Cat" respectively.[[/note]] If such things interest you, [[http://klangley.blogspot.com/2007/08/tex-avery-cellbound.html a model sheet for the cartoon can be found here]].
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!!The short features examples of:
* CaptivityHarmonica: The prisoner's playing it in the beginning.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Of all the places the prisoner pops up after digging his way out a second time [[spoiler:he ends up coming out in the Warden's living room, just as he's putting the television set down]].
* CutleryEscapeAid: A prisoner uses a spoon to dig his way out, taking him twenty years to do so.
* DeadpanSnarker: Every word of the warden's dialogue is delivered in a calm, almost monotone voice, including his sardonic observations about the "TV shows" he watches in his office. For example, after a "boxing match" (the prisoner punching himself in the face repeatedly so that it looks like someone else punching him) ends in a KO, he drily remarks, "That's a fixed fight if I ever saw one." And when he sees the horse racing has supposedly been cancelled due to rain (the prisoner with a watering can), he mutters, "Hm. Sunny California."
* EatDirtCheap: As he digs his way out with a spoon, the prisoner suddenly notices the guards coming, and with no time to go to the window without being caught, he has no choice but to eat the dirt.
* ExplodingCalendar: The years rapidly floating towards the camera to signify the passage of time.
* FailedASpotCheck: Nobody ever notices the gigantic mountain of dirt right outside the prisoner's window as he digs.
* FauxtasticVoyage: [[spoiler:The prisoner acting out the TV programs can be seen as a variant of this.]]
* HereWeGoAgain: The prisoner's second escape attempt [[spoiler:leads him back to the same TV, this time in the warden's living room.]]
* {{Irony}}: Of the tragic kind. The whole reason [[spoiler:the prisoner's escape failed was because, while making small talk to quell the warden's suspicions, he randomly mentioned an "anniversary"... thus prompting the warden to remember the forgotten wedding anniversary and hastily buy the TV.]]
* JawDrop: One heck of a jaw drop when the prisoner realizes where the TV ended up.
* LongerThanLifeSentence: The prisoner has been sentenced to 500 years. The warden gives him the typical "take it on the bright side; it's not forever" one-liner.
* MasterOfDisguise: The prisoner is one (and somehow has his disguises in his cell), which helps him keep up the charade in the TV.
* NotSoStoic: The [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FQ28hD3gkMQ/hqdefault.jpg po-faced jail warden]] goes into an [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j-lWHkJnBDk/UQUtE6fLW1I/AAAAAAAAgj0/LsSElXb_thw/s1600/DANCING%2BWARDEN%2B2.png incredibly goofy dance]] [[spoiler:when watching the "concert" on TV.]]
* OneManBand: [[spoiler:The prisoner ends up becoming this for sake of a "TV concert".]]
* PrisonEpisode: How the plot kicks off. It starts with Spike serving up to 500 years in prison, but he has a plan to escape.
* StandInPortrait: [[spoiler:The prisoner's antics inside the TV.]]
* TunnelKing: The prisoner is able to make a tunnel to escape the prison with a spoon even if it takes twenty years [[spoiler:and he digs his way to the warden's office]] and a second one with his bare hands much faster [[spoiler:that leads to the warden's living room]].
* VerbedTitle
* VillainousBreakdown: The prisoner after [[spoiler:he ends up back inside the warden's TV at the end.]]
* WigDressAccent: The prisoner's disguises.
* WritersCannotDoMath: Spike would have to average over 10,200 spoonfuls ''every second, working continuously'' to reach 6,500,004,395,632 in twenty years.
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