Little Quacker is a 1950 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 47th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby.
Characters[]
- Jerry Mouse
- Quacker (debut)
- Tom Cat
- Mother Duck
- Henry (debut)
Plot[]
On a farm, a mother duck goes out for a swim, leaving behind an egg in her nest. But Tom craftily reaches into the nest and takes the egg for cooking. He then rushes back to his kitchen and places a frying pan over the hob. However, when Tom breaks the egg open, instead of getting the egg white and egg yolk, the only thing he gets is a little duckling named Quacker. Not to be put off, Tom decides he will cook roast duck instead. But to do so, he acquires Quacker's 'cooperation'(!)
Tom feeds Quacker on plenty of bread to fatten and stuff him up, and while the duckling is not looking, Tom gets hold of a meat cleaver and attempts to chop Quacker up, but misses. Quacker escapes into Jerry's mouse hole and into his bed, shaking in terror. Jerry uncovers Quacker, who informs Jerry of what Tom has tried to do to him. Quacker then hides back under Jerry's bed and shakes in terror once again.
Jerry emerges from his mouse hole cautiously, but Tom is quick and cuts him down with his meat cleaver... almost. Quacker, believing that Jerry has been beheaded, but don't worry, he's just kidding, pulls at Jerry's legs, only for the camera to pull away, showing that Tom has only managed to catch Jerry by the whiskers. Jerry is set free and gets his revenge on Tom by placing Tom's tail outside of the hole, such that Tom, who doesn't know it might happen, ends up chopping his own tail. He screams in pain and retaliates by chasing Jerry and Quacker.
The chase continues outside, where Tom's efforts to chop away at Jerry and Quacker only result in him being flattened by falling buildings or falling posts. Later on, while Quacker and Jerry search for his mama, Tom uses a duck call to lure in Quacker, but Jerry is clued up as to what Tom is doing, and quickly substitutes his duck caller for a stick of dynamite which blows up in his face. He then chases them to a large tree with a double barrel shotgun. He thrusts the gun in, only for the barrel to bend towards his fanny, which he accidentally fires at. Jerry and Quacker flee, but they ram into a tire and hide in it. Tom grabs a sledge mace from the ground and tries to flatten them to death, but it doesn't work; the tire bounces the object and he ends up smacking himself square in the face with it. Entranced, he places the mace on the ground and slumps down. Jerry and Quacker escape. Tom awakens from the trance, grabs a lawn mower and charges after them.
Quacker's mother walks around the farm, calling for Quacker. Tom chases continuously after Jerry and Quacker with the lawn mower, but ultimately ends up running over Quacker's mother's front feathers, revealing her undergarments. She covers them with a look of shock and embarrassment on her eyes. Mother and her son are reunited, but Tom grabs Quacker from the mother duck and she grabs her son back. After Quacker tells his mother what has happened, she demands to know what Tom thinks he's doing to her son, saying, "He did?" Tom's only answer is scornful mimicry of her quacking. Irritated, the mother duck then calls her husband. Henry, the father duck, shows up, strong as an ox and tattooed as a sailor, which makes Tom intimidated of him. The mother duck tells him what Tom did to their son and how she was minding her own business when he ran over her with the push mower "and he got smart, too!" Henry is offended by Tom's actions to both his wife and Quacker, glared at him in rage and snarls violently "He did?". In response, Tom tries to flee. He slams face first into a tree, which enables Henry to run the lawn mower continuously up and down on his back and recklessly shear the cat's fur off his skin.
The final scene has Mother Duck and her son Quacker swimming in the pond, with her towing Jerry on a little raft. Jerry uses Tom's duck caller to attempt to sound like mother and her son. And so, the two cute young friends then face each other and smile, this is a sign of friendship between the duo that will never be broken forever and ever.
Voice actors[]
- Red Coffey as Quacker, Mother Duck, Tom, and Henry
- William Hanna as Tom
Notes[]
- This is the first Tom and Jerry short to be released in the 1950s.
- This marks the debut of Quacker, the duckling who would go on to appear in seven more shorts, making him one of the more enduring supporting characters in the Tom and Jerry cartoon series.
- Red Coffey was the voice of Quacker, yet the credit for Quacker's voice was mistakenly given to Clarence Nash, better known as Donald Duck's original voice actor.
- The voice of Quacker and his parents, along with a single WAH WAH! line by Tom, was supplied by Red Coffey, though the voice has often been mistaken for Clarence Nash's.
- A remastered version of the cartoon scheduled for the Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume 2 Blu-Ray/DVD set has the original titles restored back to the cartoon. Because of this, this is the only pre-1950 Tom & Jerry cartoon remastered in its original theatrical presentation. As of 2018, no American home video release has been made for this version of the cartoon.
- This cartoon was adapted in 1953 as the Little Golden Book, Tom and Jerry Meet Little Quack from Western Publishing.
- This short was the only appearance of Henry, the father duck, and Mother Duck's only speaking episode as well was in this short.
- Little Quacker is the official billing name of the duckling in the Tom & Jerry comics books from Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics.
- When Mother Duck shouts "Henry!", the same voice clip was used ten years before this cartoon in the Three Stooges short No Census, No Feeling. This could also be a reference to The Aldrich Family.
- This cartoon was featured in Tom and Jerry: Festival of Fun on VHS.
- This is one of the three cartoons where Tom gets mowed by a lawn mower. The others are Tee for Two and Cat Napping.
- This is one of the few pre-1952 cartoons to not contain an IATSE seal nor a Screen Cartoonist's Guild seal in their credit sections.
- This cartoon was scheduled to be remade in Cinemascope in 1958. However, due to the MGM cartoon division shutting down, it was subsequently abandoned.[1]
Availability[]
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Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- Tom using a dynamite and exploding in his face causing him to be in blackface is censored. Also, the gun firing on Tom's bottom is cut out.
- The part where Mother Duck's feathers are ripped, showing her undergarments was removed in the UK and Middle East because it was deemed inappropriate for younger audiences viewers. Boomerang USA reinstates the scene.
Errors[]
- After Tom swings the cleaver instead of chopping Jerry and Quacker to the stand of the roof, Jerry and Quacker skip frame by frame as the roof crashes to Tom.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Little Quacker/Gallery