Quacker's Lucky Penny is the twenty-fourth episode of Tom and Jerry in New York.
Synopsis[]
A small coin brings good luck to anyone, except Tom. The theft brings him bad luck, since he stole the coin from the legitimate founder.
Plot[]
Inside the Central Park, Quacker and Jerry are playing leap frog near the pond. At one moment, Jerry tries to ride a frog, which winds up in falling down. Quacker finds an abandoned penny near the area Jerry landed. At first, they use the coin as a toy for tossing. During the play, Jerry finds a candy and Quacker spots a single piece of pop-corn. A moment later, Quacker finds a leftover toy yacht, which proves their penny is indeed a lucky one. When they set down the stream, Tom appears from a tree. He elects to steal Jerry and Quacker their penny.
The first attempt fails, when Tom misses the yacht and has to emerge from the water having his toe bitten by a fish. Jerry and Quacker find it amusing, that Tom lost fur on his toe. Enraged cat grabs a pebble and hurls it at the yacht. The makeshift projectile fails, for it ricochets from the sail, then from the sign against swimming, to hit Tom's teeth. Jerry and Quacker once again have fun at Tom's expense. Quacker mentions aloud, that their lucky penny protects them from harm. Having overheard this, Tom imagines himself living rich, with Toodles as his personal driver and unlimited supplies of fish food and milk. His second attempt to snatch the lucky coin works, for he simply enters the stream and forcibly grabs the lucky penny, hoping he will have good luck. However, things go opposite to planned for Tom.
The frog interrupts Tom in possessing his newly acquired penny, because it mistook the coin for a fly. Tom emerges from the water and runs away from the pond, until he steps on a bee. He screams in pain, when he gets trampled by a crowd. Tom winds up inside a garbage can. When he emerges from it, a chewed up bubblegum hampers his motion. It takes Tom three consecutive attempts to break the gum and move onward. While on the move, Tom stomps a bee once again, which causes him additional pain. Having experienced all the misfortune, Tom returns to Quacker and Jerry and attempts to hand over the stolen penny. Quacker refuses to accept it, claiming that Tom has corrupted the lucky penny by stealing it.
Butch is passing by, making Tom nasty remarks. Tom hurls the corrupted penny into a clover patch near Butch. Butch spots a four-leaf clover in the patch, then he meets up with Toodles and invites her for a burger. Tom gets infuriated, then he hopes that the corrupted penny has regained the ability to generate good luck. He searches the clover patch and finds the penny, then he heads towards Toodles and Butch. He stumbles upon Spike, who was sleeping near the clover patch, but Tom ignores him. Before Toodles and Butch manage to enjoy their meal, Tom forcibly hurls the sandwich away. He also causes salt to spill in the process. Butch makes another remark aimed at Tom, this time about spilled salt. Jerry and Quacker approach the area. Tom attempts to undo the bad charm by emptying the salt container from behind, but he infuriates Spike instead, when the container lands in Spike's eye socket. Tom has to flee from enraged Spike.
The pursuit takes place past the park's bridge. Tom discards the corrupted penny on the move. Spike stops and admits that he can recognize a bad penny from a distance. He kicks the coin at Tom, who kicks it back. The corrupted penny ricochets and breaks a mirror held by a woman sitting nearby. Spikes admits, that breaking a mirror equals seven years of bad luck, then he walks away. Enraged woman approaches Tom with the coin in her hand. In an attempt to retreat, Tom falls into the fountain. He emerges with a considerable amount of coins. When he attempts to grab those, a man spots him and complains, that Tom is stealing coins from a charity fountain. A crowd gathers by, which reminds Tom of Quacker's words about stealing pennies causing bad luck. Tom is forced to drop his loot and flees. During his escape, lightning bolts harass him, striking dangerously close to him. Tom attempts to leave the park, but taxi cabs scare him off. Jerry and Quacker are tailing him.
Tom stops at the boulder in a park. Quacker suggests him to do something good, so his luck will change. Tom has no idea, what exactly to do. A moment later, he gets overrun by a skateboarder. Tom elects to leave the park for sure. He succeeds this time, but bad luck keeps harassing him. Tom narrowly escapes piano bombardment and a wrecking ball swinging. He falls into a manhole, when an alligator manages to catch and eat him to death in his jaws and never to be seen again in this episode. The alligator spits the coin where Tom was holding. The penny lands near Jerry and Quacker. The duck announces what he has found and the episode ends.
Characters[]
- Jerry Mouse
- Quacker
- Tom Cat (main antagonist)
- Butch Cat
- Toots (does not speak)
- Spike Bulldog
- Humans (including the hot dog vendor)
- Bees (cameos)
- Alligator
Trivia[]
- The plot of this episode revolves around various superstitions related to luck. Apart from the lucky penny, it also features four-leaf clover, black cat, spilling salt, and breaking a mirror.
- This episode appears to be borrowing elements from the Thomas & Friends episodes, "Henry's Lucky Day," Percy's Lucky Day," and "Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day," as they also involve a character having to deal with bad luck.
- Butch making a teasing comment about Tom's face is very similar to a scene from the Thomas & Friends episode, "James and the Trouble with Trees," where one of the Troublesome Trucks makes a comment about James' face in a similar manner.
- Toodles does not speak in the episode. Instead, two versions of her appear - one with whiskers, similar to Scott Jeralds's design from Ruff Luck, and the regular one without whiskers.
- In this particular episode, Jerry is teaming with Quacker against Tom.
Errors[]
- Butch called Toodles, "Toots" after he found a four-leaf clover.