Little Quacker

Tom, living on a farm now (owned by Old MacDonald if the music is anything to go by), swipes a newly laid egg from a duck's nest and proceeds to cook it. The little duckling obviously doesn't want to be eaten so he flees to Jerry's dwellings within the voids where they team up to thwart Tom.

Yes, it is EXACTLY the same set-up as the previous short Hatch-Up Your Troubles, even to the extent of having the little bird peck through things and shout 'Mama'. I am so sick of these 'cute' little characters brought in to partner with Jerry. It's the same thing every time, right down to them smiling and walking off into the sunset as the cartoon irises out. A couple of good gags make up for it, but the duck is incredibly annoying.

Tom steals an egg from a nest while the mother duck goes for a swim, delighting at the prospect of a fried egg, only to find that when he cracks the egg a little duckling appears. He then has a sudden change of mind and decides to make a duck dish.

The duckling escapes Tom's clutches and hides in Jerry's mouse-hole. Jerry then tries to keep the little duckling away from Tom in various amusing ways.

This was the first appearance of this little duckling, who would appear quite a few more times throughout the T&J series. I just love his voice (which was done by the same guy that voiced Donald Duck and his nephews), with that unique, cute, 'quacky' twang to it!

The cartoon's enjoyable and funny too. Check it out!

The Tom and Jerry cartoon series introduces yet another cloyingly cute character for Tom to menace and for Jerry to befriend: a duckling by the name of 'Little Quacker', who winds up in Tom's frying pan after the naughty cat pilfers an egg from a nest while the mother is having a swim. The duckling escapes from Tom and hides in Jerry's mouse-hole, where he tells the surprised mouse of his ordeal. Jerry decides to help the poor little bird find his mother.

The colourful farm setting for this short makes a nice change from the suburban household of many an earlier adventure, but the action essentially remains the same, Jerry repeatedly foiling Tom's ambushes, causing the cat much pain in the process. After lots of close shaves, Little Quacker is reunited with his mother, who calls upon her macho duck husband to teach Tom a lesson (yes, the idea of a duck beating up a cat is ridiculous, even for a cartoon!).

Now here is something different: Tom versus a little chick, at least for awhile until Jerry comes to little fowl's aid. The story begins outdoors on a farm, which also is unusual for a T & J 'toon. Tom robs an egg while the mother duck is busy elsewhere. He races home and plans on making an omelet, except the egg hatches on the skillet.

Running for his life after Tom tries to kill the poor bird, the little featured guy winds up in Jerry's mouse hole. He explains - this is talented chick who speaks English the moment he's born! - to Jerry what's going on, so Jerry turns Good Samaritan.

Most of the time, Tom is doing his Lizzy Borden impression, trying to chop the little ones, so anything he gets in here he has coming to him!

There are so some decent gags mixed in with a cute ending as the Jerry leads the little guy to find his mother, who then gets the man of the house to take care of bad 'ol Tom.

The Tom & Jerry show marked my childhood more than the Japanese cartoons and maybe equally than Diseny's full-length's films. The Little Quacker is an episode belonging the "second" era, the Hanna & Barbera series, which is funny and amusing at the same level as the first. I couldn't choose the best one. Unfortunately is the third "era", with Chuck Jones in the 60s, that created rubbish episodes, often plagiarizing the old pearls.

This time (was 1950!) Tom steals an egg from a straw bed to prepare the breakfast, but when comes up a little duck he promptly opts for cooking him stuffed. Either Jerry and the duck won't agree Tom's idea.

The best scene was at the end, when the mother of the little duck calls a sinister fellow-duck named "Irven" after she knew what Tom did, to give him a lesson (and he'll get it !). These cartoons were made by few people (in the credits I counted 8 men) with big imagination and great ideas. I admire them. The fact, in the end, exist relatively few episodes (maybe 80-100 in 20 years) of T&J series preserved them through the decades as immortal, and I'm not joking!