Little Quacker

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 & 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!

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!).

I was never a great fan of Tom and Jerry because there is so much sameness to the cartoons. This one is better because it takes place on a farm. Tom picks on an innocent victim, a duckling, thinking it will be his dinner. Jerry intervenes and what happens are a series of Tom's efforts backfiring. Sound familiar. The difference here is that many of them are quite funny.

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.