The Vanishing Duck

This was one of the later Tom & Jerry cartoons made by their creators, William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, before the M-G-M cartoon studio temporary closed and Hanna-Barbera formed their own production company. A little duckling, Little Quacker, is the gift of a hubby to his spouse. As they leave on the town, the cat starts chasing after him. Jerry gets in on the fun when he and the duck see some vanishing cream...This was quite a funny cartoon for the late period even though by this time the animation wasn't as creative. So on that note, The Vanishing Duck is worth a look. P.S. The wife's voice was done by the immensely talented June Foray and the hubby's was that of George O'Hanlon who doesn't sound any different from his later George Jetson he did for that team I mentioned. I always thought the duck's voice was the same as the one for Donald at Disney but he's not Clarence Nash but Red Coffey.

George, Tom's owner, gets his wife Joan a birthday gift in the shape of the little duckling that first made an appearance in Little Quacker (1950) and had appeared in six other cartoons. Tom spots the duckling and tries to catch him, but then the little feathered one teams up with Jerry and the two have some fun at Tom's expense, courtesy of some vanishing cream that they use to make themselves invisible.

This story could be seen as a successor to The Invisible Mouse (1947), although it is not as funny, not least of which because the cuts that animation departments were forced to make at this time caused the schematic backgrounds and less-attractive colours, not to mention the fact that most of the animators just could not draw Tom and Jerry as well as one that had been very experienced in it -- Kenneth Muse, who had been animating them from as far back as 1941 in The Night Before Christmas (when Tom was very hairy!) -- so it is pretty clear what had been drawn by him and what had not.

The Vanishing Duck was also the last of the Tom & Jerry series to feature the duckling.

What a chaotic world this would be if "vanishing cream" was literally that, and enabled one to totally "disappear."

It does in this Tom and Jerry cartoon as the little yellow duck "Quackers" discovers after being delivered as a gift by George to his wife Joan. They are the owners of the house in which Tom and Jerry live. George takes Joan out for dinner and a show and thinks the bird is safe from the cat, who is locked out of the house. But Tom has a secret entrance and soon, Quackers is in trouble....until he discovers the cream and lets Jerry in on the ruse.

From that point, they brutalize Tom, until the very end when Tom gets wise. Tom gets a little revenge on his own. Thus, everyone "gets in their licks" in this one, which should please most fans of this animated series.

The Vanishing Duck is not a masterpiece, nor was I was expecting it to be. The animation quality is not as good as before, Tom and Jerry have been drawn much better, the backgrounds are not as smooth and there were some I feel overly-bright colours. The story has a very similar scenario to The Invisible Mouse, though not as inspired or funny. However there is much to like as is mostly the case with Tom and Jerry(I say mostly because after 1958 the output wasn't a patch on their earlier cartoons). The music is very catchy and zesty with some beautiful and dynamic orchestration. The gags are fun and clever, and delivered in a brisk fashion. Tom and Jerry are likable, Tom being the butt of the violence but becoming more vengeful later and Jerry as cute and cunning as ever. Little Quacker is very endearing. All in all, not masterpiece Tom and Jerry but entertaining Tom and Jerry all the same, which is still fine for me. 8/10 Bethany Cox

George buys Joan a pet for her birthday: irritating duckling Quackers (what a crap present). When the couple go out for the evening, Tom sneaks into the house to try and eat the feathered fellow, but Quackers discovers a way to evade Tom.

In 1947, Jerry used invisible ink to disappear and cause havoc for Tom; in this 1958 cartoon, Jerry and his pal Quackers use vanishing cream to pull the same trick. Not only is the basic idea uninspired, but so are the gags, making this one little more than a passable caper.