Little Quacker

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. It is the first Tom and Jerry short to be released in the 1950s. Little Quacker marks the debut of the eponymous character, 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. The voice of Quacker and his parents (who make their only speaking appearance in this cartoon), along with a single WAH WAH! line by Tom, was supplied by (uncredited) Red Coffee; Coffee's rendition of Quacker's voice was mostly an impersonation of Disney's Donald Duck as performed by Clarence Nash.

Plot
On a farm, a mama 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 albumen and yolk, the only thing he gets is a duckling, Quacker. Not to be put off, Tom decides he will cook a roasted 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, the cat gets hold of a meat cleaver and attempts to chop Quacker up, but invariably misses. The duckling escapes into Jerry's mouse hole and into his bed, shaking in terror (the shape under Jerry's sheet resembles a ringing bell). Jerry uncovers Quacker, who informs the mouse 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, pulls at the mouse'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 the cat'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 the mouse and the duckling.

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 the duckling, but Jerry is clued up as to what the cat 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 single barrel hunting rifle. He thrusts the rifle in, only for the barrel to bend towards his backside, 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, the cat places the mace on the ground and slumps down. Jerry and Quacker escape. Tom awakens from the trance, grabs a lawnmower and charges after them.

Quacker's mother walks around the farm, calling for him. Tom chases continuously after Jerry and Quacker with the lawnmower, but ultimately ends up running over the duckling's mother's front feathers, revealing her undergarments. She covers them with a look of shock and embarrassment on her eyes. Both the mother and son are reunited, but Tom grabs Quacker from the mama duck and she grabs her baby back. After Quacker tells his mama what had happened and who was the cause of this, she demands to know what Tom thinks he's doing to her baby, saying, "He did?" But Tom's only answer is scornful mimicry of her quacking (It is presumed by some that it is his way of replying, "I did, so what!"). The enraged mama duck soon calls her mate ("HENRY!"). Henry shows up, tattooed like a sailor and strong as an ox, and that makes Tom worried about him. The mama duck tells him what Tom did to their son and how she was minding her own business when he ran over her with the lawnmower "And he got smart, too!" Henry is understandably disappointed in Tom's actions to both his wife and son, glared at him in rage and snarls violently "He did?". In response, Tom is forced to flee, but the enormous duck gives chase to him. Tom slams face first into a tree, enabling Henry to run the lawnmower continuously up and down on the cat's back.

The final scene has Mama Duck and Quacker swimming in the pond, with her towing Jerry Mouse on a little raft. Jerry uses the duck caller to attempt sound like mama and baby. The two friends then face each other and smile.

Voice cast

 * Red Coffee as Quacker/Mama Duck/Henry (uncredited)

Censorship

 * When Quacker's mother's feathers were ripped which shows her undergarments was removed in the UK and Middle East.

Availability
DVD
 * Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 4
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 2, Disc Two