Downhearted Duckling
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| Downhearted Duckling
Tom and Jerry series |
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 The title card of Downhearted Duckling |
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| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Story by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Voices by | Red Coffee - Quacker and Female Duckling (unc.) |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by | Irven Spence Ray Patterson Kenneth Muse Ed Barge |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | November 13, 1954 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 6 minutes 42 seconds |
| Preceded by | Neapolitan Mouse |
| Followed by | Pet Peeve |
| IMDb profile | |
'Downhearted Duckling' is a 1953-copyrighted, 1954-released Tom and Jerry cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. The cartoon was animated by Irven Spence, Ray Patterson, Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge.
[edit] Plot
Quacker is deeply distraught after reading The Ugly Duckling. The duckling in the book looks just like Quacker, and convinced that he too is ugly, has thoughts of suicide. Jerry hears him crying and tries to help Quacker look better, but Quacker attempts to kill himself by releasing an ax onto himself. Jerry removes him from the death trap and the ax falls on his tail.
Jerry dresses Quacker up in a tie and hat, but Quacker, looking at himself in a broken mirror, still thinks he's ugly. But before Jerry returns with another mirror, Quacker walks off, wishing he was dead.
He approaches a sleeping Tom and wakes him up, asking to be eaten. A puzzled Tom is only too happy to oblige, but is prevented from successfully eating the duckling, owing to Jerry's intervention. Jerry grabs Quacker out of Tom's mouth and flees. Tom searches for the duck and Quacker calls out to Tom while lying in a sandwich. Quacker jumps out of the sandwich as Tom tries to eat it and Tom eats a branch. Quacker apologizes and asks for Tom's tongue. Tom puts it out and Quacker jumps on it, but is saved again by Jerry before falling down Tom's throat.
Jerry and Quacker hide next to a hen, but instead of taking Quacker, Jerry grabs the hen and gets pecked into the ground. Quacker pokes his head out of a pie and asks if Tom wants to eat it. Tom refuses, but Quacker convinces him to eat him. Then Jerry throws the pie in Tom's face.
Jerry tries to raise Quacker's spirits by giving him a beauty make-over, but when Tom catches him, he is horrified at the duckling's appearance. Quacker asks if Tom wants to eat him and Tom runs off as quickly as he can, straight through a brick wall.
Just when Quacker is at his lowest ebb, reduced to hiding under a paper bag (yelling at Jerry for lifting it up), he meets a female duck who thinks that he is cute. Quacker clicks his heels for joy and happily takes her arm. And as Jerry watches, the two ducklings waddle off together into the sunset, stopping along the way to share a kiss.
[edit] Trivia
- A hen, who Quacker replaced himself with, looks similar to the one in the short, Fine Feathered Friend. Similarly, the hen pecks down on Jerry just like how she pecks down at Tom in the other short.
