That's My Mommy

That's My Mommy is the 97th one reel animated Tom and Jerry short, created in 1955, directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley.

That's My Mommy was the first Tom and Jerry cartoon in which the production was undertaken by Hanna and Barbera due to Fred Quimby's retirement. That's My Mommy was produced in CinemaScope, a form of Widescreen, and released to theatres on November 19, 1955 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The cartoon was animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Irven Spence and Lewis Marshall, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach.

Plot

In a barn, a mother duck is sleeping, in a nest full of eggs. A stray egg rolls from the nest. As the duckling starts to hatch it blindly walks to find its mother's nest.

Tom is sleeping outside. The egg stops directly next to him. Just as the egg thinks it found its mother, it slips under Tom. Tom wakes up, feeling disturbed, but he accidentally sits on the egg, causing Quacker to hatch from it. The naive duckling immediately assumes that Tom is his mother and hugs him (as birds tend to form a bond with the first thing they see upon hatching).

While the little duckling compliments "mommy", Tom gets two sticks and some firewood and lights a fire. He grabs a stick and ties Quacker to it. He puts the stick above the fire, to "warm the duckling up." However, Jerry walks into the scene, shocked as sees this.

When Tom isn't looking, Jerry grabs the stick and puts his tail on the spit. Tom adds salt and pepper to his own tail without realising it. When his tail catches fire, he jumps and yowls in pain. Jerry runs to the side of the barn and unties Quacker from the stick. However, the duckling runs and shouts for help. Tom is blowing the fire off his tail. Quacker runs to him and hugs his face asking for his help. Tom raises and lowers his eyes, as if to agree.

In the kitchen, he is making a bed for Quacker out of pastry which, for Quacker, "is just the right size." He takes Quacker to his new "bedroom": the oven. He opens the oven door and puts the duckling into it. Before he closes the oven door, Quacker says goodnight.

Jerry, using a broom, smacks Tom on the head and slams him unconscious with the oven door. He grabs the bed, with Quacker in it, and runs to his mousehole. However, the duckling jumps out of the bed, just in time, and runs to his unconscious "mother." He revives Tom using a jug of water. A now conscious Tom grabs Quacker and the duckling kisses him.

In order to begin a "Stuffed Roast Duckling" Tom has prepared a pudding for Quacker. He feeds all the pudding to Quacker in order to stuff him, puts him into a tray full of potatoes and carrots and puts small broccoli pieces on to his feet. He puts a lid on the tray, places it in the oven and locks the oven door. Jerry, using a can opener, cuts open part of the oven door. Quacker promptly throws carrots and potatoes at the little mouse, and while he is carried, hits him with a leftover carrot.

Jerry carries the crazy duckling into his mousehole and throws the carrot away and shows him a picture book. On the left page is a mother duck and a Quacker lookalike. On the right page is a grey kitten and a lookalike of Tom. The duckling looks at both pages and hugs the right page, thinking its a lookalike of his "mommy". Jerry angrily walks over and points at the left page as if to say "This is your mother, duck!". Quacker promptly doesn't believe it "That's not my mommy!" and slams the book in Jerry's face, and runs away. Jerry walks out flat and frowns.

Tom, appearing to have figured out what happened, sees Quacker run into the house, traps Jerry in a can, puts him in several other cans, and ties them all up and he throws it into a well.

Tom is now stirring some food in a pot and Quacker reading a cooking book. Thinking that his "mother" is cooking dinner, Quacker helps him sit down and grabs the spoon. He reads part of the page shown, which says "PLACE YOUNG DUCK IN POT OF BOILING WATER..." Briefly fascinated, Quacker asks where they can get a little duck, then he remembers the book that Jerry showed earlier. Quacker then gulps. "He" is the little duck (Quacker completely misintrepreted the earlier book in the thought, not actually realising Tom is NOT his mother). Apparently, Tom wanted to cook and eat him all along, but his conscience gets the better of him. In an act of attempted suicide, Quacker lays the spoon at the tip of the pot making a quick bridge so he would throw himself in the boiling water. Quacker wants to cook himself for his "mommy" since "she" wanted that. Tom starts to approach as the duckling says good-bye and that "I still love you, momma."

Having a change of heart, Tom puts a stop to this immediately by grabbing the duckling in mid-air few inches away from the boiling water crying out "NO!" as the duckling is about to be his "momma's" supper. And then Tom hugs Quacker with a river of tears flowing down his cheeks smiling at the duckling. Tom realises that he would have missed him more than have a good duck dinner. Jerry escapes from the well and runs to the boiling pot on the stove, then he runs to the window and sees Quacker with Tom.

Outside, Tom has adopted the duckling as his own child and playfully leads Quacker across the nearby duck pond, with "mother" and son quacking away at each other. The happy duckling exclaims to Jerry: "That's my mommy!".