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Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: May 2, 1958
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Little Quacker
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘The Vanishing Duck’ marks Little Quacker’s eight and last cartoon appearance.
He enters Tom & Jerry’s house as a gift from George to his wife Joan. This couple apparently are Tom’s owners. As soon as the two are off for an anniversary dinner, Tom enters the house, and within seconds eats Little Quacker, who reenters life by opening Tom’s left eye like a roller blind.
Little Quacker seeks refuge at Jerry’s, but soon discovers ‘vanishing cream’, rendering the two critters invisible, and driving Tom mad. But, for once, Tom gets wise, and applies the vanishing cream to himself, and in the end, it’s Tom who can bully mouse and duck unseen.
‘The Vanishing Duck’ borrows heavily from ‘The Invisible Mouse‘ (1947), in which Jerry becomes invisible. Like other invisibility cartoons the humor suffers because the invisible characters become invincible, and the sympathy shifts to the hapless victim, in this case Tom. In that respect it’s only fitting Tom gets his revenge in the end. Apart from the eye gag the cartoon isn’t very inspired. For example, there’s a nice gag in which Jerry and Little Quacker make Tom think his tail has gone off, but this gag is hardly developed, and dropped all too soon.
Watch ‘The Vanishing Duck’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 112
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Royal Cat Nap
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Robin Hoodwinked
‘The Vanishing Duck’ is available on the European DVD Box set ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: January 3, 1958
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Little Quacker
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Happy Go Ducky’ starts with the Easter bunny delivering an Easter egg to Tom & Jerry.
The two fight over the egg, which soon breaks, hatching into Little Quacker, which immediately goes swimming in whatever fluid containing device he sees, being it Tom’s milk bowl, a fish tank, a water tank or a bath. Tom & Jerry try to get rid of the little duck, even putting it back into the egg shell and sending it back to the Easter bunny, but to no avail. In the end, the whole room is flooded, and Tom and Jerry have to watch Little Quacker swimming around with his four duckling friends from the local public park pond.
‘Happy Go Ducky’ is remarkable for lack of conflict between Tom and Jerry. As soon as Little Quacker enters the scene, the two work together to get the intruder out. This hampers the comedy, which remains mild and friendly. Part of the humor stems from Little Quacker exclaiming ‘Happy Easter!’ enthusiastically every time he has found a place to swim. The best gag however is when Tom tries to shut a shower door, which Little Quacker has filled to the max with water.
Watch ‘Happy Go Ducky’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 110
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tom’s Photo Finish
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Royal Cat Nap
‘Happy Go Ducky’ is available on the European DVD Box set ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: January 7, 1950
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Little Quacker
Rating: ★★½
Review:
Tom steals an egg from a duck’s nest. When he tries to fry it, it appears to contain a little duck, who seeks shelter at Jerry’s place.
‘Little Quacker’ introduces the talkative little duckling, whose voice resembles that of Donald Duck. It would be the most frequent character of the Jerry-befriends-another-animal-cartoons, starring seven other shorts. The character even survived Tom & Jerry to reincarnate as Yakky Doodle in Hanna-Barbera’s television series ‘Augie Doggie and Doggy Daddy’ in 1960.
Despite the character’s apparent popularity, ‘Little Quacker’ is no different from any other Jerry-befriends-another-animal-cartoon. Like all the others, ‘Little Quacker’ is more cute than funny, in spite of some fine gags, and a great long chase scene.
Watch ‘Little Quacker’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 47
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tennis Chumps
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Saturday Evening Puss
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 