Downhearted Duckling is a 1954 Tom and Jerry cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Plot[]
Quacker is crying, so Jerry walks up to him to try and console him. Quacker reveals that he was reading the story “The Ugly Duckling” and he got upset that the duck in the story looked like him. Jerry combs Quacker's feathers, but the duck looks at himself in the mirror and is still convinced that he is ugly. Jerry grabs a hat and a collar off his dresser and is about to give them to Quacker when he notices Quacker on a fence about to behead himself by letting an axe fall onto his head. Jerry pushes Quacker away just in time. Jerry puts the hat and collar on Quacker and has him look in the mirror, but the distorted mirror does not help Quacker's opinion on his appearance. Jerry grabs a better mirror off his dresser, but then notices that Quacker is gone. The duck is convinced that nobody loves him and that he is ugly.
He stumbles upon a sleeping Tom and wakes him up by hitting him on the head. He asks Tom to eat him, walking into his supper dish and salting himself. Tom places the bird in his mouth, but Jerry pulls him out before he completely slides down the cat’s throat. Jerry and Quacker hide inside a tree, but Quacker escapes again. This time, he places himself between two slices of bread and calls for Tom to eat him. The cat picks up the sandwich, but jumps up before Tom can eat him. The bird slides across the branch, which Tom eats. Quacker apologizes and asks Tom to pull out his tongue, which he does. The duck hops on, but Jerry pulls him away. The two hide in a barn next to a hen, but when running away, Jerry grabs the wing of the hen instead of Quacker. Angry, the hen pecks Jerry into the ground. Tom finds Quacker tucked into a pie on a windowsill. The duck asks Tom to eat the pie, but Tom refuses. Quacker asks "Pretty please?" finally getting Tom to agree. The bird tells Tom to open his mouth and close his eyes. Just then, Jerry arrives, pulls Quacker out of the pie, and throws the pie in Tom’s face.
Back at Jerry’s mousehole, the mouse gives Quacker a beauty makeover, but the duck feels that it is useless. Tom approaches the mousehole and snatches the duck away in a bag. When Tom dumps the duck onto his dish, he is taken aback by the appearance of him. As the duck walks in a robotic manner, the cat claws through the brick wall and makes a run for it. Quacker, still feeling that he is ugly, puts a bag on his head and sadly walks away. Jerry finds the duck and tries to remove the bag, but Quacker tells him not to and continues to walk away. A female duck happens upon Quacker and removes the bag from his head. He tells her not to do so, but she chuckles and tells him that he is cute. Quacker, delighted, walks off with the female duck into the horizon, but not before sharing a kiss.
Availability[]
- LaserDisc - The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II (MGM/UA)
- DVD - Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection: Volume 3, Disc 1 (Warner Bros.)
Notes[]
- Unlike the controversial Blue Cat Blues, this was never pulled from television, despite its references to suicide. This may be due to the lack of depictions of alcoholism in this short. Another possible reason is that this cartoon's plot is not as depressing to the networks' younger target audience compared to Blue Cat Blues. However, the short was removed from HBO Max, alongside Designs on Jerry.