Little Quacker (1950)

 

Little Quacker was the first Tom and Jerry film of the 1950's. It is also the film debut of Quacker, the small duck with a baby like voice (provided by Red Coffey). The character would appear in 7 theatrical cartoon shorts. However, the character would stay fresh in the minds of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. They would create a very similar character named Yakky Doodle for the various Hanna-Barbera TV series. Yakky Doodle would even receive his own segment on The Yogi Bear Show. Quacker, himself would even appear in one episode of Hanna-Barbera's later TV series, The Tom and Jerry Show. This episode was entitled The Lost Duckling (1975). Quacker would later appear in such Tom and Jerry video games as 2003's Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers (where he is an unlockable character) and 2000's Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry. In both of those games, he is simply called Duckling. He would also as early as the mid-1950's as a regularly appearing character in the Tom and Jerry comic books. 

As this short film begins, a mother duck leaves her nest and egg behind for a moment. Tom then takes the egg and goes to cook it. When Tom cracks the egg the little duckling comes out. Tom then decides to cook the little duckling inside. Jerry sets out to save Quacker from Tom. 

This is probably the best Tom and Jerry cartoon to feature Little Quacker. While some of the later films with this character would try to be too cutesy for this series, this cartoon never falls into that trap. Instead, this is simply a pure classic Tom and Jerry cartoon. The film is full of great slapstick gags and the cuteness of Quacker never gets in the way of this being first and foremost a funny cartoon. There are plenty of slapstick gags throughout and many of them are quite funny. Like we have come to expect from these cartoons, William Hanna's timing is perfect here. Quacker is also very well utilized here. His presence helps make this film a nice departure from the usual Tom and Jerry formula, while still keeping what makes this series work. Watching Jerry and Quacker team up against Tom, leads to a lot of fun moments here. Quacker also has great chemistry with Jerry and the two play well off each other. Also, Quacker is not given too much dialogue here. This is important as too much dialogue from a supporting character can distract from our non-speaking main characters. This cartoon also has a great ending. 

The credited animators on this film are Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson and Irven Spence. The cartoon would be reissued to theaters in 1957. The cartoon would also later be adapted in the 1953 children's book, Tom and Jerry Meet Little Quack. 

Below is a typically ugly movie poster for this film.