This short film was in fact submitted for an Academy Award but ended up not being nominated. The films that were nominated were Christopher Crumpet (1953, UPA), From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954, Warner Brothers), Rugged Bear (1953, Disney (starring Donald Duck)), The Tell Tale Heart (1953, UPA) and Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953, Disney). The Oscar went to Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom. This marked only the second year since the first Tom and Jerry short, when a Tom and Jerry cartoon was not nominated for an Oscar (there was no Tom and Jerry nominated in 1942 either).
In this short film, Quacker the duck is unable to swim. Because of this Jerry offers to help teach him to swim. Tom spies the duck as well and thinks that he would make a good snack. So, Jerry must both teach the duck to swim and protect him from Tom.
This is one of those Tom and Jerry shorts that mixes sentiment with violent slapstick. As such it does a surprisingly good job. The two work very well together and neither seems to overtake the other. Why this works might be that the sentimentality comes from Quacker's friendship with Jerry, while the slapstick comes from the scenes with Tom. Both the sentimentality and the humor also work very well on their own. The story is simple and very charming. It has a real sweetness to it that feels natural instead of forced. There are also some truly great slapstick gags here. Quacker using the safety pin on Tom and Tom getting hit by the brick are both examples of pure cartoon slapstick at its best.
This film marks the last time there was a white line between Tom's eyes in any of the theatrical shorts. This white line would not reappear until 1990 with TV's Tom and Jerry Kids.
The credited animators on this cartoon were Irven Spence, Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Kenneth Muse and Al Grandmain. The credited background artist was Robert Gentle.
Again, the movie poster reused the artwork from previous movie posters. Only the title was changed.
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin.
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1953/
https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Just_Ducky
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