Happy Go Ducky

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Happy Go Ducky
series = Tom and Jerry


caption = The title card of "Happy Go Ducky".
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Kenneth Muse
Bill Schipek
Ken Southwort
Herman Cohen
Lewis Marshall
James Escalante
layout_artist = Richard Bickenbach
background_artist = Roberta Greutert
voice_actor = Red Coffee (as Quacker)
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = January 3, 1958
color_process = Technicolor
CinemaScope
Perspecta Stereo
runtime = 6' 24"
preceded_by = "Tom's Photo Finish"
followed_by = "Royal Cat Nap"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0051698

"Happy Go Ducky" is the 110th one reel animated "Tom and Jerry" short, created in 1956, directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon's working title was "One Quack Mind" before the directors finally chose "Happy Go Ducky", a pun on the phrase "Happy go lucky". The cartoon was animated by Kenneth Muse, Bill Schipek, Ken Southworth, Herman Cohen, Lewis Marshall and James Escalante, with backgrounds by Roberta Greutert and layouts by Richard Bickenbach. Despite having an Easter theme, the cartoon was not originally released at Easter, and there is speculation that the cartoon had been planned for release in Easter 1957, but these plans were shelved. It was released on January 3, 1958 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Plot

On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny leaves an Easter egg for Tom and Jerry. However, the egg is not a chocolate egg; instead, out hatches a duckling named Quacker, who insists on swimming in everything in the house: Tom's milk dish, the fish tank, the watercooler, the bathtub, and the kitchen sink. Tom and Jerry put Quacker back in his egg and tape the egg shut, but Quacker escapes. The last straw occurs when Quacker is swimming in the shower cubicle and floods the house. Tom and Jerry conspire to drop Quacker off at a nearby public park, but their plan backfires when Quacker returns, this time along with more ducklings, flooding the entire house with water. Quacker tells them that he and the other ducks have a surprise for them and says, "All together, fellas!" and the ducks all shout at once in unison to Tom and Jerry, "HAPPY EASTER!" and swim around them in the end.

Notes

*Aside from a minor fight over an egg at the beginning, Tom and Jerry are friends in "Happy Go Ducky".
*In the bathroom, one towel is monogrammed with a T and another with a J, implying that Tom and Jerry are actually the owners of the house rather than its owners' pets. However, their owners could simply have names beginning with T and J.
*The production/direction credits read "Joseph Barbera and William Hanna" rather than the usual "William Hanna and Joseph Barbera"
*When Tom is looking for the Little Quacker at the sink, he accidently pokes him with a knife.
*When Quacker pokes Tom on the rear with another knife, he says "Touche, Pussycat!". This was a line mainly used by Tuffy in most of "The Two Mousketeer" cartoons.