Lucky Ducky (film)

Lucky Ducky is a 1948 American animated cartoon from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Tex Avery, animated by Walt Clinton (here credited as Walter Clinton), Preston Blair, Louie Schmitt, and Grant Simmons, with musical direction by Scott Bradley.[1]

Lucky Ducky
Directed byTex Avery
Produced byFred Quimby
Story byRich Hogan
Music byScott Bradley
Animation byWalter Clinton
Preston Blair
Louie Schmitt
Grant Simmons
Layouts byLouie Schmitt (uncredited)
Backgrounds byJohn Didrik Johnsen (uncredited)
Color processBlack and White (scene only)
Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • October 9, 1948 (1948-10-09)
Running time
7:38
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

This short was originally in development as a George and Junior entry, but was ultimately produced with two random dog characters instead.[2]

Plot

The foreword of the cartoon tells:

Dedicated
to those duck hunters
who leave at dawn
with loaded gun...
and come home late loaded...

Many ducks are swimming and flying around a pond. They are also doing a conga line around two dogs who were meant to be the two bears, George and Junior, but are now dogs, then are hunting, waiting in their boat. Nearby at a tree, a sign reads "No Hunting Before 6:AM. As the clock finally strikes six, all the ducks fly away before the two dogs have the chance to shoot one. Then the dogs spot a mother duck having her nest with an egg in it strapped to herself. The dogs miss the shot but the strap breaks, dropping the egg onto the boat and hatching. Just then, he starts dancing and taking off the egg shell, and jumps into the water. The two dogs point their guns into the water, but no shooting is heard. The dogs lift their guns, revealing that the duckling had tied the point of their guns together in a knot. The duckling laughs and jumps back into the water. The duckling goes under the boat and pulls out a drill, and puts a hole in the boat. The dogs notice the leaking, and the small dog covers the hole with his hands. Water starts coming out of his ears and the big dog covers the small dog's ears with his hands. Suddenly, water starts coming out of the big dog's ears, and the small dog stops the water by using the big dog's nose like a faucet. The small dog uncovers the hole, and the duckling honks his nose, laughs, and dives back in. The small dog points his gun into the hole, but the duckling snaps it shut with a clip. The small dog pulls up his gun, and the big dog lets go of the clip, and the gun explodes in the small dog's face. The duckling then lifts the boat and hits it against the water. The duckling laughs and swims away.

The small dog then heads to the motor, but the engine won't start. The big dog lifts the anchor and uses the small dog's head to start the boat. As the dogs chase the duckling at super-sonic speed, the boat's rudder blades cut the water in half, then the land in half, sinking a tree. Continuing the chase in the boat on dry land, the blades proceed to turn a log, two trees and a rock mountain into a bridge, staircase and ladder, and Mount Rushmore, respectively. The duckling and the boat go into a hole in a tree, and goes through another tree that has a hole. The duckling passes between two trees with the big tree suddenly lifting the small tree before the boat can do something to it. After crossing a mudpit and squeezing between two other trees, the chase temporarily ends with the boat and everybody crashing into a rock and getting flattened. Now chasing the duckling on foot, they stop upon a "Stop School Crossing" sign with an actual schoolhouse crossing the road. Chasing the duckling into a forest, everything suddenly turns black and white, the trio having passed a sign indicating "Technicolor Ends Here" where they go to have a look at it to read it. Going back into the color portion of the forest, the duckling stops at the edge of a cliff and spots the big dog coming towards him, prompting the duckling to pull out a bottle of "Quick Grow" and instantly turning a small plant into a tree which the big dog crashes into. The big dog then grabs an ax, and then puts it down to spit on his hands. The little dog comes back, and the big dog blindly uses him instead of the ax. The big dog notices this, and puts the little dog down. Then the little dog spits out a little pile of logs.

Back at the pond, the big dog is sniffing out the scent of the duckling who dumps pepper into the big dog's nose and places a pie in his hands. The big dog's sneeze blows the pie out of his hands and all over the small dog, the whipped cream and cherry filling looking like an outfit of Santa Claus.

The duckling jumps into a hole in a log. The big dog then reaches his hand into the log, but the duckling makes a slingshot, slinging the big dog's hand into his head. The big dog then points his gun towards the hole, but the duckling pulls out a frightening mask, scaring and shrinking the gun, which fires it and lets out some bullets. The big dog grabs the little dog's gun, but it doesn't shoot. The big dog pulls out the bullet and hands it to the little dog. The little dog gets shot in the face, leaving him in blackface. The little dog hands the big dog the bullet, and then the big dog gets left in blackface.

Next, the duckling leaves his footprints in the ground. The dogs' guns point to where the duckling is: in three different paths. The small dog then gets out a duck call and blows, but the duckling answers back with a smaller duck call. The chase on water resumes by the dogs in their repaired boat. The duckling suddenly stops and the dogs are about to shoot, but the duckling pulls out a STOP sign and points to the clock from the beginning which now has a sign showing "NO SHOOTING AFTER 5:00 PM". The bell rings, much to the dogs' horror, as they both scream in terror, and the ducks come back, swimming, flying and doing another conga line, while the disgruntled dogs sit angry that they didn't even shoot one single duck. Meanwhile, on the boat, the duckling has now joined the conga line as the camera irises out on him.

References
  1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 146–147. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  2. Adamson, Joe, Tex Avery: King of Cartoons, 1975, De Capo Press
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