The Ugly Duckling

While Walt Disney was finally making a nice tidy profit from the popularity of Mickey Mouse, his studio was at the same time thriving from its production of the "Silly Symphonies'" series. The introduction of December 1931's "The Ugly Duckling" veered the series into a more character-driven direction. Two of Walt's primary animators, Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling, had left his employ earlier the previous year. Disney's team decided the pair's departure created an ideal time to hatch a well-known story with a different twist. Adapting Hans Christian Andersen's 1843 story of the same name, "The Ugly Duckling" has a duck's egg mixed in with a farmyard chicken's nest. When all the peeps emerge from their eggs, the baby duckling pecks out of his shell and gets picked on because he looks different than the others. However, a tornado soon threatens the lives of the young chicks, until the duckling comes to their rescue.

One modern-day reviewer noted, "The characters are imbued with personality, pathos and life in a way that other 'Silly Symphonies' have been unable to accomplish. When the duckling is cast out by his mother, a hen, the tears that he cries are heart breaking." Another new added element to "Silly Symphony" series was the "The Ugly Duckling" introduced suspense within its framework, differing from its previous musical cartoons. Eight years later, Disney would revisit the Andersen tale in 1939, sticking more to the writer's storyline than the 1931 version. "The Ugly Duckling" is the only 'Silly Symphony' to made twice.

This primitive 1931 black-and-white cartoon is based on the old fable of the unattractive child who grows up to be beautiful and spits in the face of all those who previous laughed and avoided them. After all, society SHOULD cast out those who are different as anything other than normal is frightening.

Of course the duckling turns out to be a swan who somehow ended up in the nest of a mother hen (not duck). It's a fable that has been drilled into the subconscious of most children in the developed world, yet most of them do still grow up to reject what is different.

During a storm the ugly one rescues the other chicks and is accepted.

Although I mentioned that the duck is actually a swan, it isn't. It's actually a duck, while the others are actually baby chickens. So the entire premise of the cartoon is false.

This is a touching Silly Symphony cartoon from Walt Disney - a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's tale, The Ugly Duckling. Here, a mother hen hatches some chicks, but one turns out to be an ugly duckling; therefore, it is immediately repulsed.

The ugly duckling was actually pretty adorable and will immediately grab your sympathy and heart as you see him try to get along with his new family. But, the poor thing couldn't catch a break and deemed to remain lonely. However, that is until he might prove a sense of belonging by braving through a tornado to save his siblings. It's a satisfying sight seeing that even an outcasted creature could be brave enough to save those who once ignored him.

A great little cartoon with a great message.

Grade A-

When the story begins, a mother chicken anxiously awaits her chicks hatching. However, oddly, one of the babies is a gosling....and the mother and her chicks instantly hate it because it's so different. In time, the gosling is able to prove its worth.

The 1939 version of "The Ugly Duckling" by Disney is a beautiful short film. However, back in 1931, the studio also made an earlier version of this story. Apart from making the original in black & white instead of color, the other big difference is that in the 1931 version, they changed the story...making the goose baby born in a nest of chicks, not ducklings. Until the end of the story, I had no idea why the studio made that choice...but the way the film ended made sense for this change.

Overall, a modestly entertaining short film but which also pales by comparison to the later much prettier version which sticks closer to the traditional tale.

We don't know why that duck was in the nest, but she was linked to him. This is a little film about the ugliness of the "other." In this case, as with children of color, the little guy is rejected bceause of the way he looks. His food is taken from him. His "siblings" make fun of him and bully him. Of course, he comes to the fore in a time of crisis, but he should not have to risk his life to be accepted.