The Ugly Duckling (1939 film)

The Ugly Duckling is an animated film from by Walt Disney, based on the fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen. The film was directed by Jack Cutting and Clyde Geronimi, and released in theaters on April 7, 1939. Music was composed by Albert Hay Malotte, who was uncredited for the film. The animated short was first distributed by RKO Radio Pictures.

An earlier Silly Symphony animated short based on this fairy tale had been produced in black and white in 1931. The 1939 color film won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), and also happened to be the last entry in the Silly Symphony series, even though it was released as a special one-shot cartoon.

Dialogue

[The final cartoon starts when Father Duck is waiting for the eggs to hatch. Mother Duck sits on the nest and she waits too. Father Duck shakes his head as tears roll down on his cheeks. He walks to Mother Duck and hold her wings]

Father Duck: Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.

Mother Duck: Quack. quack, quack.

Father Duck: Quack, quack.

[Father Duck went back to wait for the eggs to hatch]

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[The Ugly Duckling follows his mother and the cygnets until he stops and looks at Mother Duck and the ducklings]

Duckling #1: Quack, quack.

Duckling #2: Quack, quack!

Duckling #3: Quack.

Mother Duck: [to the Ugly Duckling] Quack, quack!

[The Ugly Duckling looks happy and continues swimming through the pond. The final cartoon ends when the Ugly Duckling, his mother and the cygnets swim all the way home]