Mother Duck and the Big Race (1972)

by Linda Kay

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A Coronet stop motion animation film. A boy is excited to run his car in the big race but his plans are threatened by a stubborn duck who takes up residence in the vehicle.

Cartoon Cat: The boy is assisted in preparing the little car by his dog and a black cat. The cat and dog wash the car for the boy.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette cleaning car

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette with boy and dog next to car

The duck shows up sitting in the car and the boy, dog and cat all try to get the bird to leave. The cat leaps down from the cherry tree under which the car is parked.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette jumping out of cherry tree

Instead of being intimidated, the duck flaps her wings violently, sending feathers flying.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette surrounded by flying feathers

Next the trio make loud noises to try to scare the duck away. The cat shakes bells tied to his tail.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette ringing bells tied to tail

After they try to scare the duck by dressing as a scarecrow with a pumpkin head, the pumpkin rolls over the cat’s tail, sending him fleeing from the yard.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette running out of yard

The cat is missing for the next scenes but returns having left the hospital where his tail has been wrapped!

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette with tail wrapped leaving hospital

By this time the boy and dog have learned the duck is sitting on a nest of eggs, but when the cat returns he doesn’t know this, so he starts trying to scare the duck away again. The dog catches the springing cat in an inverted umbrella he was using to keep falling cherries away from the nest.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette in umbrella under cherry tree

The cat floats down to earth with the umbrella.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette floating down on umbrella

The dog tries to scare the cat away and the poor kitty backs into a rake and gets bonked on the head!

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette about to back into rake

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette seeing stars

Undaunted, the cat stalks the duck again but the dog throws a net over his head. The cat flees the yard again.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette stalking

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette running from yard with net over head

The boy enters the race with a homemade, less fancy car and the cat watches from a wall.

Mother Duck and the Big Race - black cat puppet maquette on wall

The duck has lent the boy two feathers to use as a propeller for more speed but one feather falls off. The cat catches the feather and puts it back into place for the boy.