The Quack Infantry Troop

1940 AnimationWar 13 minutes Directed by Mitsuyo Seo

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About The Quack Infantry Troop

Ducklings and frogs share a pond until a small argument over ground becomes a war. The ducklings form a troop, build weapons, and draw a line. The frogs dig in. A lightning strike breaks the battle. Both sides look at the damage and settle.

Cast & crew

More about The Quack Infantry Troop

Mitsuyo Seo directed the black-and-white short Ahiru Rikusentai. Geijutsu Eigasha produced it, and the Japanese Ministry of Education distributed it. Tadashi Hattori wrote the music. It runs 13 minutes at 24 frames a second and was released in 1940.

Themes

  • A border quarrel
  • Toy armies of ducks and frogs
  • A storm that stops the war
  • ducklings
  • frogs
  • infantry
  • lightning
  • truce

Background

Seo made it in 1940, the year before Japan entered the wider Pacific war. The battle is between ducklings and frogs, and a bolt of lightning ends it.

Making

The Ministry of Education put the short into circulation, so it reached schools as well as theaters.

Music

Tadashi Hattori composed the music.

Preservation

A print survives.

Notes

  • The Japanese title is あひる陸戦隊.
  • Seo later directed Momotaro's Sea Eagles (1943) and Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (1945), the feature-length wartime cartoons.
  • The short is drawn, not a puppet film, and plays as a comedy of two animal armies.

Scenes

  • The ducklings line up with homemade weapons against the frogs.
  • Lightning hits the battlefield and both sides stop.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons