In Lilo & Stitch, a key scene features Stitch asking Lilo about the story of "The Ugly Duckling." A picture book that Stitch finds in Lilo's room shows a swan exclaiming "I'm lost!" on one page while being united with his "family" on the next. After Lilo explains the images, Stitch goes out into a clearing and says "I'm lost!" hoping that his family will come find him.

Certainly, Lilo & Stitch doesn't follow the storyline set up by Hans Christian Anderson in his original telling. But like Lilo & Stitch, "The Ugly Duckling" does take a look at the meaning of family and examines the idea of unconditional love.

Disney has touched upon "The Ugly Duckling" theme before, specifically in two Silly Symphony cartoons produced in the 1930s. In this feature, we will take a closer look at these two shorts.

The 1931 black-and-white version of "The Ugly Duckling," directed by Wilfred Jackson, takes the cartoon's title to heart. Instead of being a swan born to ducks like in the original story, the title character is truly a duck. Born into a family of chickens - a mother chicken and six siblings - the duck tries its best to get into the good graces of the family. He finds a worm that he shares with his siblings but later a spring coil gets him into trouble.

So off the duck goes to try to find another family. He quacks at a cow, who moos back at him. He quacks at a dog but the dog barks back at him. He quacks at a sleeping frog but the frog jumps from his lilly pad and away from the duck.

The Ugly Duckling looks at his reflection in the water before giving the reflection a "raspberry" and running away crying.

Suddenly, a tornado comes blowing into the farm, threatening all the animals who live there. The duck alerts his chicken family about the immediate danger and they all run off to hid in a small house but shut the door before the duck can get in. The tornado takes the house into its funnel, dropping the mother hen onto the shore of a river and the chicks into the streaming river towards a waterfall. The duck makes his way into the river to save his "siblings," risking his own live in the process.

When all are safely back on shore, the mother hen finally welcomes the duck into the family before the cartoon ends.

In the 1939 Academy Award-winning color remake, directed by Jack Cutting, the Ugly Duckling is a swan born to a family of ducks. The cartoon opens with a mother duck sitting on a nest of eggs while the father duck paces impatiently waiting for the eggs to hatch. When four little ducklings jump out of the nest, the father is joyous, happily kissing his kids and his mother. A late hatchling makes his way to the open but his "honk" versus the rest of the brood's "quack" cause a fight between the mother and the father trying to make sense of the situation. The mother and father go their separate ways with the hatchlings following the mother.

Again, the Ugly Duckling's honk puts it at odds with the rest of group and he is shunned. Like in the earlier picture, the Ugly Duckling looks at a distorted reflection of himself in the water, thinks himself ugly and cries at it walks away.

The Ugly Duckling sees a nest of birds chirping happily in a tree. He joins the newborns and all seem happy to be in each other's company. But when the mother bird returns with a worm, which the Ugly Duckling tries to eat, he his chased away once again.

Next, Ugly swims into a wooden decoy duck. He honks like before and when no "quack" is returned, the Ugly Duckling's hopes are high. Not being rejected, the Ugly Duckling jumps all over his wooden "parent," causing it to bob up and down in the water. When it hits the ugly duckling on the head, he is stunned at the apparent attack. After running away, the Ugly Duckling looks back to see the decoy seemingly turn its back on him.

Beginning to cry again, the Ugly Duckling yelps out loud honks, which alerts a family of swans nearby to his existence. The young swans come to console the ugly duckling, honking in response. The Ugly Duckling is overjoyed until their mother calls for them. He assumes he is being left behind again until the entire family of swans come and takes him under their wing, literally.

As the cartoon nears its ending, the group of swans swims near the Ugly Duckling's family of ducks. The ducks quack for him to join them but having been previously shunned by them, he shuns them in return and swims into the sunset with his new family.

While the plotlines of the various "Ugly Duckling" stories are somewhat dissimiliar - and not necessarily patterned after the original "fairy tale - each raises the common question of what constitutes a family. With that question being a central theme of Lilo & Stitch, it makes sense that "The Ugly Duckling" is incorporated into the movie's story. The need to love and be loved are universal life themes. The desire to be included among those loved ones is another. Stitch hopes that his non-existent family will come and find him but he is ultimately more satisfied when he finds a small and broken family that he makes his own.

- Story by Matthew Walker; Photos ©Disney
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