The Ugly Duckling (character)

The Ugly Duckling is the titular protagonist of Disney's 75th and final Silly Symphonies short film. Actually a swan by birth, his egg somehow found it's way into the nest of a duck family who mistook him for one of their own and hatched him only to immediately reject him because of his appearance.

Appearance
Unlike his nest mates who were short, pudgy, and yellow; the Ugly Duckling is slightly larger with a white bulbous body and a long neck. He also has a much larger bill than the ducklings which he uses to sound a lound honking cry that greatly irritated the duck parents.

Biography
Shortly after being hatched, the Ugly Ducking unintentionally causes a rift between the mother and father duck who can't understand why such a bizarre duckling would be born to them; especially since their other babies looked and sounded exactly as ducklings are supposed to. As the duck parents go their seperate ways, the Ugly Duckling follows after the mother and other ducklings, completely oblivious to her attempts to dissuade him until she furiously snaps at him to go away as someone as "ugly" as him couldn't possibly be one of her babies (a sentiment the other ducklings cruelly echo).

Unable to understand why his mother doesn't want him around, he looks at his reflection in the water and realizes to his horror just how different he is compared to the other ducklings; especially when he sees how happy the Mother Duck and her babies are with him gone. Heartbroken and in tears, he wanders away and eventually? comes across? a nest of songbird chicks? in an overhead branch. Deciding that they would become his new family, the Ugly Duckling climbs up and into the nest only to be violently chased off by the mother songbird when she returns. While fleeing the mother songbird's attack, he retreats back into the pond where he comes across a wooden duck decoy. When the decoy doesn't scold him or try to drive him off, he interprets it's silence as acceptance and adopts the decoy as his new mother. Unfortunately, while playing on and around his new "parent," the Ugly Duckling causes it to tip over and hit him on the head with it's bill.

Fleeing in terror from the decoy's sudden and unprovoked "attack," the Ugly Duckling comes to the conclusion that nobody would ever love him because he was so ugly and breaks down in tears. His loud honking sobs attract the attention of a nearby Mother Swan and her cygnets, the latter of whom approach him and invite him to play with them. While initially overjoyed at finding others like him, when the Mother Swan calls for them the Ugly Duckling decides to leave before he has to suffer another rejection. To his surprise, the Mother Swan instead swims up to him and lovingly embraces him as one of her own. Having finally found where he belongs, the "Not So Ugly Swan" sets off with his true family for home as the duck family who hatched him bids him farewell from the shore.