After a mother duck's eggs hatch, one of the ducklings is perceived by the other animals as an ugly little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse.

He decides to throw himself at a flock of swans, feeling that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness.

[3] An alternate version of the tale ("The Blue Hen's Chicken"[4]) was included in Joel Chandler Harris's Mr. Rabbit at Home.

Since the story stops at the moment of the birth of the puddle duckling within the family of chicks, the message of the tale could be totally different, focusing on the "bad temper" and the snobbery of the Blue Hen who thus - having found herself with a such an anomalous son - is punished by ending up on everyone's lips and constantly being pointed at.

Films based on the tale include two Silly Symphonies animated shorts produced by Walt Disney called The Ugly Duckling.

The latter film won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons),[5] and was the last Silly Symphony to be made.

The main difference between the Andersen story and the Disney version is that, in the latter, the little bird's ordeal lasts for only a few minutes, not for months.

In 1932, Yasuji Murata directed Ahiru no ko (The Ugly Duckling), a 15-minute Japanese short animated film based on the tale.