Main characters[]
- Janice Duck - Voiced by Shirley Temple; the film's main protagonist who is an adventurous, coy and optimistic young yellow female mallard duckling.
- Ringo - Voiced by Phil Silvers; a fast-talking, easy-going, music-loving raccoon who befriends Janice.
Other characters[]
- Mallard Duck - Voiced by Pinto Colvig; Janice's father who is often lazy, clumsy and silly, but serious.
- Millard Duck - Voiced by Barbara Jo Allen; Janice's mother.
- Grandpa Duck - Voiced by Reginald Owen; an elder mallard duck who is Janice's grandfather and Millard's father, who is retired from flying and has the job to babysit Janice, while Millard and Mallard left.
- Mr. Gobble - Voiced by Bert Lahr; a turkey who is the owner of Swinging Saloon.
- Craney and Ratso - Voiced by Ray Bolger and Mel Blanc; the crane and rat performers for Swinging Saloon.
- Rick Rabbit - Voiced by Billy Gilbert; a piano playing rabbit in Swinging Saloon and also a friend of Ringo.
- Otto - Voiced by Dickie Jones; a boy otter who is one of Janice's classmates.
- Moe - Voiced by George McFarland; a boy gopher who is one of Janice's classmates.
- Possi - Voiced by Cammie King; a girl possum who is one of Janice's classmates.
- Mr. Owl - Voiced by Walter Catlett; an owl who is Janice's teacher.
Antagonists[]
- Wolfward Coyote - Voiced by Edward G. Robinson; a scarred, cigar-smoking timber coyote butcher and the film's main antagonist, who owns a butcher shop and has kidnapped all the ducks (including Janice's parents) and put them in captivity at his duck farm, as he plans to kill all of the ducks as meat to sell them, and sometime for himself. He ends up falling to his death while battling Janice. He bears similarities to Carface Caruthers from DreamWorks' later animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven.
- Hawk - a bird of prey who often follows Janice in her journey, attempting to eat her, but failed as it later got defeated at the end.
- Sly DeFox - Voiced by Vincent Price; a red fox who attempts to capture Janice for his meal by tricking her, but gets defeated by her and Ringo and gets arrested by the police. He later made a cameo appearance in Shrek as one of the exiled fairytale creatures (as well as the same fox from Pinocchio).
- Robert Wildcat - Voiced by Billy Bletcher; an serious bobcat and one of Sly DeFox's henchmen.
- Silly Snake - a mute, dimwitted snake and one of Sly DeFox's henchmen.
Deleted characters[]
Several other characters were scrapped from the film for any reasons, such as for favor of other characters, to keep the focus on other characters, to avoid controversies and backlashes, to avoid various issues, to re-write, to avoid delays, etc.
- Ally the Gator - a goofy, clumsy yet loyal likable alligator who is one of Ringo's two sidekicks.
- Clifford the Crow - a crow who is one of Ringo's two sidekicks.
- The Hunter and his Hounds - a human hunter and his pack of hounds.
- Fee and Line - two cats who are attempting to catch Janice. They would be used instead for All Dogs Go to Heaven.
- Elderly Butterfly - an ill-tempered grouchy old butterfly who hates that Janice gets into his property.
- Stanford the Southbound Bat - a bat who only appeared in a deleted scene where Ringo tells Janice a story about him during their journey. In the story, he heads off to Miami, Florida, only to face some troubles he is getting through. The reason about the scene was removed is due the Stanford story had no relevance to Janice's southbound journey.