Frying Duck

Effects animation abounds in The Fishing Bear, a 1940 cartoon from Rudy Ising’s unit at MGM. Bubbles, waves, splashes. And some great animation involving an electric current when an eel bites on the end of Barney Bear’s fishing rod. Barney gets zapped. Then a duck that (ahem) fouls up things gets it, too, before exploding like an electrical transformer in a lightning storm.

Notice the duck multiples.



The effects animator isn’t credited on screen, but Mike Lah recalled Ugo D’Orsi had come over from Disney and worked on shorts for both Rudy Ising and Hugh Harman. He was born in Rio de Janiero in 1897 and arrived in the U.S. from Naples, Italy in May 1928, giving his occupation as a painter. He animated for the Fleischers before coming west for a job at the Disney studio. D’Orsi was later the animation director for Graphic Films, a commercial outfit run by Les Novros, an ex-Disney artist. He died on February 12, 1964 in Los Angeles.