How a Mosquito Operates (1912) is a
silent animated film by American cartoonist
Winsor McCay. The six-minute short, about a giant mosquito tormenting a dozing man who tries in vain to shoo it away, is one of the earliest works of animation. It is considered far ahead of its contemporaries in its technical quality. McCay had a reputation for his proficiency as a cartoonist, exemplified in the children's comic strip
Little Nemo in Slumberland. He delved into the infant art of animation with the 1911 film
Little Nemo, and followed its success by adapting an episode of his comic strip
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend into
How a Mosquito Operates. McCay gives the animation naturalistic timing, motion, and weight, and displays a more coherent story and developed character than in
Little Nemo. The film was enthusiastically received when McCay first unveiled it during a
chalk talk (a
vaudeville act with drawings) and in a theatrical release that soon followed. In 1914 McCay further developed his
character animation style in his best-known animated work,
Gertie the Dinosaur.
Film: Winsor McCay