How a Mosquito Operates
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About How a Mosquito Operates
A man looks over his shoulder and goes into his room. A giant mosquito, in a top hat and carrying a briefcase, squeezes in after him through the transom. It feeds on the sleeper, who slaps and misses. Between bites the insect sharpens its beak on a grindstone, does a little exercise on the man's nose, and swells until it can hardly stay upright. It drinks once too often and explodes.
Cast & crew
More about How a Mosquito Operates
Winsor McCay took the idea from his 5 June 1909 Dream of the Rarebit Fiend page, in which a mosquito gorges on a drinker. He finished the drawings in December 1911. A snowstorm was on when they had to be photographed, so he sent them to Vitagraph in a closed horse cab. He premiered the short in his vaudeville act in January 1912. It is also called The Story of a Mosquito and Winsor McCay and His Jersey Skeeters.
Themes
Making
McCay followed his first film, Little Nemo (1911), with this short, then pushed the same kind of character motion further in Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).
Look
There is no separate cameraman credit. Vitagraph photographed McCay's ink drawings, backgrounds included, one sheet at a time.
Technique
The short is the earliest known use of smear frames, and the mosquito's weight changes as it drinks.
Preservation
A six-minute print survives from McCay's vaudeville short.
Notes
- McCay drew it before cel animation, so the bedroom is redrawn on every sheet and the lines of the room shiver.
- He reused some drawings to loop repeated actions, a trick he had tried once in Little Nemo (1911).
- The mosquito's abdomen fills along its body, rather than blowing up like a balloon, until the last burst.
- The film is the earliest animation known to use smear frames.
Scenes
- The mosquito whets its beak on a spinning stone.
- Too full to fly, it bursts over the bed.
Influenced by
- Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (5 June 1909)
Influenced
- Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
