How a Mosquito Operates

Okay, this one is really tough to rate and review. Let´s start by acknowledge why it´s great, important, and good. Winsor McCay is one of the pioneers of animation. Without him and work like this short, animation would not be where it is today. Surely another like him would emerge eventually, but here we are. The animation is cool to look at and McCay clearly had a style to his drawings, but I most say I find the short too long for what it is. It´s repetitive and it´s nature is a bit in east and west. I´m personally not a fan and wont revisit it anytime soon but acknowledging the importance might make you feel different about it.

A hungry mosquito sucks the blood of a sleeping man.

The animation is simple but looks really nice. It has a style to it that I can´t tell was intentionally scary or looks exactly like McCay wanted it. It´s a really nightmarish looking animation that is pure nightmarefuel. The mosquito looks scary enough, but the man looks so horrifying. This is not helped by the over-the-top actions of the mosquito that makes the act of sucking blood look so extreme and unpleasant. Again, I have no idea if that was the intentional feelings McCay wanted to Conway, but here we are.

While the animation has a style to it it´s still really primitive and there is so much repetition to what happens. The mosquito dose the same action three or four times in a row and for a short that is 6 minutes it feels so much longer because of it. While it looks and works fine, I think it could have conveyed what it wanted in less runtime. There just isn't a lot to it and the primitive nature hasn't aged it well. I forgive it for the primitive state though since it was groundbreaking for the time.

The music is also a bit tone shifting all throughout. It´s also disturbing yet triumphant when the mosquito gets´s to suck blood and I'm not sure if it´s the hero of villain of the story.

While once again, I´ll acknowledge the importance of McCay´s work it´s not something I´m drawn too. I find it too scary, simple, repetitive and while groundbreaking for it´s time, it´s a bit lackluster and not that impactful today. While it´s fine I find it a bit to boring to really want to watch it again.

Okay, I'll admit this isn't the greatest cartoon ever made. It's silent, consists only of simple pencil drawings and never is all that interesting. So why is it STILL a worthwhile film? Well, it's so early and in its day it was considered state of the art. Plus, the film's creator, Winsor McCay, was responsible for some of the first animated heroes--in the forms of Gertie the Dinosaur and Little Nemo. So, because of this very important and impressive pedigree, this film is of great importance to animators, historians and Cinephiles alike. For what it is (an early experimental film), it is pretty good. Plus, without films like this, later more fleshed out cartoons wouldn't have been possible. Interesting and unique, that's for sure.

How a Mosquito Operates (1912)

*** (out of 4)

Winsor McCay film has an overweight man being followed home by a mosquito but things just get worse as the man tries to go to bed. Once in the bed the mosquito begins to attack him in order to get his blood. HOW A MOSQUITO OPERATES isn't a pure masterpiece or anything like that but you can't help but be entertained by his good nature and charm. I think my favorite bits are when the mosquito is having to come up with clever ways to stick the man who after a couple previous times decided to get up under the covers. The animation is extremely good and this includes a sequence where we see the mosquito sticking the man and drawing out the blood. The scene where the mosquito sticks the man's nose is quite painful to watch but it really brings the film to life. What struck me most about the film is the way it's animated but McCay is able to make everything appear so real that you're drawn into the film just like it was live action. The animation looks incredibly good and the two characters are likable in their own way.

Several thoughts came to mind after watching this early animated film about a hungry mosquito. First, it's striking to consider that this was made just six years after J. Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces and four years after Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie-the first landmark works in animation history. Yet in that short time, the quality of animated films had already improved significantly. How a Mosquito Operates feels surprisingly advanced and even shares some of the atmosphere found in Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse cartoon.

Second, while the animation shows clear progress, the film still bears some of the theatrical influence that defined early cinema. The events are relatable-most people have experienced the irritation of a mosquito-but they're presented in an exaggerated, imaginative way. This mosquito wears a hat, carries a suitcase, sharpens its stinger, and bites with absurd depth to highlight the discomfort it causes. It's an excellent example of the transitional period in animation, where realism and fantasy were still vying for dominance in storytelling.

Third, there seems to be an educational or metaphorical layer. From what I gather, the man in the film has been drinking heavily, and the mosquito-also "drinking" to excess-suffers dire consequences. It's a clever parallel and a surprisingly powerful message. That said, the film could have been a bit shorter. The final part, which really leans into this metaphor, feels unnecessarily long and starts to drag.

Mosquitoes are a bane to everyone. This little 1012 piece shows us the workings of just such a little bugger. He set his sights on a big guy who is trying to sleep. He is patient and enterprising. But he gorges himself and the results are pretty interesting. A reasonably good little film, astounding for the time in cinema history.