Overview
How a Mosquito Operates has also gone under the title The Story of a Mosquito, and is one of the earliest examples of line-drawn animation. Drawing inspiration from the films of Charlie Chaplin, the film relies on physical, visual action—a strength of the film medium. It came out at a time when audience demand for animation outstripped studios' ability to supply it. When most studios were struggling merely to make animation work, McCay showed a mastery of the medium and a sense of how to create believable motion, without having invested in formal analysis of movement.
Rather than expanding like a balloon, the mosquito's abdomen fills up according to its bodily structure in a naturalistic fashion. The mosquito has a personality—it is egotistical, persistent, and calculating, as when it whets its beak on a stone wheel. Though ugly and horrifying to look at, its actions are balanced with humor, as when it finds itself so engorged with blood that it must lie down.
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