The eponymous Harold, together with his brown shirt and tan suspenders, is an unassuming lab assistant and upkeep man who carries on his shoulders the load of the spaceship’s inhabitants. However this isn’t “Star Trek.” The residents reside collectively like these in a village may, with a mall known as Agora Arcades and a meals court docket because the city sq..
Transferring from place to put, Harold sighs. Laden by a heavy utility belt, he trudges by way of the drudgery. He has luggage underneath his eyes, and even when he runs, it’s not that quick in any respect.
Harold Halibut, created over greater than a decade with progressive movement seize, is extra akin to “My Dinner With Andre” than a Ray Harryhausen creature epic like “Conflict of the Titans.” Though some conversations are too prolonged, the 14-hour sport rewards those that stick with it with honesty, empathy and a delicate mastery of human nature that isn’t current in lots of video games.
Regardless of the burdens of fixed work, the even-tempered Harold retains going, participating with bloviating or banal characters in a optimistic and caring method. He’s not that completely satisfied about feeding the lab’s fish, cleansing filters and wiping away graffiti from grey halls. However he has a real affection for the various personalities caught on the ship with him, together with Mareaux, a dutiful gray-haired scientist and mentor with a penchant for teatime.
There’s humor right here that may very well be known as Monty Python gentle. At one level in Agora Arcades, you cease to observe a dramatic, dancing mime with a bass drum strapped on his again — harking back to the Ministry of Foolish Walks sketch. Elsewhere, stuffy safety guards are so frightened about revealing an excessive amount of about All Water that they twist themselves into absurdity. The satire is eye-rollingly spot on.
It’s not all excellent. When Harold talks with a personality, he makes an annoying little circle to place himself squarely in entrance earlier than he begins speaking. When he helps a comatose, human-size fish-being he calls Fishy, Harold spews forth with a multifaceted attraction for the ship’s pharmacist. The Woody Allen-style hand-wringing comes off as narcissistic as a result of the being is about to turn into pivotal to the story. Stippled yellow and brown like a ripe banana, Fishy wears a garment as brightly fluorescent as a wrasse. She can also be actually fairly unwell.