*The video cannot be embedded on this blog sadly, but you can click the image to view Citizen Harold on the NFB website*

This 1971 short animation directed by Hugh Foulds encompasses the struggles of a considerate citizen, who merely desires to save Mother Nature (or perhaps even to literally wake up municipal bureaucracy from its lethargic state and indifference for the city’s public concerns). At the start of film, an irritating noise from outside his home provokes his nagging wife, Stella, to harass Harold about the source of the racket. He simply wishes to relax, but his wife insists upon resolving this unwanted noise. This causes Harold to act when he discovers the root of the sound. The film presents Harold’s frustration with City Hall’s exasperating system and his attempt to seek help from his fellow citizens. The ending evokes the sad reality of trying to change things.

I think this animation functions as a revelatory short: it discloses the problems that we, as citizens, have to fight in order to produce radical changes in our society. Citizen Harold was made almost forty years ago, and honestly, it hasn’t change much. We still have to go through so many people to actually meet up with important civil members, who can help us. However, they still ignore our demands for change. We end up being powerless since we can’t convince the municipal bureaucracy to do something about it for once. I feel poor Harold’s frustration on our government. What is disturbing, which Foulds overtly illustrates in this animation, is the fact that our fellow citizens don’t care! The drinkers at the tavern ask what troubles Harold, but they don’t even listen to his problems. It was merely a rhetorical question! Moreover, his friends refuse to aid him in his quest; thus, he gives up and resumes his quiet and “carefree” life. Like most people, he stops questioning the government’s activities and merely goes about his mundane life as if everything was all chirpy. I think this problem is what Foulds tries to denounce with Citizen Harold. Unfortunately, the film does not seek to convince viewers to take action, but as mentioned, it is simply a means to reveal or perhaps remind us about the problems of our government.

Technical wise, it is a mediocre type of animation. The characters and props are far from exceptional or realistic. It is an amateurish drawing of buildings and characters. There is a lack of minute details; it is very simplistic. The only scene, in which the background is not a solid color is in the tavern scene. Foulds uses an intricate pattern for the ceiling. It is intriguing why the animator decides to highly decorate the tavern and not others. What I also noticed is the Canadian Flag that is proudly hung outside the tavern, and in the mayor’s office, in which an American flag resides as well. This evidence of an identified setting (Niagara Falls I presume) situates where this problem is, in a Canadian city. Not only is Houlds trying to locate the problem, but I think he is denouncing the lax power of the Canadian government. He is making a statement about the Canadian bureaucracy. Rather than providing an unknown location to construct a possible “imaginary community” that would transcend boundaries (Leach 37), and hence enable a sense of collective identification, Houlds chose to specify the location by including the American flag. It challenges the notion of “imaginary community,” in which citizens from other cities in different provinces can relate. I think that the animation would have possessed a wider and significant meaning if no indicator of setting was present.

Some characters are terrifyingly anthropomorphic: the construction worker whose pointy nose and red eyes make him look like a hostile shark and the pyromaniac has a head of a serpent. His sharp teeth are a dead giveaway. Interestingly, his wife is the only figure whose face is hidden from view. Her voice is extremely important in the beginning of the animation, but in the bed scene, she is lying on her face, obstructing our view of her visage. This masking of her appearance lets the viewer imagine her face, whether she looks like a beauty or an ugly middle-aged wife. Her sensual voice appears to assert the former description (in contrast, Stella’s voice at the start of the video suggests a different image ). What I found humorous about the aforementioned scene is the change of her tone of voice. It literally shifts from a nagging voice to a seductive one. When she repeatedly utters her husband’s name, the scene has become a sexual episode. I got the impression that she wants to have sex, but Harold’s mind is so caught up with his problem that he responds “Forget it okay!” His wife does not directly ask for a sexual adventure, but from her tone of voice, it implies that she desires a night of passion. It appears that there are two separate dialogues at play in this scene: one of Harold’s (about his worries) and the other, his wife (about her lust). It is an interesting dynamic between the two.

Regardless of its pseudo-propagandist message, Citizen Harold is an enjoyable animation. The ending is unpromising, but overall, it is a-okay!

Jim Leach. Film in Canada. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006