Harold and the Purple Crayon
review by Bobby Blakey
In 2001 author Crockett Johnson’s Harold series was turned into an animated series focused on the first book Harold and the Purple Crayon. For those that knew Captain Kangaroo will also remember the series of shorts that from the 70s and now the popular beloved children’s book is getting the live action treatment with a new feature film aptly titled Harold and the Purple Crayon starring Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds with Alfred Molina and Zooey Deschanel from Rio and Ice Age franchise director Carlos Saldanha.
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Harold and the Purple Crayon follows adventurous Harold who can make anything come to life simply by drawing it inside of his book. After he grows up and draws himself off the book’s pages and into the physical world, Harold finds he has a lot to learn about real life—and that his trusty purple crayon may set off more hilarious hijinks than he thought possible. When the power of unlimited imagination falls into the wrong hands, it will take all of Harold and his friends’ creativity to save both the real world and his own.
As an artist I have been drawing all my life and when I was a kid anything related to art instantly had me interested. My favorite was always Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings but had also read some of the Harold books. So, when I saw this trailer, I was excited at first, but then confused on the direction so had no real context heading into this film. I would have loved to see this as an animated feature, but to my surprise the film works in all its silliness and has some depth that I didn’t expect.
The film does a good job of respecting the original source material before moving forward into the silliness of the real world. It delves into not only
the silliness of the crayon powers and over the top villain of sorts in Jermaine Clement, but also dealing with loss and your own purpose in the world. There is a good message here wrapped up in the ridiculousness of it all. Levi brings the perfect childlike quality to the role that make you believe he could have been the young Harold we know from the books.
That isn’t to say this film doesn’t have issues. The story is predictable and thin on the storytelling, relying on the world of the magic crayon to fill in the gaps of nowhere to go. As much as I love Clement, his character is convenient to the story which is something that just frustrates me. The irony that one of the people they come in contact right away is a writer who is crazy just tells you right away where it is headed and loses the mystery of it all. I know it’s a kid’s film and not trying to be some deep filmmaking, but I think there could have been a better overall direction to go. At the same time, the fun of his silly failed fantasy world is pretty funny of a premise to play with.
This film isn’t perfect but is one that is fun for the whole family and worth checking out. There is a mid-credit scene that isn’t wholly necessary, but a fun call back to an ongoing joke throughout the film.
In addition to the film, this release offers up bonus content including deleted & extended scenes, featurettes and more. Step into the world of imagination and grab your copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon available now on digital, Blu-ay and DVD from Sony Home Entertainment.