Harold and the Purple Crayon Review

The film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon acts as a sequel to Crocket Johnson’s popular children’s book of the same time. This live-action film sees Harold and his friends enter into the real world.

Since he was a child, Harold (Zachery Levi) has lived in an animated fantasy world with a magic purple crayon that makes everything come to life. His life is narrated by The Narrator (Alfred Molina), but when The Narrator suddenly disappears Harold and his friends, Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds) set out to go to the real world and find him. Whilst in the real world, Harold meets Mel (Benjamin Bottani) and his stressed mother, Terri (Zooey Deschanel), and Mel offers to help Harold on his quest.

Harold and the Purple Crayon was a film with a noble intent to be a celebration of imagination and creativity. The only limit for Harold and his crayon was his imagination since he could make anything. However, this idea was being told by a film that was so safe and generic. This was a film that featured the usual cliches like a dead parent, the other parent struggling, a kid helping a strange person, and lots of fish-out-of-water antics. Many of the actors were playing to type: Levi was a giant manchild, like he was in the Shazam films, Deschanel was playing the older version of her character in Elf where she had to take care of a manchild, Jermaine Clement was a narcissist villain, and Tanya Reynolds was playing another weirdo. To be fair, Reynolds had some funny moments acting as a porcupine. There was an ‘all is lost moment’ in the film, which reminded me of the American Dad episode “A Piñata Named Desire.”

Harold and the Purple Crayon was a typical fish-out-of-water story. It was similar to Elf and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle where characters from fantasy worlds end up in real-world America. Like Buddy in Elf, Harold and Moose caused havoc in a department store. Harold was so childlike that he had no sense of awareness or responsibility, such as giving a young boy a whole pie and CGI ice cream for breakfast. There was also a bit of Stranger Than Fiction since Harold and his friends heard The Narrator and set out to find him. For Harold, he was looking for his father. Harold and the Purple Crayon had a metatextual approach because the book existed in the real world and every author can be a creator of a whole world.

There has been an increase in film adaptations based on small children’s books. Paddington arguably started this trend with adaptations of Clifford the Big Red Dog and Lyle, Lyle Crocodile following suit. The source material was short, it was only 64 pages and the first two minutes of the film recapped the book. The opening sequence had a quaint charm before it became a more hyperactive film. There was a goal for the characters to find The Narrator, but it can be described as antics. Harold and Moose discover the horrible grind of a day job, Porcupine getting chased around in a restaurant, and Harold and his crew write a message in the sky. Porcupine and Gary (Jemaine Clement) disappeared for long periods meant they could be forgotten about. The actual plot about Gary wanting to take Purple Crayon for his own devices didn’t get started until after the halfway point.

Harold and the Purple Crayon had some interesting life lessons. Besides Harold giving Mel the standard American breakfast, the film shows Mel convincing his mum to take in two strange men, Mel skips school so she can help Harold and Moose, and the trio thinks it’s a great idea to give out Terri’s number to the whole of Providence. Mel’s weirdness also extends to the fact that he was a 10-year-old child and still has an imaginary friend.

I saw Harold and the Purple Crayon with my brother and nephews. My nephews, aged four and five enjoyed it and didn’t feel the need for a toilet break, which can reassure parents. My brother described the film as ‘not as bad as I thought it would be.’ That’s damning with faint praise.

Harold and the Purple Crayon was an unremarkable family film that didn’t have any sense of invention or risk. It’s at best a serviceable film.