HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON (NETFLIX) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: Inside of his book, adventurous Harold (Zachary Levi) can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. 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. Harold and the Purple Crayon is the first film adaptation of the beloved children’s classic that has captivated young readers for decades. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

It’s only right that an animated director, Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age: The Meltdown, Rio) gets to helm a live-action movie inspired by one of the famous works of America illustrator and writer Crockett Johnson. The reason is simple. Saldanha knows exactly on how to bring Johnson’s work to the big screen.

Harold (Zachary Levi) is a man with a magical purple crayon that makes everything he draws come to life. He lives in a book with his friends, Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds). In short, they are basically the creations of the narrator (voice of Alfred Molina) dubbed the “old man”. One day, Harold decides to head to the real world to look for the “old man” and incidentally befriended a single mum, Terri (Zooey Deschanel) and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani).

The original being a children’s book seems more suitable to be adapted to a brief animated series. Thus Hollywood being Hollywood has to turn this feature into one big massive adventure with Harold and Mel going on one rousing trip after another with the help of Harold’s magical purple crayon.

The good thing is the gags here are not that cheesy or corny. Even the usual fart jokes are noticeably missing. Saldanha and his screenwriters littered the relatively short runtime with a decent amount of family-friendly chaotic fun and well-meaning messages throughout. There’s even a genuine level of fantasy adventure that will appeal to the children especially with the appearances of out-of-this-world CGI creatures.

Levi no stranger to acting as a man-child readily accepts the mission as a pro. Howery and the former delivers some goofy comic relief as their two characters are fishes out of water when it comes to the real world. The hypermarket sequence probably stood out as one of the highlights of the movie. New Zealand actor Jemaine Clement (What We Do in the Shadows) plays a nasty librarian out to steal Harold’s crayon turning in a silly climax that features some good old medieval fun.

While Harold and the Purple Crayon is not exactly a good interpretation of Johnson’s creation, it is still a fitting tribute to his material. Simply, it’s a movie about hope and dreams and most importantly, never forget the power of imagination. There’s nothing wrong in enjoying a non-offensive, non-complicated kiddish movie at times and Harold marks one of those rare ones.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee