Harold and the Purple Crayon: Film Review
You may not be familiar with Harold and the Purple Crayon here in the UK but it was a popular children’s book series by Crockett Johnson. First released in 1955, the books followed a young child as he brought objects to life using his magic purple crayon and imagination.
The film adaptation uses that basic concept to imagine what happens when the characters from the 2D hand-drawn picture book come to life in the real world. Harold turns into a grown man (Zachary Levi) and is dropped into the centre of Providence, Rhode Island, with his buddy Moose, who has inexplicably turned into a human played by Lil Rel Howery.
Unaccustomed to life without their narrator (Alfred Molina), Harold and Moose go on a mission to track down their creator, also known as “old man”, and this puts them on a literal collision course with single mum Terry (Zooey Deschanel) and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani). Meanwhile, their friend Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds) wreaks havoc around Providence when she arrives by herself and tries to find her buddies.
Levi has proved that he can capably play a man-child in the Shazam! movies and he dials that up to 11 with Harold. He has real CBeebies presenter energy with his upbeat attitude and chipper naivete, which may simultaneously entertain kids and annoy parents. Deschanel, in a role reminiscent of Elf, isn’t given much to do except react to Harold and Moose’s hijinks.
Howery and Reynolds are amusing as animals in human form. I chuckled at a lot of their work, but the script could have made a lot more of this idea, which had so much comedy potential. Bottani is adorable and likeable as Mel but the star of the show is Jemaine Clement as Gary, a librarian and fantasy author obsessed with Terry. Clement fully commits to his villainous performance and steals every scene he’s in.
I enjoyed the meta nature of the story – Harold and co. are aware they’re characters in a book – and there are some fun setpieces, such as Harold drawing an aeroplane that comes to life and the climactic duel, but it is overall quite forgettable.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is supposed to celebrate the power of imagination but it is generic and devoid of magic and wonder.
In cinemas from Wednesday 31st July