Harold and the Purple Crayon is based on a 1955 children’s picture book, which follows a curious young boy named Harold who has the power to create a world of his own simply by drawing it with his magic purple crayon. The film version stars Zachary Levi as a grown-up version of Harold and surprised me greatly by turning out to be a hugely enjoyable family movie.
The movie begins by recreating the simple drawing style of the books, with an animated intro showing young Harold as he sets about starting to create his new world. His story is narrated by what Harold describes as ‘the old man’, the creator of the books (Crockett Johnson, voiced by Alfred Molina). Harold draws himself a couple of friends – Moose (voiced by Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (voiced by Tanya Reynolds) – and when we then jump forward to Harold as a grown-up (voiced by Zachary Levi), we find that he is now living in a very busy and vibrant purple-coloured world. But Harold always returns each night to his own bedroom, with a window that looks out at the moon in the sky, and with a bunch of questions ready to fire off at the old man narrator about the real world and what it’s like to live there.
But then one morning Harold wakes to find that the old man isn’t narrating his life anymore, and decides to draw a door to the real world so that he can go find him. Harold steps through the door, emerging into a park in the real world, where his purple onesie and urge to go running up to the very first old man he sees quickly gets him into trouble. After some hesitation, Moose follows through the door, also turning into a real man and quickly teaming up with Harold once again. Porcupine takes a little longer to go through, so isn’t immediately reunited with the others, and struggles to adapt to the real world on her own, resulting in some of the more weaker moments of the movie.
Meanwhile, Harold and Moose are already off on their quest to find the old man, riding a purple tandem that Harold drew. A run-in with single mom Terry (Zooey Deschanel) and her young son Mel (Benjamin Bottani) results in Harold and Moose staying over in a room above Terry’s garage and forging a friendship with Mel. Mel is having a hard time with bullies at school and has an imaginary creature as a friend, so is instantly drawn to Harold and his magical creativity. Mel introduces Harold to Library Gary (Jemaine Clement), who works at the local library, and is a budding fantasy writer, although his Game of Thrones/Lord of Rings contender isn’t receiving much interest from publishers or the general public at the moment. Gary also has a crush on Terry and when he realises that Harold really has come straight from a book and that his magic crayon may be the key to fulfilling his hopes and dreams, he begins to formulate a plan.
Zachary Levi is certainly no stranger to playing adults who are more like big kids and is a perfect choice for Harold. With his huge enthusiasm and boundless energy, no matter what the real world throws at him, I got real ‘Elf’ vibes from Harold and the Purple Crayon, and not just because that movie also stars Zooey Deschanel. Moose isn’t just a pointless comedy sidekick either, and I really enjoyed seeing him and Harold coming to terms with the real world, especially when they both cause complete chaos in the supermarket where Terry works. As mentioned earlier, the character of Porcupine didn’t work so well for me and I found myself just wanting more of Harold and Moose as I watched her get to grips with having thumbs or hissing at things or people she feels threatened by.
But the highlight of the movie for me was Jemaine Clement as Library Gary. Gary becomes increasingly integral to the story, is heavily involved in the dramatic climax, and was absolutely hilarious throughout. Overall, I thought Harold and the Purple Crayon was a wonderfully heartfelt family movie, with enough to keep all ages entertained.
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Web developer by day, with a movie and TV watchlist that continues to grow as much as my spare time reduces! My favourite movie is Inception and, despite what everyone says, I do not have a man-crush on Tom Cruise.
