A One Mann’s Movies review of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” (2024).
The source material for “Harold and the Purple Crayon” dates back to 1955 and Crockett Johnson’s children’s book. It was actually turned into a 7 minute animated short in 1959. When I saw the trailer for this one a few weeks ago, I was NOT impressed. So it came as a nice surprise when I watched the film. For this is a really creditable family film that I think will appeal to both children and their parents/grandparents alike.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Harold (Zachary Levy) is a cartoon character who lives in a 2-dimensional world with his friends Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds). Harold has (you’ll never guess!) a magic crayon that allows him to draw anything he can imagine. When he talks to his narrator (the voice of Alfred Molina) about the “real world” he immediately wants to go there. So he draws a door and opens it.
Certification:
UK: PG; US: PG. (From the BBFC web site: “Mild violence, innuendo”.)
Talent:
Starring: Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery, Tanya Reynolds, Jemaine Clement, Benjamin Bottani, Alfred Molina, Camille Guaty, Pete Gardner.
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha.
Written by: David Guion & Michael Handelman. (Based on the book by Crockett Johnson).
Twitter Handle: #HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon.
Running Time: 1h 32m.
“Harold and the Purple Crayon” Summary:
Positives:
- A genuinely enjoyable family movie with lots of fun for kids and adults.
- Zooey Deschanel is wonderfully engaging as the harrassed mum.
- Tanya Reynolds is particularly fun as the feral-housebreaking porcupine!
- “Library Gary” (Jemaine Clement) is a fun character with an entertaining arc.
Negatives:
- The police officers feel like they are quietly forgotten in the story’s finale.
Review of “Harold and the Purple Crayon”:
An unusual beast: a genuinely entertaining family film.
I have to be brutally honest. After watching the trailer for this film I was singularly unimpressed. I was surprised when my friend and film-reviewing colleague the Reverend Andy Godfrey gave it a glowing review. But I still went into this one with a grudging “oh, I suppose I’d better see it since it’s a new release” attitude. For once, I was very pleasantly surprised. Because the director Carlos Saldanha (who did the “Rio” and some of the “Ice Age” films) has managed to inject a strong feel-good-factor into this family film which, frankly, we could all do with after this week’s news cycle in the UK.
A successful family film has to have elements that appeal to the kids (which this does with its fantasy elements) but also content that will make the adults smile. And smile I did. This started early with a cartoon Harold quizzing his ‘narrator’ (voiced by Alfred Molina) about the “real world”. Harold knows that he himself drew his friends Moose and Porcupine with his magic crayon. But then he asks the existential question “Well, who drew me?” (at which point a little nuclear mushroom cloud appears over Moose’s head! LOL)
Real-World japes.
Once we get into the ‘real-world’ we are in familiar ‘fish-out-of-water’ territory with Harold, Moose and Porcupine unable to comprehend some of the constructs of the modern world. But it’s all well done. A sequence where Harold and Moose are ‘helping’ in the supermarket where Terry (Zooey Deschanel) works is farcical knockabout fun with Harold bringing a puma to life and sending a child’s sit-on helicopter skyward with havoc-creating results.
A cast giving it their all
The cast deliver a great ensemble performance.
- I’m not a great fan of Zachary Levi (I’ve not forgiven him yet for the dreadful “Shazam! Fury of the Gods“!) but here his generally goofy charm works.
- Counterpointing him nicely, but not decending into any forced and inappropriate romance (“can’t you just draw us some condoms Harold?”) is the lovely Zooey Deschanel as Terry. Deschanel seems to have had a bit of a damp squib of an acting career. She hit the big time with “Yes Man” in 2008 and “500 Days of Summer” in 2009 (where her quirky manner and blue eyes made a strong impression on this reviewer!). But since then, she has rather disappeared into the woodwork. So it’s good to see back on the big screen again.
- Lil Rel Howery is great as Moose. But he has a sufficiently similar style of acting to Kevin Hart to thoroughly confuse me since Hart played MOOSE Finbar in “Jumanji“!
- Tanya Reynolds – soooo good as Mrs Elton in “Emma” – has a WHALE of a time here playing the punk-styled Porcupine, breaking into houses and snarling like a cat at the CCTV cameras. It’s a terrifically fun performance that I loved.
- Jemaine Clement also has fun as “Library Gary” who wins the award for my favourite character in the film. Holding a torch for Terry but unredeemably nerdy in his love of swords and sorcery fantasy, Gary is a character that many of us can, sadly, fully relate to!! Summing up the feelgood nature of the film, he is the primary villain but actually ends up in a win-win situation in the finale.
- Benjamin Bottani does a great job at young Mel.
The story rather sidelines the police characters
I only have one criticism. The story features a couple of cynical police officers, played by Pete Gardner and Camille Guaty, who are tasked giving patronising “thank yous” to the “crazies” who are reporting Harold’s wild creations. But they both seem to be quietly forgotten in the story’s finale. Some sort of ‘Santa Clause weenie-whistle’ realisation as to Harold’s reality would have been good here.
On the shelf?
Regular readers of this blog will know that I maintain something of a geekish interest in the MPAA certificate numbers shown in the final seconds of the end-titles. This one is 53499 which is interesting in that we have just topped 55000 (“Deadpool and Wolverine” was 55020). 1,500Fifteen-hundred is an awful lot of films. So, for some reason, “Harold” has been sat on the shelf for quite a long time prior to release. I wonder what the story is there?
Monkeys?
There is a very funny monkey mid-credits that is worth watching for, if nothing else than for seeing
Zooey Deschanel in fantasy medieval garb! There is no monkey after the end-credits… you’re welcome.
Summary Thoughts on “Harold and the Purple Crayon”
Looking at the ‘Comscore’ list of Top 15 films at the UK and Ireland box office for the week to August 3rd, “Harold” is at number 5 in its second week of release having only made just over £600K at the box office. Given the quality of this family film, this is really disappointing and I can only assume that the rather dodgy trailer has put parents off. There were only two other groups in my screening – mum’s taking their kids for a matinee viewing. But this was a really fun watch for me and it looked like all the kids had a great time too. So this comes with a strong recommendation for parents to fill some of the summer holiday void with a trip to the cinema.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Harold and the Purple Crayon”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WojIv-PVYm8 .
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Andy Godfrey