Film review: ‘HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

The thinly plotted but generally fun and family friendly fantasy Harold and the Purple Crayon is based on the 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson.

The slightly meta story has the character Harold (Zachary Levi) living in the two-dimensional book world created by Crockett Johnson.  There, Harold can use a magical purple crayon to create any object he needs including aeroplanes and cars.  When Crockett seems to disappear one day, Harold and friends Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds) enter the real world to search for him.  This sends the naive innocents on a Barbie-like odyssey where they’re forced to confront (albeit in much more benign fashion than in Barbie) the realities of life.  Harold also literally collides with and befriends recently widowed single mother Terri (Zooey Deschanel) and her sensitive bullied son Mel (Benjamin Bottani).  Meanwhile Harold’s magic crayon (which works in the real world) gains the attention of evil librarian Gary (Jemaine Clement) who has designs on Terri.

This well-meaning fantasy works for the most part but its extremely modest ambitions make it feel a little predictable and bland compared to other child-oriented fare like the erratic but inventive If from earlier this year.  The action scenes and sight gags, in which Harold uses the crayon to fashion an object to save himself and his friends from some calamity, are mostly enjoyable but could have been more thrilling.

Often recalling Will Ferrell’s man-child character in Elf, Zachary Levi balances amiability, goofiness and pathos to make Harold a mostly likeable and occasionally funny character.   Lil Rel Howery and Tanya Reynolds provide decent support as the quirky sidekicks while the ever-endearing Zooey Deschanel acquits herself well in the responsible straight person role. Perhaps most memorable, though, is Jemaine Clement’s droll, nefarious Gary who’s probably an incel but is the funniest thing in the film.

While it touches on issues of loss and grieving, the power of imagination and even our relationship with God, this film does not spend much time delving into weightier themes.  This is a kid-friendly film that’s more concerned with funny quirky characters and Harold’s crayon powers.

Harold and the Purple Crayon is sufficiently wholesome to appease parents and has enough innocently naughty hijinks to amuse the youngsters these holidays but the concept was calling out for a much more adventurous film.

Nick’s rating: **1/2

Genre: Comedy/Adventure/ Animation.

Classification: PG.

Director(s): Carlos Saldanha.

Release date: 12th Sep 2024.

Running time: 90 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

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