KSL Movie Show review: ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ is a creative adaptation
Aug 2, 2024, 9:34 AM | Updated: Aug 5, 2024, 1:42 pm
Harold and the Purple Crayon proves itself to be a creative adaptation of a children's movie.
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SALT LAKE CITY — In today’s world of entertainment where the audience has so many options to choose from, it’s no wonder that studios look to mine established intellectual properties with the idea that such an offering will come with a built-in audience. The fact that Crockett Johnson’s classic children’s book “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is now a film didn’t surprise me. I am curious as to how writers David Gurion and Michael Handelman pulled a 90-minute feature out of a book intended for the littlest of children.
Turns out, they made the movie a sequel to the book. Harold (Zachary Levi) has always lived in his two-dimensional world where he wields the titular magical purple crayon that can bring to life anything he imagines and draws. His companions are Moose (Lil Rel Howrey) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds). Their adventures are, and will always be narrated by The Old Man (Alfred Molina).
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One day the narrator stops talking to them so Harold uses his crayon to create a door to the real world. There he meets pre-teen Mel (Benjamin Bottani) and his widowed mother Terry (Zooey Deschanel), who offer a place to stay while Harold and Moose search for their creator. As they unintentionally wreak havoc in Terry’s life, a local librarian and self-styled author (Jemaine Clement) realizes Harold is actually the character from the famous children’s book and plots to steal the magical crayon in order to bring his own awkward and overly complicated literary world to life.
Interestingly enough, a movie version of “Harold” has been in the works since the early 1990s. At one point, it had Steven Spielberg’s production company and Will Smith attached and was intended to be fully animated. But after going through development hell for decades, it finally gained traction in the early 2020s when Zachary Levi came on board, the movie was changed to a live-action and CG hybrid and Carlos Saldanha (“Ice Age”, “Rio”, “Ferdinand”) agreed to direct it.
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This is the first live-action movie that Saldanha has directed, and it shows. His previous work has helped him fine-tune the ability to create moments and visual gags young kids will find hilarious — if the laughing from the kids at the screening I attended was any indication). But the tone of the movie is drastically and jarringly far more serious than had been hinted earlier in the film.
Levi has played this type of character before in “Shazam” (the kid in the adult’s body), but he does have the likable charm to pull it off. Clement’s character almost seemed like he was a continuation of the character he played in Jared & Jerusha Hess’ “Gentlemen Broncos” 15 years ago, and Deschanel is given very little to do. The CG work on some of the imaginary characters also was surprisingly weak.
That being said, it was a creative way to adapt a children’s book. Fans of the book will no doubt recognize moments and nods to the original story and a positive message about the power of imagination. It’s also safe for kids of all ages and Saldanha mercifully keeps the run time to 90 minutes. If “Harold and the Purple Crayon” was a part of your own childhood or you read it to your children and you’re looking for a hit of nostalgia, this might be worth your time. For everyone else, probably not.
HAROLD & THE PURPLE CRAYON (B-) Rated PG for mild action and thematic elements. Starring Zachary Levi, Lil’ Rel Howrey, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, Benjamin Bottani, Zooey Deschanel. Directed by Carlos Saldanha (“Ice Age” “Rio”) – filmed in Atlanta. Running time: 92 min.
