The idea of making a film out of Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson’s 1955 tribute to the power of imagination (as an act of love, I give every baby born to a friend or family member a copy of the book with a purple crayon stuck inside), has always made me somewhat anxious. This is because previous efforts at adapting children’s classics for screen have been patchy at best. Of course, there are films like Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic novel Where The Wild Things Are which beautifully capture the fragile innocence of a child that appeals to both young and old alike. Yet, for each one such as that, there is something like “The Cat in the Hat”, which was just as bad as Dr Seuss’ original piece.
Now we have Harold and the Purple Crayon in all its glory on celluloid. It starts off on an unexpected note: a 2-D animation sequence that recaps Harold’s experiences in the book. The sequence adopts quite closely the famous visual style from the book and it is narrated by Alfred Molina. Sadly, though, this lasts all but about ninety seconds if my memory serves me correctly; then we start getting into what happened next after everything else had taken place. It quickly descends into garishness from there via story-telling reminiscent more of some failed “Jumanji” imitation than anything Johnson might have done while still alive. I mean how can you make such a film which continues for ages yet does nothing but pay lip service to creativity?
After, Harold is fully developed (Zachary Levi) and continues to play in his cartoon world with friends like Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds), as well as the narrator’s voice that never leaves him. One day, however, the narrator’s voice went silent and Harold decided to draw a portal leading to our world using his crayon so that the three of them could try tracking him down. Unfortunately though, the physical universe turns out being strange and confusing to them; hence, by luck, Harold ends up bumping into Terri (Zooey Deschanel) who was with Melvin (Benjamin Bottani).
For some reason or other she lets them spend the night at her place where Harold meets Mel who shares an invisible pet which he calls an imaginary eagle/lion/alligator amalgamation and also provides him/her with such information as having a magical crayon. She allows them to stay at her house for some reason until then he finds Mel who has an unrealized imaginary pet which constituted parts of eagle,lion,and alligator and reveals this to him.
When Terri goes off to work at Ollie’s — a place portrayed more sacrosanctly here than in Johnson’s book — Mel helps Harold and Moose search for the narrator resulting in multiple comic scenes such as flying on board a plane or causing confusion in the store room. They are assisted as well by Gary (Jermaine Clement), a weird librarian who fancies Terri; also author of unpublished fantasy work named “The Glaive of Gagaroh.
” Therefore, fans of “Krull” may not be left behind while watching this film. Ultimately, it comes out that Gary is actually not real but part of a book character prompting them both along side Harald & Moose heading towards Crockett Johnson’s place after they leave his house at Google obviously displays what is required on Mel’s phone however it does not show this to the other two as a reason why they did not need to go. Meanwhile, Gary who has already witnessed what crayon can do plans how he would possess it and make his book’s universe real.
Making Crockett Johnson’s 64-page –book into a feature-length film would be ill-advised. Even the most pessimistic person could not have expected something as awful as this. At first, Harold himself has been rendered one of the most annoying characters in recent cinematic memory by an appallingly clumsy script from David Guion and Michael Handelman that tries making him into an irrepressible free spirit like Buddy in “Elf.” But more than being obnoxious, he is too overplayed to bear. Levi’s awful performance doesn’t help either; it aims for cutesiness all the way through but makes him look as if either…a.) Levi had been hit in the head with a board before every take or b.) director Carlos Saldanha did enough takes’ to rival Kubrick before he (and maybe only he) was satisfied.
The visuals of this movie are blah, and the storyline is jumpy, while on the other hand, there are many moments when one would feel that they would have been better off without watching it. In addition to that, a number of big sets rely heavily on CGI as opposed to being real big sets; some emotional appeals in Harold and the Purple Crayon movie lack proper foundation making them appear artificial and pointless at times; above all else, what really angers about kids literature book celebration film featuring librarian as villain.
Kindly save your breath if you intend to tell me how I should view this movie from my still child’s eyes because it does not indicate any sign of trying to appeal to children. Unfortunately, some people prefer cashing in on an ordinary IP title that attracts already exhausted families who have seen Inside Out 2 or Despicable Me 4 and want something different. Rather than actually living up the heritage of said IP by trusting it with its own identity rather than shamming it out for a quick buck from family audiences who’ve already caught “Inside Out-2” or “Despicable Me-4” but could use something else.
In essence, “Harold and the Purple Crayon” appears like a film made by those who believe that kids can accept anything thrown at them in the name of “family entertainment,” as long as it is loud and colorful. If you truly love your kids then do yourself a favor – don’t take them to see this movie; instead go out online right now or onto Amazon or wherever you usually buy books from and get your hands-on Crockett Johnson’s original classic story along with his subsequent volumes; trust me they will be thanking you for such moves.
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