Harold And The Purple Crayon is a bit more colorful than the adaptation deserves

Harold And The Purple Crayon, from a conceptual level, is about as cynical as Hollywood filmmaking gets. The film is a meta-sequel to a picture book with a target audience of kindergarteners, latched onto a scrap of intellectual property in the desperate hope that the brand recognition will draw in an audience of non-existent rabid fans and, more importantly, their average of 2.5 children. The production reeks of deference to algorithmic logic, from the casting choices to the paper-thin veneer of reverence to author Crockett Johnson’s ode to the power of imagination—ironic, considering how bankrupt this adaptation is when it comes to originality.

That said, Harold And The Purple Crayon might be a best case scenario for having come from such mechanical origins. The assignment might merely be to carve out a space in the underserved family entertainment market, but director Carlos Saldanha and writers David Guion and Michael Handelman at least understand that their primary goal is to entertain through storytelling, not to incessantly self-reference for kids too young to know what the word “continuity” means. The product is derivative—its production coincided with that of last year’s similarly plotted Barbie, and it sure feels like these filmmakers were taking notes—but iteration is not necessarily the enemy of quality, so long as one commits to the vision of the project. And on those terms, Harold And The Purple Crayon at least scores a passing grade.

The story picks up on a now adult Harold (Zachary Levi) living in an animated storybook world of imagination with his friends Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds), guided in their adventures by the omnipresent Narrator (the voice of Alfred Molina). When the Narrator goes missing, the trio ventures into the Real World to find him, only to discover that reality is a bit more complicated than the otherwise blank pages of their existence.

Levi is an actor of limited talents, but he’s exactly the right person to convey the naiveté of a man-child discovering the world for the first time, and his charisma is a suitable centerpiece with his big reactions and dopey smile. Does it make a whole lot of sense for Moose and Porcupine to somehow transform into humans on this side of the multiversal divide, besides obvious budgetary reasons? Not in the least, but it’s a lot easier to ignore when Reynolds is gamely skittering around the screen with feral abandon and marveling at the possibilities provided by prehensile thumbs. Howery feels slightly miscast, as Moose seems written to be more dimwitted than Howery can convincingly pull off, but his general enthusiasm makes him a suitable sidekick to Levi’s wide-eyed wonder.

The group finds itself relying on the hospitality of single mother Terri (Zooey Deschanel) and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani), throwing a wrench into their lives as Harold uses his magic crayon to impulsively and impractically assist them. It’s an extremely basic but effective scenario to explore the value of imagination in a world that lacks it, as well as a clear set-up for plenty of slapstick shenanigans. But there’s a notable shallowness to the plotting that neglects any parental engagement in favor of their children’s mild distraction. Deschanel is given little to do but be a pessimistic disbeliever in her son’s claim of Harold’s magical abilities, and while the film at times seems structured around her eventual revelation that she does not need to sacrifice joy for practicality, any resolution of that arc is assumed off-screen in favor of a more child-palatable villainous showdown.

And Jemaine Clement as Gary the Librarian is a sincerely funny villain. Clement excels at overconfident losers, and this failed fantasy writer who writes his self-insert hero with an unpronounceable name is certainly an amusing foil to Harold’s love of creation for the sake of creation. Gary’s goal to steal the magical purple crayon may be another contrived element in a formulaic screenplay, leading to a trite climactic battle of competitive imagination, but it’s hard to turn down an excuse to see Clement meekly deny that his imaginary love interest is clearly based on Mel’s mom.

There are too many cut corners to this trim 90-minute film to consider it novel in any sense, but there are also too many entertainingly committed performances and well-written jokes to consider it entirely soulless either. Harold And The Purple Crayon doesn’t quite provoke the blues that one might expect from such a crass-sounding adaptation, but neither does it paint the town red with its modest ambitions. We’re left mixed, as purple as the crayon.

Director: Carlos Saldanha
Writer: David Guion, Michael Handelman
Starring: Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, Alfred Molina, Zooey Deschanel
Release Date: August 2, 2024