Harold and the Purple Crayon Review
Harold and the Purple Crayon feels like an episode of a kids TV show, not a film. It’s largely unwatchable.
Inside of his book, adventurous Harold (Zachary Levi) can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After he grows up and draws himself off the book's pages and into the physical world, Harold finds he has a lot to learn about real life. Teaming up with his book character friend Moose (Lil Rey Howery), and real world characters Mel (Benjamin Bottani) and his mother Terry (Zooey Deschanel), Harold has to try and find the Old Man who narrates his book to get back inside; all while avoiding the dastardly Gary (Jermaine Clement) who wants Harold’s crayon for himself.
What is perhaps an important context for this film is to consider the landscape amidst which it drops. Alongside Harold and the Purple Crayon, comes films like Transformers One and The Wild Robot, both of which are incredible films for kids that also play so, so well for adults. It also comes after a string of A+ kids films over the last few years, like Puss In Boots The Last Wish, which level up the game on kids movies, on animation, and on broadening the smarts and appeal of these movies to still be engaging for adults.
This film throws all of that out of the window. It feels like an overly bright, unfunny, poorly scripted, acted, animated and shot tv show episode that is as unforgettable as it is unwatchable.
Zachary Levi gives it his all, but his character is so remarkably stupid that he can’t really carry the film - relegated instead to a magical side character. So we’re stuck with a mix of other actors sleepwalking through, and child actors who can’t really grab your attention.
The plot itself is completely nonsensical and unnecessary. It is an absolutely base tier of interest, with no depth or nuance. For younger viewers, this is unchallenging drivel, and for adults or older viewers, this is a sleeping pill in big-screen format.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is an absolute slog of a watch. With nothing going for it in the acting, story, or cinematography spheres, it is one probably best avoided.
