Review: Harold And The Purple Crayon
Everything He Draws Is About To Get Real
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Harold And The Purple Crayon. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
I’d also appreciate it greatly if you spread the word about the newsletter to any family or friends who would love to have film reviews, classic movie lists, and Oscars projections delivered straight to their inbox.
THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: Inside of his book, adventurous Harold 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 - and that his trusty purple crayon may set off more hilarious hijinks than he thought possible. When the power of unlimited imagination falls into the wrong hands, it will take all of Harold and his friends’ creativity to save both the real world and his own.
QUICK REVIEW
Critiquing “kids movies” can be an uphill climb for a 35 year old childless man (Senator J.D Vance just had a heart attack reading that, or maybe us guys get a pass from him?). These films are geared towards a certain demographic that anyone of my age group will have to literally talk down to, and thus these movies tend to come off insulting to us adults when we have to watch them. And if you don’t have kids to watch this with, watching them in the context of how the demographic they’re geared towards responds can also make things difficult if you’re seeking to give them a fair review.
But there is the argument that these movies can still appeal to all ages. And the Paddington films have been a great case study of that. Not only are they easily consumable by adults, but they have a timeless quality to them. And the Pixar films have shown us they can deliver a message that plays at the heartstrings of the adults watching them as well. Unfortunately Harold And The Purple Crayon is not one of those “kids films”.
Based on the popular children’s book that many my age and older have grown up with, this adaptation doesn’t lean into the lore of the source material the same way the Paddington films do, but instead leans into meta commentary in which the universe of the story being told ALREADY has the existence of Harold’s book; and instead we follow a grown up Harold coming into the real world. It’s the kind of lazy concept that I expect from cheap nineties and early 2000s kids movies. Mix this in with some contemporary cultural themes and concepts, and the timeless quality the Paddington films or Pixar films achieve are not to be found here. I don’t get much of a feeling this was correctly used a tribute to the source material in any way. Even someone who grew up reading “Harold” will walk away feeling like they were scammed.
The movie also very much feels like it’s talking down to you as an adult. The comedy is very surface level and from the lowest depths you can imagine - childish humor. And when I say childish humor I mean little kids’ humor. It’s not just that if you take your kids, or your nieces and nephews, to this you’ll be shrinking into your seat from embarrassment - your own kids might as well if they’re out of kindergarten and in grade school. I try my best to understand when watching these movies that they’re made for kids and not meant to appeal to me, but I think some kids will walk away from this one underwhelmed or feeling the creeping mortality upon them when they realize they’ve started to outgrow this kind of humor.
Anchoring all this is the face of the film in Zachary Levi, who admittedly has made it easy on some of us to dislike him given his actions off-screen including attacking critics, taking shots at better received films like John Wick: Chapter 4, or getting caught liking anti-vaccine tweets. But for whatever reason he seems to have been stereotyped into these man-child roles after his Shazam! movies, and he is in full blown man-child mode here. And to some extent given his role as a grown version of Harold I get it, but there’s also playing up a certain personality so much so that you start losing semblance of the human being that character is supposed to be as well.
The rest of the cast I can’t say much against as they clearly are just in it for the paycheck and the material just fails them from at least getting something out of it from an artistic level. Also the kid actors are kid actors. There’s really no point in laying into the performances of a child who has yet to hone the craft. Not every child actor can be a Jude Hill in Belfast or a Alan Kim in Minari.
I will give the film props for what I found to be decent visual effects, though there were some wonky, obvious green screen moments. There’s some animation in this, particularly in the beginning, that is downright amazing but unfortunately is quickly shoved to the side as the plot starts to fester. I do think some kids of a certain age will be entertained by this, but those same kids will likely outgrow this movie pretty quickly.
Ultimately this is the definition of a “kids movie” that appeals to the lowest denominator so hard that even some in its intended targeted age group will cringe at the material. The source material it wants to honor is anything but, the ensemble is failed by the material, and the lead is giving one of their worst performances. I tried my best to try and find some positives in this, but I think this movie will ultimately be lost to time. I barely remember it already myself.
I give Harold And The Purple Crayon an initial dismal grade of D+. Easily one of the worst films i’ve seen this year, and I hope the source material gets a better film adaptation in the near future. I promise you, unless your toddler happens to be begging you to see it with tears welling up in their eyes, you can skip this one even if it’s just “for the children.”
INITIAL GRADING
