Fantasy adventure films for the family are few and far between these days. They’re sadly more relegated to streaming services as they’re not as marketable as they used to be. Families would much rather stay at home and save their money with something more like Netflix or Disney+ to keep them occupied. Earlier this year we had IF in cinema’s which didn’t exactly set the box office on fire and further proved this genre to be not as big as it used to be. This brings us to another attempt to bring families to cinema’s with Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is based off the book of the same name and offers plenty of creative opportunities for an original story.
Harold and the Purple Crayon centres around Harold, and the start of the film we see Harold as the titular baby character from the book who can bring to life anything he draws with his purple crayon. As he grows into an adult he becomes curious about his existence after the narrator of his story goes missing. He draws a door to the real world and he soon learns the picture book he is from and the real world are very different from each other. Zachary Levi plays Harold and he brings a sense of fun and optimism with him in a similar role to that of the Shazam! films. Zooey Deschanel plays Terri, a widowed mother who literally bumps into Harold and along with her son Mel help him learn more about who he is.
The story isn’t exactly original and borrows a lot of elements from similar films such as Enchanted and Elf. What makes it even more ironic is that Zooey Deschanel plays a similar character in Elf too. The narrative unfolds in a very brisk way but never really gives enough time to dive deep in Harold’s emotions. This is a family film though so you wouldn’t be expecting anything too deep but Barbie last year proved you can balance story and depth in a meaningful way which this film doesn’t exactly do. Gary, the villain of the film, is a librarian and writer and is played by Jermaine Clement. Gary feels like a pantomime villain, who has a not so secret crush on Terri and wants to exploit the powers of the purple crayon.
The titular purple crayon offers a great opportunity at showing off some fun and interesting visuals. Even on a small budget we see some fun and creative ideas drawn to life thanks to Harold with weird creatures and big machines brought to life thanks to the crayon. These moments are fun to watch but offer nothing to the story or to the characters progression. The purple crayon just becomes a tool to show off some hijinks and playful visual effects that children may love but older audiences may just find dull and boring. The film drags and even though the film ends with a profound message honouring the source material this soon dissipates and we’re back to where we started at the beginning. This is one fantasy adventure film that doesn’t quite reach the same peak as others.
★★☆☆☆
2/5
Final Verdict:
Harold and the Purple Crayon offers a fun and creative family adventure which sadly doesn’t reach the potential it sets out to achieve. Zachary Levi tries his best at playing a naive character who must learn to survive in the real world but his character feels a bit too similar to the characters in the films Elf and Enchanted. In fact a lot of the tropes found in this found has been done before and better too. Children may enjoy the story but it feels a bit too simple and a bit too panto for adults. The result is a fleetingly fun adventure which is sadly not very memorable.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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