Harold and the Purple Crayon
A two-dimensional sketch enters the ‘real world’ and finds much to admire in Carlos Saldanha’s joyous creation.
Pure imagination: Zachary Levi’s invention takes flight
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures
In a more innocent time, Harold was a wow with the kiddies. As with many an enduring children’s character, the premise of Crockett Johnson’s 1950s book series was quite simple. With the magic of pure imagination, whatever Harold drew with his purple crayon sprung into life – be it a chair, a door or even his imaginary friends, Moose and Porcupine. Today, Harold might find it harder to locate such a fine upstanding crayon, unless he was content to raid a fast-food joint or a children’s nursey, but even then he would be disillusioned. In this parallel universe painted by the scriptwriters David Guion and Michael Handelman, Harold is older now and his imagination is butting heads with his curiosity. Essentially trapped in his own notepad, Harold wonders if there’s more to life than what is contained in his rudimentary sketch marks and like Barbie, Ken and countless childhood creations before him, he finds himself suddenly transported to the real world.
And what an enchanted place it is. Here there are hundreds of potential friends, more ice cream than you could conceivably eat and outlets that stock anything you could possibly want. The real world would seem to be a perpetual paradise and now that Moose and Porcupine have joined him in human form, they can share this realm of unlimited stuff to their hearts’ content. But unlike Will Ferrell’s Harold in Stranger Than Fiction – a fictitious character who discovers that he is just that – this Harold is uncertain of his provenance.
It's an apt way to re-examine our life with fresh eyes and Zachary Levi brings the same wide-eyed wonder to Harold as he exhibited as the 14-year-old Billy Batson transformed into the adult body of a superhero in Shazam! (2019), which is why he was probably cast. In this brave new world – actually Providence, Rhode Island – Harold’s purple pastel can still summon stuff out of thin air, which endows him with superhuman powers in this particularly regimented corner of Everywhere, USA.
Zooey Deschanel is pitch perfect as Terry, the necessary voice of scepticism, whose young son Mel (Benjamin Bottani) hangs out with an imaginary friend called Karl. Deschanel is ideal casting, as is Jemaine Clement as a delightfully odious, yet overtly articulate villain whose enunciation is even more pronounced than Matthew Macfadyen’s in Deadpool & Wolverine. A would-be Tolkien figure whose novel is incomprehensible to prospective publishers and too scary for his intended readership, Clement is positively Shakespearean in his menace. Tanya Reynolds is also great fun as Porcupine, whose heightened sense of smell proves an enormous asset, while Lil Rel Howery (Moose) recycles his Kevin Hart schtick to appropriate ends.
For the most part, director Carlos Saldanha – whose first live-action feature this is – brings a welcome degree of wonder and innocence to the proceedings, tapping into the inner child of his three principals. Indeed, our domain – Harold’s newly discovered “real world” – is a wonderful place, if only we’d tear ourselves away from our screens and smell the roses. It’s a shame, then, that the initial, open-mouthed joie de vivre is scuppered by a recourse to a more familiar realm of Tolkiensesque fantasy. Still, the film’s message is loud and clear and a good sight healthier than what is dished up in Despicable Me 4. “Life is not something that happens to you – it’s what you create” is a mantra to live by.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, Zooey Deschanel, Pete Gardner, Camille Guaty, Ravi Patel, Zele Avradopoulos, and the voice of Alfred Molina.
Dir Carlos Saldanha, Pro John Davis, Screenplay David Guion and Michael Handelman, from the character devised by Crockett Johnson, Ph Gabriel Beristain, Pro Des Shepherd Frankel, Ed Tia Nolan and Mark Helfrich, Music Batu Sener, Costumes Molly Maginnis, Sound Michael Payne.
Davis Entertainment/Columbia Pictures-Sony Pictures.
90 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 2 August 2024. Cert. PG.
