Harold and the Purple Crayon

Having a deep respect for Harold and the Purple Crayon, a children’s book by Crockett Johnson, which I call his “the imagination is the most powerful tool” book of 1955 (I give every new born I love a copy of the book with a purple crayon taped inside which is interesting through very useful humor), thoughts of a movie adaptation had always terrorized me to some extent. I believe, this is because of the rather mixed history of the previous attempts at the screen adaptation of classic children’s books.

For instance, a film such as Say Whatever Happen’s Where The Wild Things Are is sure to please an audience both young and old even if they have not read the book. However, with every such entertaining movie, there is turn and look at that dreadful screen version of the Cat in the Hat live action movie which is far worse than the picture book adaptation itself.

The film adaptatior of Harold and the Purple Crayon is finally in theaters. It tells a very interesting story: The beginning does engage the audience right off the bat; a very short 2-D cartoon which reveals the events of the Harold’s book. The picture does not disappoint in some approximation of the famous pictorial style.

Pity, that particular part lasts for about a minute and a half, and the real bulk of the action begins. Everything goes immediately to full gory Hell through the story which I thought went more like a wannabe Jumanji than a decent tribute to late Johnson’s legacies. Here is a movie that pretends to sympathize with the value of imagination and creativity, but no positive demonstrates it on what creeps to long run time of the film.

Having wrapped that brief retelling of how it all began, it is time to set a stage of such narrations and examine a grownup Harold (Zachary Levi) who is once again hopping in to the cartoon world but with the companions of Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds) along with him and the voice over.

There comes a time when the narrator simply stops talking, souvenirs in hand, and as if to entertain the children, Harold creates a significant portal using the slash of a crayon seeking some heads. Unfortunately, for adults, it is a strange and horrible place in fact, and fortunately, Harold and Moose are caught into Melvin and Terri, a still grieving mother and a husky boy child whose father has just passed away.

For reasons that are beyond reason, she allows them with those men to spend the night in her house which was much to Harold’s surprise, realizing that little boy Mel was kindred to him and had a pet which was unseen and was a mixture of an eagle, lion, and alligator so he shared the magical crayon with him. (Just to note, Porcupine has lost track of the group and is harassing people innocently and by herself).

Terri is shown working at Ollie’s although she is more revered in this section than Johnson’s book while Mel helps Harold and Moose to search for the narrator this in turn leads to chasing after many ridiculous slapstick sequences which involve flying in a plane or wrecking the store.

Sisters Juliet and Teresita run away to Canada and ask Gary Jermaine Clement, Terri’s weird librarian who has a thing for her and who is also a failed fantasy writer of The Glaive of Gagaroh to help them escape the country (thus the film manages to alienate even fans of Magician Rhama and his great youthful round sultry nurse, out of Krull).

Gary Mathieson finally admits to Harold’s reality that the man is a fictional figure and Harold, Moose and Mel begin a journey to the home of the cartoonist Crocket Johnson in desperation.

Yes, it is even possible to use Google maps showing the relevant address but for some reason that which would somehow prevent this particular journey is not mentioned there. At the same time Gary was aware of how powerful the crayon really was and wanted it for himself in order to make the world in his book a reality.

It is clear you would want to adapt a 64-page illustrated book of Crockett’s into a two-hour cartoon but that would always be an exercise in futility.

But even the most pessimistic of minds could have envisioned something as awful as this. Firstly, the character of Harold himself has become one of the most irritating film characters of the past decade thanks due to the stupendously inept script of David Guion and Michael Handelman that aims at making him an unapologetic Child-like addition in a free-wheeler in “Elf” called Buddy, but still he only manages to turn him into a quasi lowly tolerance character as a lay down figure more obnoxious than dumb.

Yet, his efforts are further undermined by the fact that Levi acts like a cute cartoon baby throughout the film, pretty much failing, in ways a.) The way Levi did in the film. Did he constantly shoot scenes after scenes in a manner only a young Kubrick would (he and only he) be content with?

What’s worse is that the plot is all over the place, the animations are totally dull and uninventive, the big action scenes are your typical sounds and effects without a shred of originality, the emotional scenes are imbalanced with the story and central conflict, and this degrading film directed to the kids even employs the role of antagonist for a librarian in order to pull the story along.

Before sending me messages once again reproaching that I am not appreciating this movie with the eyes of a child, it was obvious, given the evidence that, none of the people associated with the production of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” ever cared about entertaining children. Since I would rather consider the question of legacy and why nobody seems to be concerned about it as more interesting than the possible revenues, I will ignore the marketing people’s hopes of cashing in on the brand recognition.

Families who had seen “Inside Out 2”, “Despicable Me 4”, and were thinking or doing other things, hoping to capitalize on the good name of a well-known piece of IP, unfortunately, seems to have been more preferable than gamers actually living up to the legacy of that IP in question.

Finally still creating, ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon,’ is the outcome of people who have been working under the cynical assumption that children are ready to swallow anything spoon fed to them disguised as “family entertainment” because it is bright and loud. By all means take your children to see this movie if indeed love them but you will have to give it a long way yourself and instead use the ticket fee to buy Crockett’s original book and its sequels. One day they will appreciate your wisdom, I assure you.

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