School holidays will always mean picking a film to take the kids on a blustery wet day.
Here’s one for ages seven to 13 years.
Adults will be entertained as well.
I found myself laughing out loud, smiling upon personal recognition of some sticky situations involving Mum Terry (Zooey Deschanel) and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani), a boy with an overworked imagination.
Based on a children’s book by Crockett Johnson, pen name for David Johnson Leisk, and published in 1955, the book itself is plugged several times in the screenplay, including a visit to the Crocker Johnson House, a proper museum in the movie.
He was a cartoonist whose simple, spare, yet bold drawings produced unforgettable, humorous and always endearing caricatures in American children’s picture books.
The movie is based upon a small book about a little boy and his nighttime jaunt with his purple crayon. Johnson depicts Harold as a toddler clad in pyjamas, his chubby hand gripping a plum-coloured crayon which, when he draws, leaves thick, firm, purple lines.
The movie stars Zachary Levi, best known for two Shazam movies (2019 and 2013), as Harold, that book’s toddler.
Not! After all, he turns 44 on September 29.
His behaviour is childlike, but no, this isn’t the delightful book.
The movie begins the same way the book does.
Cartoon hero Harold discovers he can create entire worlds, even his friends Moose (Lil Rey Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds), by drawing them with his purple crayon.
The movie’s animated opening shows Harold seemingly grown up but still a cartoon against a perfectly white background.
The purple crayon leaves its indelible lines when he draws.
When the voice of the narrator (Alfred Molina) tells Harold they cannot meet because he lives in “the real world”, Harold draws a door to the real world and goes in search of his creator, his “old man.”
Cartoon Harold becomes Zachary Levi Harold in the real world and his purple crayon drawings become real things.
Same happens with Moose and Porcupine as they tumble into the real world as people.
Levi uses the same character development he relied upon for both Shazam movies, that of a clueless man-child.
Reynolds as the feisty Porcupine shows a comic flair, especially when she declares that a thumb is power. Howery is a run-of-the-mill children’s film character, although Moose quotes the “old man” with a good comic line, “The real world is constipated, and who knows what that means.”
The spare whimsical book is turned into chaotic computer graphics.
Sure, some are amusing, some as frightening as creatures in the Harry Potter series of books and movies. Kids crave this sort of action.
The library is the place to go when you need anything.
Harold reckons the librarian can find his “old man.”
Villain head librarian Gary Natwick (Jemaine Clement) is a failed children’s book author with eyes only for Terry.
There is one excellent practical effect.
When Harold uses his purple crayon, he draws on glass placed between himself and the camera.
It’s effective.
Ollie’s is the store that sells everything.
Good laughs happen inside.
However, concluding with red-hot lava, a terrifying spider-fly, an imaginary draga-lizza-gator named Carl, and featuring a crayon dual is CGI sludge, and so far removed from the book as to be over-the-top.
Mum Terry and her son Mel must put up with the shenanigans of Harold and Moose after Mum inadvertently runs ’em down on their purple-crayoned tandem bicycle.
Though nowhere in the book, they are the most realistic people in the real world.
Benjamin Bottani, just turned 15, is a young actor to watch in future.
Acting is often reacting and he’s nailed it.
The film isn’t the book, but it entertains.
Stay in your seats as end credits begin. There is a funny postscript.
Movie: Harold and the Purple Crayon
Duration: 92 mins
Director: Carlos Saldana
Starring: Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Alfred Molina, Lil Rey Howery, Benjamin Bottani, Tanya Reynolds, Jemaine Clement
Rating: ***
Reviewed by Lawrenty
