August 22, 2024
Harold was a little boy who owned a purple crayon. Whatever Harold drew with that crayon, it would become the real thing. When what he drew caused some sort of problem, he was able to think up of another item to draw in order to get him out of trouble. He even drew a couple of animals -- Moose and Porcupine -- who would become this best friends. When he grew up, his drawings became more complex, and so did their adventures.
Once, Harold wondered about who drew him. The narrator (Alfred Molina) answered him, saying that it was him. He was his "old man" who lived in the real world. One day, the narrator just went quiet and no one was answering Harold's questions. Harold had the bright idea to draw a door that opened into the real world. However, when Harold and his friends were in the real world, they immediately saw that it was not as simple as their previous world.
When animated line drawing Harold entered the real world live action, he was played by Zachary Levi. He had already proven before that he can play a child trapped in an adult body before when he played the superhero form of a teenager in "Shazam!" (David F. Sandberg, 2019 and 2023). He has got that innocent ignorance acting bit all sewn up in his repertoire that he can still pull it off even now at age 43 without becoming too annoying.
The transition of his friends from animal line drawings to human form -- Moose into Lil Rey Howery as Moose and Porcupine into Tanya Reynolds -- was totally not given any reason why that happened. Zooey Dechanel was cute, but she did not look like she was enjoying her role as Terri, the harassed mother of troubled teen Mel (Benjamin Bottani), who became Harold's friend. Jermaine Clement had the thankless role of covetous town librarian Gary Natwick.
As the original 1955 book by Crockett Johnson was for small kids, so was this movie very kiddie. Adults really have to watch this with their inner child in order to enjoy it with their kids. The humor and the special effects of the crayon's magic were quite juvenile, silly and wholesome for most of the film. Things do turn dark at the moment of the climactic showdown, for which young kids would need their parents for guidance and explanations. 6/10.
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