Let’s just start this off by saying I know Harold and the Purple Crayon is a kid’s movie and yes, I am still going to make fun of it. I was not looking forward to this movie because one, it looked terrible from the previews and two, Zachary Levi. I left the theater wondering why I put myself through that.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is about Harold (Zachary Levi) and his friends Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds) and Moose (Lil Rel Howery) as they find themselves in the “real world” and not the bland, white, animated world that they have been living with the “Old Man” which happens to be the narrator to the story. While in the real world, the group has to navigate Providence, Rhode Island. Here, they meet Terri (Zooey Deschanel) and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani). Mel has a hard time growing up in middle school and still has imaginary friends where he gets bullied from it.
I am having a tough time explaining the plot to this movie because it seems to have a messy one. It seemed to just jump right into the “real” world without any real context of who Harold is and where he is from. I personally have not read the book in a VERY long time so I am not sure if it follows that at all? It had the typical plot where they meet someone, they have an odd romantic connection and then the bad guy shows up (predictably) and tries to destroy the world with the purple crayon and it’s up to Harold and crew to stop him. Every plot twist was predictable and there were no emotional parts to it where you can tell they tried to incorporate.
Aside from the routine plot, the acting wasn’t great also besides Zooey Deschanel and Benjamin Bottani. All the dialogue was bland and was not delivered well, especially Levi, Reynolds and Jermaine Clement, who played Gary. I rolled my eyes every time he was on screen.
The animation was terrible also. At least TRY and make it seem believable for the toddlers enjoying this film. Every time Levi started to draw with the purple crayon, it seemed like they actually had a 10 year old in charge of the visual effect.
This movie tried way too hard to be funny. Again, yes I know the target audience is the younger generation but I was in a theater with at least five or six families and I did not hear them laugh more than a couple times (the few jokes that were actually kind of funny).
Final Thoughts:
I kind of blame myself for walking into this one. I knew it wasn’t going to be good but I had to see it for myself. The only good parts were Deschanel and Bottani and a few good comic relief scenes but overall, Harold and The Purple Crayon was not good and unless you have young kids that are into crappy animation and a bad story, I wouldn’t go see this movie.
