Everyone has a favourite book they remember from their childhood that sits in the young reader section of the library. From Mr Men to Dr Suess these were books that introduced you to reading and likely were ones that you read more than once. While in Australia that is more likely to be something like Grog in America it was Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Hitting cinemas is the adaption of this kids book by the author Crockett Johnson (definitely a real name, we checked) who penned a series of books that started with Harold and the Purple Crayon. The first book in the series was written in 1955 was about a very young body who had a crayon that allowed him to draw anything and have it come to life. Think a Green Lantern ring but by Crayola or that one episode of Looney Tunes where Daffy fights with the animator (Duck Amuck if you are trying to remember).
While both Green Lantern and Daffy’s 1953 episode both pre-date Harold the concept of having something that can make anything you can imagine become real was hardly new going back as far as Greek and Roman myths with Pygmalion the sculptor who prayed to Aphrodite to have his statue come to life. Harold however has a special place with with the stories being told as part of the “Captain Kangaroo” show (think Agros Cartoon Connection much older relative) that ran for 21 years in the US, making this much more of part of the American zeitgeist.
Harold and the Purple Crayon the movie aims to not change anything in the way that the original book series was thought of by continuing it on directly, which is not too difficult given the simple nature of the books. Introduced to Harold we start in the world that he lives with his friends Moose and Porcupine (who are a Moose and a Porcupine). After a day of adventures the narrator signs off as Harold goes to bed and the next day he wakes up to the narrator missing. Armed with his Purple Crayon Superpower he draws himself a door to the real world to go find the Narrator.
The film itself is a family film through and through with the content and pacing all reflecting this but including a bit higher production value than you might expect. Harold aka Chuck from the Buymore and Moose having landed in the real world are hit by a car driven by someone who looks a lot like Jessica Day from New Girl who is a widower with a young son after her husband (who looks a lot like Nick Miller or the guy who voices Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man) passed away.
From here we have a lot of Will Ferrell in Elf like adventures as they look for their missing narrator and avoid the movie villain who is a Young Adult writer and half of a concord flight, as Harold and friends plod through the ‘real world’ with childish wonder and lack of understanding of real world consequences.
So should you go see it? If you have some vertically challenged future organ donors living in your house OR you were a big fan of the series somehow, then yes it is a good safe movie. Coming in at 1h30m this is a solid PG film with a hard G, it is a family movie through and through skewed slightly to the younger younger audience. If you are looking for a reason to hit the cinemas and you need to take some munchkins this is as safe as you are going to get for that sweet sweet air conditioning.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is in cinemas from Thursday September 12
