Calling a book bad, ugly, and unattractive in the form of live imagery may be unjust. The reason is because this is an effects-heavy comedy film starring Zachary Levi as an adult version of Crockett Johnson’s inquisitive baby who uses his enchanted crayon to create at times creepy and badly drawn objects that exist on earth. But let it be known that this film makes no sense whatsoever, from its concept to its execution. Well, Harold and the Purple Crayon was almost ridiculous enough to be alluring. Nonetheless, every time the movie seems about to get cute or quirky for a family audience, something really random happens which leaves you wondering how it ever made any impression on you.
Fascinatingly enough, this marks the first time Carlos Saldanha who was nominated for an Academy Award has made a live-action feature having previously helmed Ice Age sequels like Rio 1&2 and Ferdinand (as well as one other adaptation from children’s literature that nobody remembers). For some minutes though Saldanha is in familiar territory when we are treated to a beautiful but short retelling of Johnson’s original 1955 picture book based on Harold as he appeared then. This is a playful opening sequence that is done in such fluid manner appealing to anyone who loved the original narrative with these magnificent drawings. Unfortunately it followed by a more attractive though still animated older looking Zachary Levi-like Harold then suddenly changes into real life bogey manness with him looking so terrible throughout much of the remaining 90 plus minutes only during few minutes though making two things clear: Harold heading into “real world” where he meets his creator (but I do not know why Providence instead of Connecticut) and Saldanha becoming inept as far as transfer animation skills are concerned.
Initially it looks like we’re going down Elf man fish –out–of –water one where kid ends up in mismatched grownup’s body to wander around the deaded adults’ world. (Also, similar to Elf, this fish gets Zooey Deschanel as Terry, her mother and a woman who wants to become a great piano player after the death of her husband.) Subsequently the plot takes an unexpected turn when Harold’s pet Porcupine (Reynolds Tanya) and Moose (Howery Lil Rel) follow him into reality and then they transform into humans? But sometimes Moose can also change back into some unattractive computer-generated imagery animal? And Porcupine still behaves like one except that she ends up in thieving but for the most part, Moose takes on human characteristics including talking like people would. The logic that governs Harold’s magic is absent hence making one think that this is not a movie with any story; at least everything becomes clearer as it rolls on.
Harold, lacking any clear purpose, is unable to tell a deeper story than “These people are not normal, unbeknownst to normal people.” However, it aggressively relies on crayon-that-can-do-anything concept instead of one-note performances done by Levi and company making the movie boring. These are followed by some wretched sequences of oddly grotesque CGI that’s meant to illustrate how astounding Harold’s crayon is when Moose and Harold join forces with Terry’s son Mel (Benjamin Bottani), who has an imaginary friend and buys into Harold’s gimmick instantly. Having awful purple jet planes fly over him and ice cream cones that no one would eat, which are conjured up by Harold, makes Mel go crazy but I thought his imagination was limited. (I guess it’s because nobody else has ever been inside this boy’s empty universe but himself except for two talking animals anyway so his answers to problems usually involve things like dropping another propeller or sketching a key- both of which are plain!) And when Mel gets his hands on the crayon, he immediately draws horrifying violent creatures calling for therapy now from Terry.
Halfway through though, the movie becomes even more obvious that it doesn’t know what it is doing shifting gears forcing a new storyline in its blandly fantastical hero’s journey. This results in the introduction of a villain as Jemaine Clement’s Gary; a horny librarian and failed fantasy author who wants to use the Crayon in order to convince publisher buy his manuscript or something like that. In fact there are some chuckles extracted from his character by Clement who appears only as an excuse for weak thrusts which can be seen in other stinkers such as Gentlemen Broncos and Men in black III. But Gary takes things down this odd way action-heavy high stakes path totally at odds with rest generic whimsy “believe yourself” fluffishness with Harold competing for time with him. Even more surprising is the fact that after meeting a guy in a onesie carrying a large crayon, next scene, we see him battling against Gary who is dressed like a bad Lord of the Rings wig makes Harold and purple crayons very aimless.
Judgment
However, as it leads to something funny or creative, “random” can be pleasant sometimes. To some extent this may suitably describe Harold and the Purple Crayon which encompasses patchy subplots, an excess of dialogue added after shooting finished, as well as geographic cluelessness. Despite these occasional pockets of charm though “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is an uncreative film about creativity. But all his efforts were in vain since what’s truly needed to make this story special cannot be crafted by Harold himself.
Watch free movies on Fmovies
