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Blu-ray Review: HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON

Home » Blu-ray Review: HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON

Oct 03 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Harold (Zachary Levi) lives as a 2D drawing inside of a children’s book. With his purple crayon, anything is possible—everything Harold draws comes to life. He is constantly going on wild adventures with his friends, Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds). As Harold has grown, so has his imagination and his world. He starts to wonder who drew him and why. The narrator (Alfred Molina) tells Harold that he is the one one created him, so in a way he’s his “Old Man”, but that he lives in the Real World. Harold has so many questions, and decides to use his magic crayon to leave the book and enter the Real World to find this Old Man.

As Harold and his friends enter the Real World, they get separated. But each of them are amazed and confused by this colorful, three-dimensional new world. Moose and Porcupine are transformed into human form, while still maintaining their same personalities. All three are eager to explore, especially Harold with his child-like wonder, as he tries to find the Old Man. Harold and Moose soon literally run into single mother Terry (Zooey Deschanel) and her imaginative young son Mel (Benjamin Bottani). Mel is instantly drawn to Harold, especially once he sees him use his magical crayon to repair Terry’s flat tire, and invites him and Moose to stay at their house. Terry is a bit wary of welcoming strangers into her home, but feels guilty for hitting their purple bicycle with her car while driving distractedly.

Terry used to have a passion and talent for music, but gave that up when her husband died years earlier, for a more practical, soulless job that she hates, working at a Walmart-like all-in-one store. As Harold uses his magic crayon to try to help Terry and others, it brings joy and wonder, but also usually leads to unforeseen chaotic results, which puts Terry in hot water with her boss, Prasad (Ravi Patel). Meanwhile, the crayon has also attracted the attention of librarian/aspiring fantasy author Gary (Jemaine Clement), who wants to get his hands on the magical implement so that he can show doubtful publishers the world he has created, which he describes as “bigger than Hogwarts, Middle Earth and Narnia combined”. However, if this source of unlimited imagination were to fall into the wrong hands, it could lead to devastating consequences. Meanwhile, two bumbling cops—Detective Love (Pete Gardner) & Junior Detective Silva (Camille Guaty)—investigate the trails of purple chaos left behind by the Harold and his friends.

I’m not sure if I had ever read Crockett Johnson’s 1955 book these characters are based on, but I was familiar with it, and did enjoy this film. It is bright and colorful, and the ever-upbeat attitude of Harold and his friends is a bit infectious. It is fun to see the crazy antics that they get up to as they let their imaginations run wild, or misunderstand the modern world. At the same time, there is also this theme of never giving up on your dreams, and embracing your imagination. The film has a great cast, with Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery and Tanya Reynolds having a lot of fun with the child-like wonder of their fish-out-of-water characters experiencing the Real World for the first time. Zooey Deschanel is always delightful, here as the flustered widowed mother trying to provide for her son. While Terry is initially annoyed by the chaos caused by Harold and his friends, she soon soon embraces it, realizing that she’s having more fun than she’s had in a long time. Jemaine Clement is perfectly cast as the over-the-top villain Gary, who fully embraces and embodies the lead character from his failed fantasy novel The Glaive of G’Garaur.

I would say the film skews a bit towards a younger audience, with a cartoony villain, sometimes campy humor, and comedic sounds of pratfalls and cats screeching off camera. However, there’s also some stuff in the film for the adults, such as a humorous turn where Harold gives out Terry’s phone number with the message that she’s looking for an Old Man, which leads to some awkward but humorous phone calls. Overall, I think this makes a great film the whole family can enjoy together.

Sony has released Harold and the Purple Crayon on physical media on Blu-ray and DVD, but it is also available digitally in 4K. I was sent the Blu-ray release for review, which looks and sounds fantastic. The picture is clean and clear, with an excellent level of detail. The special effects of the magical crayon look natural and blend in seamlessly. I can’t imagine this looking much better than it already does. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout and makes nice use of the surround channel to provide an immersive ambiance, and also showcases the film’s upbeat pop soundtrack.

The Blu-ray release comes with just a single Blu-ray disc, which resides in a standard HD keepcase, along with Movies Anywhere redemption instructions for an HD digital copy. Our review copy did not include a slipcover. The disc contains about 17 minutes of bonus material, including a drawing lesson, a sing-along music video, a short featurette with the cast, and a collection of deleted/extended scenes.


What’s Included:

Film: (1:30:23)

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