Harold and his Magic Crayon
What if a crayon could make all the pure and beautiful things we imagine come true? That’s the idea of the hybrid family film and comedy: Harold and the Magic Crayon, a film based on the book by Crockett Johnson, starring Zachary Levi and Zooey Deschanel under the direction of Carlos Saldanha.
Making a little history, we have to travel to the year 1955 to talk about the magical history of Harold and the Purple Crayon -known to us as Harold and his Magic Crayon-, which is a very famous children’s story from the mind of Crockett Johnson. This book led to six other books in a great series that spanned from 1956 to 1963, as well as inspiring several more adaptations.
But if that were not enough, this story would make the leap from the page to the small screen with a series of 13 episodes.which told us the story of little Harold, a very curious four-year-old boy who was restless every night before going to sleep. So when he was anxious and before going to sleep, he explored the world outside his room. Harold would take a purple crayon and let his imagination fly with each drawing he made.
If Harold wanted to walk in the moonlight, but there was no moon, then the little boy would draw one. If there was no place to walk, then he would draw a path. Each stroke unleashed his infinite imagination into a world of great fantasy that came to life. His bedroom was a great setting for adventures, but at the end of each one, he would draw his own house and bed to go to sleep in and finish his great fantasy adventures.
This book led to six other books in a great series that spanned from 1956 to 1963… Image from: Sony Pictures
What is it about? Harold and his Magic Crayon
The magic of a book is always found in its words and characters. So, within the story of a children’s book, the adventurer, Harold (Zachary Levi) can make anything come to life by drawing it only with his purple crayon. This is how he lives many adventures alongside his companions “Moose” (Lil Rel Howery) and “Porcupine” (Tanya Reynolds).
When Harold grows up within the pages of the book and has a conversation with his creator or “Old Man” (Alfred Molina) as he calls him, this adventurer begins to have many doubts about himself, the physical world and what lies beyond the pages.
This is how a fleeting and quick idea draws itself out of this world of pages, which will take it through a traffic accident to the life of Terri (Zooey Deschanel), a former music composer, and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani), a child who takes refuge in his imagination and drawings.
But as Harold learns more about this new world around him, he’ll learn that his magic crayon can lead to many hilarious pranks and moments – as well as backfires when all that magic falls into the wrong hands of a strange fantasy writer, who seeks revenge against all those who make fun of his book.
Harold and his friends will need all their creativity to save the real world and their own within the pages. But they will also need to find their creator and learn many things about him along the way and understand how strange, true and incredible human life can be.
Purple is the thing today, you heard old man… Image from: Sony Pictures
“Life is not something that just happens. Life is what you create.”
Harold and his Magic Crayon, by Carlos Saldanha, is the first film adaptation of the beloved children’s classic. But after a long process that went through the hands of Spike Jonze, David O. Russell and more, it was in 2010 that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation together with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment in association with Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment were developing this first fully CGI-animated installment. Although everything stopped again and nothing more was heard of Harold and his Magic Crayon.
It was not until February 1, 2021, that director Carlos Saldanha was announced and that Zachary Levi would star in this first installment, without revealing more information about his character, but about a great technical detail, which would be that the film would combine live action and animation. This is where we ask ourselves: Did so much travel and years without seeing the color of that purple crayon serve any purpose?
The resounding answer is yes, although this is not the product that will break the box office or take the Minions out of a couple of times and rooms. But Harold and his Magic Crayon is something just and necessary for a different, healthy and small entertainment, which speaks both to the little ones in the house and to all those adults who have stopped imagining cool things, as “El Chicharito” would say.
Carlos Saldanha is a Brazilian animation director with important titles such as Olé, Ferdinand’s Journey (2017)Rio (2011) and co-directing Robots (2005) and that first installment of Ice Age (2002), as well as taking the baton of the two following installments. Why do we make these mentions? Because without a doubt, Saldanha takes the lead in exploring a hybrid with Harold and his Magic Crayon, which rarely works on the small or big screen.
Saldanha gives us a glimpse with the first few minutes animated in 2D, which may not be new to the viewer’s eye, but it helps us understand a certain tone and point of the story. This is how the director takes some advantage without being too unfamiliar with the terrain. It is certainly interesting how the Brazilian director takes us to live action in a humorous way, and perhaps for some, innocent and even magical.
Saldanha gives us a glimpse of a hybrid and the first few minutes animated in 2D… Image from: Sony Pictures
The direction within the work of Harold and his Magic Crayon achieves its goal of knowing how to balance real action and animation, playing a lot with our pupil and depending on it in some important points of the film and story. The director finds himself in a territory that is not so unknown to him, although for the first time he risks starting a friendly conversation with a real cast, where perfections do not exist and the caricatured is more than welcome.
We start by mentioning something good under the direction cover, we may not say much about the script, which is in charge of David Guion and Michael Handelman. And here, for many, a story like this may not require more depth and development “because Harold and his Magic Crayon is a children’s and family film,” although I think this work seeks to glimpse at times an interesting depth through one or another question and ending, that intention is lost with great force and all the purple color that this crayon can give us.
Script and Handelman connect with Saldanha’s direction and vision as well as managing to convey -in a certain way- the story of Harold and his friends. But When it comes to trying to develop or place certain things on the screen, they don’t manage to convince completely, nor do they allow those creations that are the subplots to be painted very well.in which there is no constant threat and only pure fun, as well as minimal consequences that become a joke without a great punchline.
These small stumbles are visible from afar and at first glance they can be its weakest point, as well as a soundtrack that is present in the first and last minutes of the film. But when a project of this caliber like Harold and his Magic Crayon is conceived from the healthiest and purest in terms of creativity, which is not much, but It delights the pupil or even the creativity of making us wonder what would happen if we had a magic crayon. What matters in the chair is to let ourselves go and be little again, enjoying a magical world that was no longer within our reach years ago.
Let your imagination fly and add lots of purple! Image from: Sony Pictures
The work of the scriptwriters seeks to speak to the little ones in the house and spend a pleasant family time, but within some moments in Harold and his Magic Crayon, is the echo of this adventure for those adults who have stopped dreaming, creating and imagining. Hence, we try to empathize a little more with Terri, the mother played by Zooey Deschanel, who is frustrated for not being able to follow the path of music and having lost creativity and frustrating her son’s imagination with something real that lacks colors or taste and fits into her same box of gray and dark colors.
But, even though we say all that, this plot and the villain’s plot don’t give us a reason to connect with said subplot, nor with the villain’s, which takes a while to enter the scene and when it should, we’re already completely in the last act that happens quickly. So the writing by Guion and Handelman may be a stumbling work without much development in its subplot, but it goes straight to its three main characters and that path and idea of searching for answers.
Zooey Deschanel returns to the big screen as a frustrated and colorless mom… Image from: Sony Pictures
When talking about Harold and his Magic Crayon, we cannot leave out Zachary Levi, who plays Harold, a character who seeks to enjoy life with all the imagination that accompanies him and share it with his best friends who are Moose (Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Reynolds).
Levi plays someone funny, charismatic and crazy at timesbut silly for the most demanding, what I would call someone innocent who discovers a new world next to little Bottani with whom he understands wonderfully and gives us a magnificent and fun duo, being the relief in the visual point and the funny madness within what we live in Harold and his Magic Crayon.
Levi and Bottani are a great on-screen friendship duo… / It’s a spider, it’s burning down the house because we’re moving! Image from: Sony Pictures
After being the bearer of super strength and fighting against some sins and goddesses, here he found a pretty interesting cushion where he can fool around, have fun and be a minimal version of Shazam.
Howery will be our beloved Moose, our protagonist’s sidekick and the one who is the fearful Jiminy Cricket without advice for Harold, fulfilling his objective very well and stealing a couple of laughs from us. Meanwhile, Reynolds will be in charge of interpreting a rebellious and fearless porcupine, self-assured, where the visual and costume aspect is an interesting detail, which makes it look wonderful on the actress’s skin.
Lil Rel Howery (Moose) is a good sidekick… Image from: Sony Pictures
While Jemaine Clement and Zooey Deschanel are not so favored by the script here, as their characters are pushed to the background, being placed as something else in the crowd. Clement is the villain that never exists until the last act, in which he makes an appearance and although he shines, it is very simple and his resolution is weak. And Deschanel only shows her foolishness of going against the imagination and being an indirect villain when she is on the good side, although it is the third and last act where we can see an evolution or correct step in her being. It is in these characters where the importance of the story lies, which at times feels failed.
Harold and his Magic Crayon is a very funny and endearing film because of its message and some things that come from a beautiful imagination. This work invites us to live the adventure, create the magic and above all, enjoy the colors that this film can offer us for the healthiest and most fun entertainment possible.
Saldanha comes out well in Harold and his Magic Crayon for the objectives he has set previously, where his eye and the lens through which he looks through the camera are noticeable in the visual; the script is vital here to enter the fantasy world, although it fails when it comes to developing those subplots that surround it and opts for the easy, crazy and fun, which works wonderfully if you are not too demanding.
Happiness for the little ones but a lesson for all those adults who want to belong, find the meaning of life and above all, continue creating with the great power that life gave us, imagination. Because yes, life is not something that comes, passes and happens, it is something that we create from the purest and we color it with the magic of time and moments.
