Harold And The Purple Crayon [Blu-Ray]

Director: Carlos Saldanha

Cast: Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Zooey Deschanel

Release Date: October 8, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Inside of his book, adventurous Harold (Zachary Levi) can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After he grows up and draws himself into the physical world, Harold finds he has a lot to learn about the real world. When the power of unlimited imagination falls into the wrong hands, it will take all of Harold and his friends’ creativity to save both the real world and his own.

‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ tells the magical story of Harold, a boy that grew up in a book with the ability to use his purple crayon in order to bring anything he draws to life and always perfectly content with his carefree existence. But when Harold grows into a man and suddenly stops hearing the voice of his narrator, a person he knows only as the “old man” or dad, Harold draws a doorway into the real world and along with his created friends Porcupine and Moose sets out an adventure in unknown territory as he hunts for any sign of his old man, but with no knowledge or preparation of the world he’s entering. After a kindhearted woman and her son befriend Harold, the boy joins the trio to help search for Harold’s dad, yet their quest will be anything but easy.

Directed by Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Rio) from a screenplay written by David Guion & Michael Handelman (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb) and based on the book by Crockett Johnson, Saldanha does a decent job at the helm of ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ guiding along the tale with heart and wonder. The film’s cast includes Zachary Levi (Shazam!), Lil Rel Howery (Good Burger 2), Jemaine Clement (Avatar: The Way of Water), Tanya Reynolds (TV’s Sex Education), Benjamin Bottani (Leo), Alfred Molina (DC League of Super-Pets) and Zooey Deschanel (Trolls World Tour) who each offer decent or the very least capable performances in their respective roles.

‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ is an enjoyable, family friendly adventure that has its heart in the right place and does a solid job of creating a beautiful tale with heart and humor, but at the same time it rarely manages to excel beyond the realm of average. It keeps things light and somewhat humorous with some mildly serious elements to back it up, and then delivers a fairly average fish out of water tale for younger viewers that’s equally clever and repetitive at times but at the very least should have no trouble keeping the kids thoroughly entertained with its colorful style and positive vibe.

Based upon the book by Crockett Johnson, ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ takes a curious approach to the material and utilizes the source material as more of a kicking off point than as a basis, creating a sequel of sorts that’s fun but is never quite able to materialize a coherent structure or plot, often jumping from one element to another and allowing coincidences to align the various stories and try to make a complete movie. This one is definitely more geared towards the children than adults and while older viewers who enjoy family films will probably still have a good bit of fun with it, the odds of it making a mark or staying prominent in your thoughts is far less likely.

Overall, ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ always has its heart in the right place and offers a fun, easygoing and delightfully positive ride that won’t give parents any reasons to keep their kids away, but it never manages draw itself into anything overly memorable or spectacular, although the solid cast helps to keep the fun from ever becoming too ridiculous or childish, although it does come close at times. If you’re looking for a fun film that doesn’t get too dark, serious or complicated, then ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ is recommended and should make for a perfect evening’s entertainment that will keep you smiling and entertained from start to finish, although I would encourage renting it before picking up a copy if you haven’t yet seen the film unless you have young ones at home who are likely to want to revisit it.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks wonderful as a whole and delivers a clean, nicely detailed and vibrantly colored presentation from start to finish that never suffers from any unexpected faults or issues to be uncovered. Detail is great and noticeable on character specifics, along with Harold’s magical purple creations, plus the city streets, interiors and everything else, all of which is nicely boosted by clean, bright colors (especially purple naturally) that dazzle throughout. Overall, this is a very solid high definition presentation that holds up nicely every step of the way and should easily please fans and newcomers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack nicely complements the onscreen fun and adventure, providing a clean, crisp and at times fairly aggressive audio presentation. It frequently takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, magical creature, action and vehicle effects, along with crowd chatter and more zipping throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, while never conflicting with any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously. Overall, this is a very nice 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that does its job well and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ includes a few brief extras. Included on the release is a collection of ‘Deleted and Extended Scenes’ from the movie (running approximately 7 minutes in length altogether), along with some fun videos aimed primarily at the younger viewers including ‘How to Draw Harold, Porcupine and Moose’ (running approximately 6 minutes), ‘”Colors” Sing-Along’ (approximately 1 minute) and ‘How Do You Spell Imagination?’ (2 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

–

Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

–

‘Harold And The Purple Crayon’ Arrives on Blu-ray & DVD October 8, 2024 & is Now Available on Digital from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

–

You can purchase ‘Harold And The Purple Crayon’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

*Screen-Connections.com is an Amazon Associate that earns from qualifying purchases