Zachary Levi interprets children’s literature classics

first few minutes harold and purple crayon Featuring charming hand-drawn animation, very much in the style of Crockett Johnson’s 1955 classic children’s picture book, it’s easy to see why it remains popular nearly 70 years later. In the original story, Harold is just a little boy who creates a wonderful world for himself with his magic crayons. Unfortunately, on the new big screen, the live-action/animated adaptation directed by Carlos Saldanha (ferdinand, Rio, Ice Age), he has grown up. Despite the appeal of star Zachary Levi, the film is unlikely to have the same staying power.

As early as a few years ago, people had made many attempts to make this book into a movie, and invited Maurice Sendak, David O. Russell, Will Smith, Steven Spear Big stars like Berg and Spike Jonze were involved (what a movie he could have made!). Even this version has been delayed more than once, having previously been scheduled for release last winter and summer.

David Jean and Michael Handman’s script has Harold yearning to experience life outside the confines of animation, drawing a door labeled “Real World” and walking through it. He appears as a burly Levi, looking goofy as he strolls through a city park in a jumpsuit that’s undoubtedly the right size considering the PG rating. He is followed by his cartoon friend the moose, and then the porcupine, represented by Lil Rel Howery and Tanya Reynolds (sex education) respectively.

Harold and Moose drift without the guidance of their creator to find their “old man,” leading to some not-so-funny gags in which they are accosted by several older gentlemen who react violently. Harold used crayons to draw them a bicycle for two. The two soon meet widowed single mother Terry (the ever-appealing Zooey Deschanel) and her young son Mel (Benjamin Botani, oozing loveliness), and in a few years… In a plot device, Mel invites them to spend the night in a room above them.

Needless to say, Harold and Mel hit it off. The young man identifies with Harold because he has an invisible friend named Carl. Mel attempts to help the two find their old man, which leads to inevitable drama as Harold uses his magic crayons to create various objects, including a plane that allows them to fly around the city, above Messages were written imploring the elderly to call them.

Making matters even more complicated is the story’s essential villain, Gary (Jemaine Clement), a librarian so obsessed with Terry that he wrote a 700-page fantasy The novel, apparently destined never to be published. When he finally realizes the power of Harold’s crayons, he uses a stolen portion to try to fulfill his romantic and literary dreams. It all leads to an elaborate painterly duel in a local park, in which the film parodies Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns.

This sequence in particular will pique the interest of the minnows who are clearly the target audience, and it’s reasonable to assume they’ll enjoy many of the other goofy antics, especially the animalistic creatures Harold and Mel draw (which we finally get to see Carl, who resembles a crocodile with flowing mane and wings). Adults, on the other hand, spend a lot of time scrolling on their phones because the humor is a lot like teenage slapstick.

Levi has some experience in this area, thanks to Shazam! and its sequel, once again proving that he is very good at playing a grown up boy. But if he wants to avoid being typecast, he might consider making an erotic thriller for his next project.

Howery makes for an interesting foil (there’s definitely a Laurel and Hardy vibe between them), but the idea of ​​a moose turning into a human doesn’t create much comic relief. Reynolds, however, is endearing, and her spiky hair visually resembles a porcupine’s quills. She’s hilarious as her character gleefully discovers the virtues of opposable thumbs.

Needless to say, everything works out in the end, especially as narrator Alfred Molina tells us in the dulcet tones of his voice—the aural version of the book’s author on screen, in a kind of Treat with reverence. It’s also nice that the movie pays sly homage to the Tom Hanks classic, big, it owes a clear debt. But it’s hard not to hope that in the future Harold sticks to the cartoon world where he belongs.