| Harold and the Purple Crayon | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Carlos Saldanha |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Based on | Harold and the Purple Crayon byCrockett Johnson |
| Produced by | John Davis |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Gabriel Beristain |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Batu Sener |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 90 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million[2] |
| Box office | $32.2 million[3][4] |
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 2024 Americanlive-action animatedfantasy comedy film directed byCarlos Saldanha (in his live-action feature-length directorial debut) from a screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman, based on the1955 children's book byCrockett Johnson. Combininglive-action and animation, the film starsZachary Levi,Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani,Jemaine Clement,Tanya Reynolds,Alfred Molina, andZooey Deschanel. In the film, after he draws himself off the book's pages and into the physical world, Harold finds that he has a lot to learn about real life.
Produced byJohn Davis throughDavis Entertainment in association withTSG Entertainment, the film premiered atCulver City in Los Angeles on July 21, 2024, and was released in the United States byColumbia Pictures throughSony Pictures Releasing on August 2. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was abox-office bomb, grossing $32.2 million against a $40 million production budget. It received aGolden Raspberry Award nomination,Worst Actor for Levi.
A young boy named Harold lives insidea book. His magic purplecrayon can make anything come to life, including his friends Moose and Porcupine, whom he spends time with.
Now an adult, Harold continues to have adventures. One day, the narrator, whom Harold refers to as "old man", mysteriously disappears. Determined to find him, Harold draws a door to the real world, and passes through it with Moose. In the city ofProvidence, Rhode Island, Harold and a now human Moose look for the old man, whom Harold believes is his father. Terry, the struggling single mother of an imaginative boy named Mel, accidentally hits Harold and Moose with her car. Mel convinces Terry to let Harold and Moose stay for the night. Mel secretly invites Harold downstairs and the two bond. Harold breaks off part of his crayon and gives it to Mel.
The next day, Terry tells Harold and Moose to leave. Upon leaving, Mel secretly joins them to look for Harold's father. In a library, they meet Gary Natwick, a librarian who struggles to pitch his idea for a fantasy novel. The three ask Gary if he can locate Harold's father via a computer, but this yields no results and the three leave. Harold draws a plane and usescontrails to display Terry's phone number in the sky, asking "old man" to call the number. Gary sees Harold draw the plane and recognizes the book he came from.
Gary meets up with Harold and Moose and shows them the book they came from. Harold sees the author's name on the cover and realizes that the "old man" he was searching for is namedCrockett Johnson. Harold and Moose later reunite with Porcupine, who is tackled by cops due to having previously broken into a house. The three are arrested, but quickly break out. They arrive at Johnson's house, only to find that he has died. Harold is distraught, causing all of his drawings to fade away, including Moose and Porcupine.
Alone, Harold meets up with Gary, who convinces Harold to give him the crayon, which Gary uses to imprison Harold and cosplay himself as a warrior from his fantasy novel. Mel arrives, but he is imprisoned too. Mel frees himself and Harold using the crayon piece Harold gave him, restoring everything Harold drew. In the town square they encounter Gary, who uses the crayon to create his fantasy world. Harold and Gary fight for the whole crayon, but Gary desperately swallows Harold's piece and absorbs its power, transforming the grass into molten lava. Mel uses his imaginary creature and a spider-fly hybrid to make Gary spit out the crayon. Everything returns to normal, and Harold draws Gary a door to the fantasy world from his novel. Gary enters. The door is then burnt down by the creature, causing Gary to lose his ability to leave.
Harold, Moose, Porcupine, Terry and Mel visit a museum of Johnson's work. After Harold discovers why he was created in a note left by Johnson, he, Moose and Porcupine return to their world, with Mel handing Harold a pack ofCrayola crayons when saying goodbye. Harold is overjoyed to have more colors and immediately begins experimenting.
In 1992, John B. Carls formed the family-film production company, Wild Things Productions, withMaurice Sendak, writer and illustrator ofWhere the Wild Things Are. They acquired rights to other children's books, includingHarold and the Purple Crayon, whose author,Crockett Johnson, was a mentor to Sendak. Sendak andDenise Di Novi were producers.[5] In 1994,Michael Tolkin was brought in to write the script andHenry Selick was attached to direct, but Selick moved on toJames and the Giant Peach forWalt Disney Pictures. Carls pickedSpike Jonze to develop the film, a combination of live action and animation.David O. Russell was brought in to help with rewrites.[6] Multiple screenplays, casting, storyboards, and animation work started, but Jonze had to abandon the project after more than a year of working on it when new management atTriStar Pictures stopped it, two months before principal photography was to begin.[7][8][9][10][11]
In February 2010, it was reported thatColumbia Pictures,Sony Pictures Animation,Steven Spielberg'sAmblin Entertainment, andWill Smith'sOverbrook Entertainment were developing an animated film adaptation ofHarold and the Purple Crayon, to be produced by Smith andJames Lassiter and written byJosh Klausner.[11][12] In December 2016, it was reported that the film would also be written byDallas Clayton.[13]
On February 1, 2021, it was reported thatZachary Levi would star in the film,[14] though it was initially not stated what role he would play at that time, except that the film would now be a combination of live-action and animation. It was also announced thatCarlos Saldanha was attached to direct the new film and that David Guion and Michael Handelman replaced Klausner and Clayton as screenwriters, withJohn Davis producing through hisDavis Entertainment banner.Lil Rel Howery was announced as part of the cast on January 11, 2022.[15]Zooey Deschanel andRavi Patel were added in February 2022.[16][17]Camille Guaty was cast on March 1, 2022.[18]Tanya Reynolds andPete Gardner joined in May 2022.[19][20] In January 2024, it was revealed thatJemaine Clement had joined the cast, reuniting with Saldanha after having previously voiced Nigel inRio (2011) and its sequel,Rio 2 (2014), both of which Saldanha directed while working forBlue Sky,[21] whileAlfred Molina was revealed to be the narrator.
Around the beginning of 2022,live-action filming took place inAtlanta, Georgia.[22][23][24]Gabriel Beristain served as the cinematographer.[25]
Tia Nolan andMark Helfrich serve as editors for the film.[26][27]
The visual effects were provided byRising Sun Pictures,Folks VFX,Framestore, Soho VFX, Opsis, Clear Angle Studio, Spin VFX, Nexodus and Mammal Studios, while the 2D animated sequences were provided byBent Image Lab. The end credits animation was provided by Plucky.
In February 2023, Batu Sener, who previously provided additional music to films composed by Saldanha's frequent collaboratorJohn Powell, was announced to be composing the film's score.[28] The full score was released on August 2, 2024, alongside an original single titled "Colors", performed by Boots Ottestad andJordy Searcy, which plays during the film'sclosing credits.[29]
Harold and the Purple Crayon was released in theaters on August 2, 2024.[30] It was originally scheduled to be released on January 27, 2023,[31] and June 30, 2023.[32]
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film ondigital download on August 27,[33] and onBlu-ray andDVD on October 8.[34]
In April 2021, Sony signed deals withNetflix andDisney for the rights to their 2022 to 2026 film slate, following the films' theatrical and home media windows. Netflix signed for exclusive "pay 1 window" streaming rights, which is typically an 18-month window and includedHarold and the Purple Crayon. Disney signed for "pay 2 window" rights for the films, which would be streamed onDisney+ andHulu as well as broadcast on Disney's linear television networks.[35]
The Netflix move would prove somewhat ironic in this film's case, as several news outlets, most notablyBloomberg News, reported in October 2024 that Sony had attempted to sell the film directly to the streamer, in a manner similar to such reports for Sony'sHolmes & Watson when they had previously attempted to do so in 2018; it was reported that the offer was made out of concerns from Sony that the film would have their intended family audience usurped by rival releasesInside Out 2 andDespicable Me 4. Much like theHolmes attempt, Netflix refused, choosing to focus more on in-house projects and their distribution window deals at that time.[36][37]
The first teaser posters were released on March 13, 2024, confirming that Harold would be played by Levi and that the character, originally a child, would be portrayed as a grown man in the film.[38] A trailer for the film was released on March 20, 2024.[39] On June 25, 2024,Crayola partnered with Sony Pictures UK for a competition to find specially wrapped purple crayons hidden in packs of the 24-count crayons. The winner will be flown off on a family vacation toNew York City and taken to theCrayola Experience as part of their prize.[40]
As of October 3, 2024[update],Harold and the Purple Crayon has grossed $17.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $14.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $32.2 million.[3][4] This ultimately meant the film failed to recover its reported $40 million budget, becoming abox office bomb.Deadline Hollywood writer Anthony D'Alessandro suggested the reasons for the film's failure, besides its competitors and poor reviews, was the intellectual property in general being too old for most moviegoers, as well as too juvenile for most non-family audiences, leaving the film with a very small target audience; he further suggested it was also because the "low budget, zany-fantastical formula of old kids IP" that Sony Pictures had previously done withPeter Rabbit andLyle, Lyle, Crocodile, in his opinion, was considered "old hat" by audiences by that time.
In the United States and Canada,Harold and the Purple Crayon was released alongsideTrap, and was projected to gross $5–6 million from 3,325 theaters in its opening weekend. Its release date caused the film to face competition withDeadpool & Wolverine andTrap, the latter which was released the same day, as well as the aforementioned competition withInside Out 2 andDespicable Me 4, which were released earlier in the summer.[41] The film made $2.4 million on its first day, going on to debut to $6 million, finishing sixth at the box office.[42]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 28% of 72 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "A high-concept treatment that misses out on the blissful simplicity of its source material,Harold and the Purple Crayon is a tribute to imagination that's content to only color inside the lines."[43]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[44] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed byPostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 70%, with 46% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[42]
| Year | Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Family Film Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film | Zachary Levi | Nominated | |
| 2025 | Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Actor | Nominated | [45] |
_Dec_2024.jpg){kind=icon}
