They Made Harold And The Purple Crayon Into The Dumbest Movie Possible, Here’s The Proof
Harold And The Purple Crayon is a 1955 children’s book that Columbia Pictures is now adapting into an animated/live-action mashup movie set to release later this year. However, hopes are not high for the final result. From what is known about the movie so far and the release of a new trailer, the execution of the film seems a bit simple.
The trailer shows a grown Harold using his crayon to draw a door to “The Real World.” The narrator explains that some stories are so real they step right into our world. Cool, right? No.
Harold and the famed purple crayon aren’t quite as entertaining when Harold is a grown dude. The book’s main appeal is that it’s a 4-year-old little guy getting lost in his imagination (to a point that could be frightening to some from a mental health standpoint, but that’s another article entirely). That’s cute. When a grown man does the same thing, he comes off as a little unstable.
One part of the new trailer shows a mad scientist-looking guy asking Harold, “Do you know what brought you to life … it’s what your crayon is made of. The most mysterious, powerful, extraordinary stuff on Earth.” Grown Harold looks a bit aloof as he answers, “Wax.”
This is not the first time someone has adapted Harold And The Purple Crayon to screen. In 1959, a seven-minute short film was released by Weston Woods Studios. In 1971, A Picture for Harold’s Room was directed by Gene Deitch, and in 1974, he did a third animation titled Harold’s Fairy Tale.
If you plan to create another adaptation of Harold And The Purple Crayon, you better have a good plan.
The three animations were released all together in a documentary package about the children’s book in 1993, and the stories were used as material for the popular CBS children’s show Captain Kangaroo for many years.
Harold and the purple crayon also make a cameo in the “couch gag” part of The Simpsons opening sequence for the episode entitled The Bob Next Door. Harold draws the Simpsons’ living room and then a can of Duff beer for Homer.
Fast-forward to 2001, and a 13-episode TV series was released on HBO, narrated by Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) and featuring Connor Matheus (Randy in Snow Day) as Harold. The series centered around Harold having new adventures with his purple crayon, with each episode focusing on a particularly important life lesson. It was so popular among audiences that it won a Daytime Emmy Award.
Maybe the live-action Harold And The Purple Crayon is labeled in the wrong genre.
If you plan to create another adaptation of Harold And The Purple Crayon, you better have a good plan. Carlos Saldanha directs the upcoming live-action adaptation of Harold’s story. It is based on Crockett Johnson’s original novel, but it certainly doesn’t follow the same storyline as the book.
If you think about it, a world full of children’s drawings coming to life would be fairly terrifying all on its own. Maybe the movie isn’t a dumb idea. Maybe the live-action Harold And The Purple Crayon is labeled in the wrong genre. It’s a horror flick at its core.
