A cartoon man, Harold, lives in a world of his own where he creates anything he wants by drawing with a special purple crayon. He draws a moose and porcupine, and the 3 become good friends.

One day, Harold wants to go to the real world. The narrator, whom he calls his old man, advises against it. But he chooses to go, anyway.

Harold transforms from a 2D drawing into a real-life person. Intrigued, he explores the real world. But people do not treat him nicely like he hoped.

Shortly after, Moose joins the real world, too–but is transformed into a human man. He finds Harold and they have fun together. But they unintentionally cause a little bit of chaos, which causes a car to run into them.

A woman, Terri, apologizes for running into them. Harold decides to draw a new wheel for her car since hers fell out. This excites her son, Mel.

After learning about Harold and Moose, such as their lives and the old man that they are looking for, Terri allows them to stay at her house for one night.

Harold shows Mel his magical crayon and how whatever he draws comes to life. Mel tries–only to create a vicious little spider that flies. But it causes no harm.

The next day, Terri wakes up to find a bunch of pies. Moose, Harold, and Mel are eating them for breakfast, which Terri does not approve of. She tells Harold and Moose that they have to leave, and that Mel has to go to school.

Regardless of the demand, though, Moose and Harold walk with Mel to his school. But they come across something that may have the answer to who the old man is. So, Harold draws roller skates and a skateboard for him, Moose, and Mel to go to the place for their answer: the library.

Meanwhile, Porcupine, who has been in the real world for a bit (and has also turned into a person), is on the run since she broke into somebody’s house, assuming that Harold was there.

While in the library, the trio find the librarian, Gary, reading his book. They ask him about the old man. He says that there are millions of old men.

Mel says that he isn’t allowed to give his phone number to strangers. So, Harold and Moose decide to write Mel’s mom’s phone number in the air, hoping that one will reveal himself to be Harold’s specific old man.

At work, Terri receives countless phone calls from various elderly men. When Harold and Moose find the store she works at, she gives them a hard time about the phone calls.

Meanwhile, Mel gets into a fight at school with a couple of bullies. The 3 are called to the principal’s office.

Terri gets a phone call about that. On the other hand, her boss warns her not to make or answer any more personal calls while at work. But since she needs to go to Mel’s school, Harold and Moose offer to take over for her. Yet their help turns into multiple disasters as Harold draws “solutions” with his purple crayon, causing chaos to erupt inside the store. Terri even loses her job. She wants nothing to do with them, nor does she want Mel around them anymore.

But Moose and Harold still want to be with them.

This movie cracked me up several times–too many to count. Many of those involved Harold and Moose acting silly since they’d just entered the real world for the first time ever. This reminded me of 2003’s Elf, where Buddy struggled to act civilized in a different society.

The scenes that made me laugh the most were the old men’s phone calls and the disasters at the store right before Terri got fired.

As with many great films, the characterization is strong. I admired Mel’s relationship with Harold and Moose. This led to lots of twists and turns in the story.

Even though Porcupine had less screen time, she still had enough that I enjoyed watching her. An example is when she ate purple-frosted cake in a stranger’s house before he heard her and called the cops. 

Another element that stands out to me is the saturation quality of the movie. I did not expect it to be that prismatic, although it didn’t go far enough to resemble a kiddie show with bright colors. I think it was just the right tone.

Even though this movie is a comedy, it is not always lighthearted. There are occasionally some dark moments that involve the librarian, Gary. But since this movie is rated PG, it probably won’t scare kids too much–at least not older ones. The intense scenes might frighten some young children, though, depending on their ages and how they handle those kinds of moments.

Overall, I really enjoyed Harold and the Purple Crayon and consider it a fantastic comedic movie that the whole family could enjoy. Most of you reading this probably grew up reading the picture book. So, you will likely pick up on references from it.

I give this film 5 out of 5 stars.