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Movie Review – Harold and the Purple Crayon

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Harold and the Purple Crayon is probably a great movie, if you’re a pre-teen. I’m not sure kids much older than that will enjoy it too much. The characters and plot are all obvious and I didn’t get the feeling that the moral of the story really had any impact.

It’s difficult to really tell what the moral of the story is. There’s the “don’t be evil” aspect, but that’s fairly obvious. And there’s a little of the “believe in yourself” story, but that again isn’t well done in the movie. The main character only looses faith in himself for about two minutes of the story.

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There’s a little bit of the “parent’s should believe/support their children’s needs” but that too doesn’t really land. I think the story tries to have a few moral lessons and the result is that none of them really stand out.

Maybe the moral of the story is: writers should stick to only one moral of the story.

All of that aside, the antics and imagination of Harold’s drawing adventures are probably appealing to a very young five-to-ten year old children. The movie does have a 92% by the audience at RottenTomatoes, so someone enjoyed it. The critics however did not enjoy it.

Grade: B

About The Peetimes: This is a short movie, only about 80 minutes without the end credits. I would recommend the first Peetime. It’s the easiest to summarize. Neither of the Peetimes has any crazy antics that kids enjoy.

There are extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Rated: (PG) Thematic Elements | Mild Action
Genres: Adventure, Animation, Comedy
Starring: Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Writer(s): David Guion, Michael Handelman, Crockett Johnson
Language: English
Country: United States

Plot
Inside of his book, adventurous Harold can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After he grows up and draws himself off the book’s pages and into the physical world, Harold finds he has a lot to learn about real life.

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July 11, 2019

I’ve loved this app for years and use it at the theater and home. Super easy to use and so helpful to know when it’s a good time to run for the restroom. I notify my kids when it’s close to time, so I don’t end up running them to the restroom multiple times. (Updated review from 4 to 5 . I’d had an issue with the app while at the theater and it was quickly resolved with FANTASTIC customer service. Thanks, RunPee!)

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Comments

3 responses to “Movie Review – Harold and the Purple Crayon”

  1. Hey, Dan! Can you help me figure out your rating strategy. What about the movie rates it a ‘B’? Do you have criteria for each rating? Not attempting to criticize— but i think a ‘B’ is a good grade (it was for me in school—haha) but I didn’t see many positive details in the actual review to mark it that high. For comparison, If i rate a movie that is an A or B It would be one i would see again (A) or pay full price for. (A and B). If it’s a C, I’d go matinee, discount coupons, or at least look further into the details. A movie rating of D I’d check it out on streaming. And an F — well, I’d wait it out for tv or skip all together. The plus and minus on the letters would be my way of saying more detail of plot, acting, etc that were either negative or positive.

    What in your review gives this a B? Is it the people poll? What you think toddlers would enjoy? Or do you rate based on your own feelings? Knowing that will help me when i see the ratings, because I ‘usually’ agree on the content of your movie reviews, but I don’t always agree on your ratings. Thanks for the help— and keep up the good work! I praise the app to everyone i know.

    1. Hey Susanne. That’s a really good question. I could write an entire blog post on the subject. I would say that we could be more systematic with how we grade reviews, because it can be inconsistent. Especially if we’re reviewing a movie that isn’t in our favorite genres. This movie is a good example. I would never see Harold and the Purple Crayon by choice, and if I were rating it based on how I liked it, it would go much lower. But in cases like this I try to take into account the intended audience and how I think it appeals to them. In this case, I would say that for young kids it achieves what you would hope for. If you really want to know how I feel about a movie then read my reviews on science fiction, action, or super-hero movies. Those are my favorite genres and I can give those movies a true rating.

  2. Thank you! That helps….. as I agree with 90% of your reviews in the genres that I see. There are others reviewers at runpee I also depend on to determine if I will like depending on their review and/or rating. This one threw me though. Thanks for the explanation. I will keep looking at the sci-fi, action and superheros from you.

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