Harold and the Purple Crayon
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Carlos Saldanha
Screenplay by	David Guion Michael Handelman
Based on	Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Produced by	John Davis
Starring	Zachary Levi Lil Rel Howery Jemaine Clement Tanya Reynolds Zooey Deschanel
Narrated by	Alfred Molina
Cinematography	Gabriel Beristain
Edited by	Tia Nolan Mark Helfrich
Music by	Batu Sener
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Davis Entertainment TSG Entertainment
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release dates	July 21, 2024 (2024-07-21) (Culver City) August 2, 2024 (2024-08-02) (United States)
Running time	90 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million[2]
Box office	$20.9 million[3][4]

Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 2024 American fantasy comedy film directed by Carlos Saldanha (in his live-action feature-length directorial debut) from a screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman, based on the 1955 children's book by Crockett Johnson. Combining live-action and animation, the film stars Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, Alfred Molina, and Zooey Deschanel. It serves as a sequel to the original book, with Harold growing up with his magical purple crayon. 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 by John Davis through Davis Entertainment in association with TSG Entertainment, the film premiered at Culver City in Los Angeles on July 21, 2024, and was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing on August 2. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $20.9 million at the box office against a $40 million budget.

Harold, a young boy who lives inside of a book, can make anything come to life simply by drawing it with the help of a magic purple crayon, such as his two friends Moose and Porcupine.

When Harold grows up, the narrator who he refers to as "old man" mysteriously disappears one day. Harold decides to draw a door into the real world to go and look for him. Moose follows, with Porcupine getting left behind for a short while before being separated from the other two in the real world. Harold draws a bike that he and Moose, now a human, ride to look for the old man, who Harold believes is his father. Terri, the mother of an imaginative boy named Mel, accidentally hits Harold and Moose with her car. Terri finds a puncture in her right front tire, to which Harold draws a new one while she isn't looking, much to Terri's confusion. Mel convinces Terri to let Harold and Moose stay for the night, and they are hidden in a room above her garage. That 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, Terri informs Harold and Moose that they have to leave while Mel goes to school. When the two do leave, Mel secretly joins them to help look for Harold's father. The three go to a library where they meet Gary Natwick, a librarian who is struggling to pitch his overly-complicated idea for a fantasy novel and has a secret crush on Terri; the two met in college. The three ask Gary if he can locate Harold's father on a computer, but they find no results due to their information on him being too vague. When the three leave, Harold draws a plane and uses contrails to display Terri'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. After Terri receives several calls at work from strangers, she then receives a call from the school that Mel was involved in a bullying incident and must return home immediately. Harold and Moose find Terri at work; the latter of whom assigns the duo with filling in for her by moving boxes in the storage room. The two get bored after six minutes of working and enter the shopping area to help in other ways. They cause chaos, which results in Terri getting fired, in which Terri soon gets over it due to hating the job.

Harold, Moose, Terri and Mel walk into the town square, where Harold draws a piano for Terri to play; Harold found out in the garage that Terri secretly wanted to be a pianist. Afterwards, 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 named Crockett Johnson. Soon after, Harold and Moose reunite with Porcupine, who is tackled by cops due to having previously broken into a house and stolen a leather jacket. The three are arrested, but quickly break out when Harold draws a wrecking ball to break the prison wall. Later on, Porcupine drives a motorcycle drawn by Harold to Crockett Johnson's house, only to find that he has died. Harold is distraught and everything he drew begins to fade away, including Moose and Porcupine.

Alone, Harold soon meets up with Gary, who convinces Harold to give him the crayon. Gary uses the crayon to imprison Harold in his office and cosplay himself as a warrior from his fantasy world. Mel arrives and is quickly imprisoned too but frees himself and Harold using the crayon piece Harold gave him, restoring his happiness and everything he drew, including Moose and Porcupine. They encounter Gary in the town square, who is using the crayon to create his fantasy world. Harold and Gary fight for the whole crayon, but Gary swallows Harold's crayon piece and absorbs its power, using his hands to transform the grass into molten lava. Mel uses his imaginary creature Carl, who he drew earlier at school in a desperate situation, to make Gary spit out the crayon piece with help from Moose and Porcupine. Everything returns to normal, and Harold draws Gary a door into his world so he can live out his fantasy. Gary enters before the door is burnt down by Carl.

In the aftermath, Harold, Moose, Porcupine, Terri and Mel visit a museum of Crockett 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 of Crayola multi-colored crayons when saying goodbye.

• Zachary Levi as Harold, a man who has a purple crayon which makes whatever he draws come to life
• Lil Rel Howery as Moose, a moose who is one of Harold's friends and becomes human in the real world
• Benjamin Bottani as Mel, a boy who befriends Harold
• Zooey Deschanel as Terri, Mel's mother, who is skeptical of Harold's imagination
• Jemaine Clement as Gary Natwick, a librarian who gets a hold of a piece of Harold's crayon in order to bring his misunderstood fantasy novel to life.
• Tanya Reynolds as Porcupine, a porcupine who is one of Harold's friends and becomes human in the real world
• Alfred Molina as the Narrator / Crockett Johnson, Harold's creator, whom Harold and his friends refer to as "the old man"
• Ravi Patel as Prasad
• Camille Guaty as Junior Detective Silva
• Pete Gardner as Detective Love
• Seth Robbins as Oscar

In 1992, John B. Carls formed the family-film production company, Wild Things Productions, with Maurice Sendak, writer and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are. They acquired rights to other children's books, including Harold and the Purple Crayon, whose author, Crockett Johnson, was a mentor to Sendak. Sendak and Denise Di Novi were producers.^[5] In 1994, Michael Tolkin was brought in to write the script and Henry Selick was attached to direct, but Selick moved on to James and the Giant Peach for Walt Disney Pictures. Carls picked Spike 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 at TriStar Pictures stopped it, two months before principal photography was to begin.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

In February 2010, it was reported that Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment were developing an animated film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, to be produced by Smith and James Lassiter and written by Josh Klausner.^[11][12] In December 2016, it was reported that the film would also be written by Dallas Clayton.^[13]

On February 1, 2021, it was reported that Zachary 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 that Carlos Saldanha was attached to direct the new film and that David Guion and Michael Handelman replaced Klausner and Clayton as screenwriters, with John Davis producing through his Davis Entertainment banner. Lil Rel Howery was announced as part of the cast on January 11, 2022.^[15] Zooey Deschanel and Ravi Patel were added in February 2022.^[16][17] Camille Guaty was cast on March 1, 2022.^[18] Tanya Reynolds and Pete Gardner joined in May 2022.^[19][20] In January 2024, it was revealed that Jemaine Clement had joined the cast, reuniting with Saldanha after having previously voiced Nigel in Rio (2011) and its sequel, Rio 2 (2014),^[21] while Alfred Molina was revealed to be the narrator.

Around the beginning of 2022, live-action filming took place in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.^[22][23][24] Gabriel Beristain served as the cinematographer.^[25]

Tia Nolan and Mark Helfrich serve as editors for the film.^[26][27]

The visual effects were provided by Rising Sun Pictures, Folks VFX, Framestore, Soho VFX, Opsis, Clear Angle Studio, Spin VFX, Nexodus and Mammal Studios, while the 2D animated sequences were provided by Bent 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 collaborator John 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 and Jordy Searcy, which plays during the film's closing credits.

Harold and the Purple Crayon was released in theaters on August 2, 2024.^[29] It was originally scheduled to be released on January 27, 2023,^[30] and June 30, 2023.^[31]

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.^[32] A trailer for the film was released on March 20, 2024.^[33] On June 25, 2024, Crayola partnered with Sony Pictures 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 holiday to New York City and taken to the Crayola Experience as part of their prize.^[34]

As of August 18, 2024^[update], Harold and the Purple Crayon has grossed $15.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $20.9 million.^[3][4]

In the United States and Canada, Harold and the Purple Crayon was released alongside Trap, and was projected to gross $5–6 million from 3,325 theaters in its opening weekend.^[35] The film made $2.4 million on its first day, going on to debut to $6 million, finishing sixth at the box office.^[36]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 59 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.60/10. 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."^[37] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.^[38] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 70%, with 46% saying they would definitely recommend the film.^[36]

• Official website
• Harold and the Purple Crayon at IMDb 
• Harold and the Purple Crayon at Metacritic