HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts inside the world of the book, “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. The narrator/author, Crockett Johnson (Alfred Molina), tells the story of Harold, a little boy who discovered a magic purple crayon that would bring to life anything that he drew. Harold drew himself friends, Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds), before expanding their own world. As Harold (Zachary Levi) becomes an adult, his imagination grows, and he spends all his time having fun with Moose and Porcupine.

One day, the three hear Johnson’s voice narrating, as he tells them that he created them. However, he doesn’t say much else before disappearing completely. This bothers Harold so much that he decides to set out to find his “old man” himself. He uses his crayon to draw a portal to the real world, which creates a portal for him and his friends to go through. Moose is hesitant until Porcupine uses one of her quills to push him through after Harold. Unfortunately for Porcupine, she gets left behind until she is able to open the door and go through herself.

Harold and Moose enter the real world together, with Moose turning into a human (who, for some reason, still turns into a moose when he’s scared). After Harold takes a moment to enjoy what the real world is like, they spot an elderly man and simply assume he is the old man they are looking for, but he scares Harold and Moose off. Harold then draws a bike and brings it to life, but while riding it, Moose briefly transforms and scares a mother, Terri (Zooey Deschanel), and her son Mel (Benjamin Bottani), causing them to get a flat tire when she swerves. Harold draws a spare tire for Terri, and she invites him and Moose to stay in their guest house.

Porcupine shows up late and has a little adventure of her own. She comes upon a house with purple flowers, thinking that Harold is leaving her clues. She ends up breaking into someone’s house and eats their cake before the alarms go off and the house owners threaten to call the cops. Two detectives, Silva (Camille Guaty) and Love (Pete Gardner), are assigned to go after her since she ran into the same old man that Harold and Moose bothered.

Harold bonds with Mel overnight, as Mel doesn’t feel he fits in at school with the other kids. He noticed Harold using the crayon and thinks he has found a kindred spirit, since Mel has an imaginary friend named Carl, who is some kind of weird animal hybrid. Harold demonstrates the crayon’s magic by creating one of Mel’s drawings, a spider-fly.

Mel decides to help Harold and Moose by trying to help find their “old man” by going to the library. There, they find Gary Nastwick (Jemaine Clement), a failed fantasy writer trying to sell off his own series with a world that is overly complicated and a title that is hard to pronounce. Gary also has a creepy crush on Terri and based the love interest of his book on her. After getting no help from him, Harold, Moose, and Mel leave. Gary witnesses Harold using the crayon to draw up a plane, which lets Gary know where Harold has come from. He grabs a copy of Harold’s book and begins to plot something.

Harold flies with Moose and Mel through the skies until Moose morphs again and causes them to abandon the plane and parachute back down to town. Mel goes to school, where he is bothered by two bullies. When they try to steal his whistle (one he wears around his neck for Carl), he elbows one of the bullies in the face, giving him a bloody nose. This gets him sent to the principal’s office.

Harold and Moose later join Terri at her retail job while she is getting bothered by her demanding boss (Ravi Patel). When Terri needs to go to the school for Mel, the two work her job (despite not actually being hired), and Harold gets bored so fast that he uses the crayon to draw stuff like a live puma (after a customer asks for the shoe brand) and adding a propeller to a coin-operated ride so a child can actually fly (with his mother dangling from the bottom trying to save him). They get Terri fired, but she gets over it fast because she admits that she really did hate that job.

Terri joins the three as they walk through town. When they get to the town square, Harold draws up a piano for Terri to play on since she stopped playing music after her husband died. She ends up playing a beautiful and jaunty melody on the piano, but meanwhile, Porcupine is causing a scene at a diner before she is chased by Silva and Love.

Gary finds Harold and Moose, pulling them away from Terri and Mel. He shows them the book of “Harold and the Purple Crayon”, and then informs them of Crockett Johnson. Just as Harold finds out the good news, Porcupine runs into him and Moose. Their joyful reunion is cut short when Silva tackles Porcupine to the ground, and the three friends are arrested.

At school, Mel gets locked in a closet by the bullies. He pulls out a piece of the crayon that Harold broke off earlier to give him for safekeeping, and he uses it to draw Carl to life. He breaks out of the closet, scares the bullies, and then helps get Mel out.

Mel bails Harold, Moose, and Porcupine out, and Porcupine draws a car so they can ride it to Johnson’s house. Gary fails to chase after them to get his hands on Harold’s crayon. When the group arrives at Johnson’s home, they meet the caretaker, Ms. Barnaby (Elizabeth Becka). She says that the home has been turned into a museum for Johnson’s works, and he has long since passed away. Terri arrives after tracking Mel down, and she chastises Harold for getting involved in their lives and making things worse. After they leave, Harold starts to get sad and view the whole thing as a waste of time. With his spirits faltering, everything that he has drawn, including Moose and Porcupine, begins to disappear.

Harold ends up alone until he is once again found by Gary. After a talk, Gary convinces Harold to give him the crayon. Using the crayon’s power, Gary fashions himself into the warrior from his book and imprisons Harold in a dungeon of his own creation. Mel shows up, having figured out something was wrong, but he gets trapped too. After Gary leaves, Mel pulls out the piece of crayon and draws a key to free themselves.

Gary goes into the town square to create his world, while Terri has joined to get Mel back. Harold tries to battle Gary by drawing things to use against him, but Gary ends up swallowing his piece of the crayon, which allows him to harness the crayon’s power with his own hands. Mel summons Carl to breathe fire and fight Gary, while Moose and Porcupine come back to life. While Carl distracts Gary, Moose morphs again to headbutt the crayon out of Gary’s stomach, removing the power and all that he created. Harold sees that Gary is bummed out over not being accepted, so he draws a door to allow Gary to enter a real version of his fantasy world, complete with the Terri clone. Gary is thankful to Harold, but Carl burns the door down so that Gary can never return.

Everyone takes a trip to the Johnson museum so they can see how Harold’s world was created. Harold asks Ms. Barnaby why Johnson created him, and she brings him to a room where Johnson left a note specifically for him for whenever the time was right. Harold is encouraged to continue believing in himself and to let his imagination continue to grow, thereby inspiring other kids to do the same. Harold, Moose, and Porcupine bid Terri and Mel goodbye before returning to their world with crayons in different colors to keep building their world.

During the credits, Gary tries to make a move on Zerri (the Terri clone), only to discover that she is already in a relationship with a wizard from that world.

Harold, the titular protagonist of "Harold and the Purple Crayon", lives in his own world and uses his magic crayon to bring to life anything he draws. One day, he overhears the voice of his creator, author Crockett Johnson. He and his friends, Moose and Porcupine, venture into the real world outside of the book to try and find Johnson. They befriend a woman, Terri, and her son, Mel, while a failed author named Gary Nastwick learns of Harold's origins and wants to use the crayon to build his own fantasy world for real.

Harold's involvement in Terri and Mel's lives varies, as he gets her fired from her job that she hated but also reinvigorates her love for music. Mel is also helped by standing up to his bullies. He helps Harold and his friends locate Johnson's house, only to find that he's long since passed away. After Terri scolds Harold for getting Mel involved in his shenanigans, Harold's spirits falter, which affects his imagination and everything that he has drawn, causing Moose and Porcupine to disappear.

Gary convinces a lonely Harold to give him the crayon, allowing him to start creating his fantasy world. Mel arrives to help with a piece of crayon that Harold gave him. With Harold's spirits lifted, Moose and Porcupine come back to help him get the crayon back from Gary and defeat him. However, Harold draws a door into Gary's own fantasy world so he can be happy.

Everyone visits the Johnson house which is now a museum for his works. After reading an encouraging note from Johnson written to Harold, he and his friends say goodbye to Terri and Mel before returning home with a new set of crayons.