Author | Crockett Johnson |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Genre | Children's novel |
Publisher | HarperCollins Scholastic Corporation Weston Woods |
Publication date | 1955 |
Pages | 64 |
OCLC | 22963112 |
[E] 22 | |
LC Class | MLCS 2006/43120 (P) |
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 1955 children's picture book written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson. Published by Harper Collins Publishers, it is Johnson's most popular book, and has led to a series of other related books, as well as many adaptations. The story is written in third-person point-of-view, and follows a young boy on an imaginative adventure through the night. [1]
The protagonist, Harold, is a curious four-year-old [2] boy who, with his magic purple crayon, has the power to create a world of his own simply by drawing it.
Harold wants to go for a walk in the moonlight, but there is no moon, so he draws one. He has nowhere to walk, so he draws a path. Using his purple crayon, he goes on many adventures including encountering a dragon, boating through deep waters, eating a picnic consisting of only nine flavors of pies, and flying in a hot-air balloon that saves him from a fall. Eventually Harold grows tired, and searches for his bedroom window in order to go to bed. He draws many windows, drawing an entire city, yet none is his. Finally, Harold remembers where his window is situated and constructs his own room and bed, and nods off to sleep. [1]
The original story was adapted by Weston Woods Studios (distribution starting in 1959) and Brandon Films [ citation needed ] into a seven-minute short film in 1959, directed by David Piel and narrated by Norman Rose. [3] [4] In 1971, Gene Deitch directed an animation of A Picture for Harold's Room, and in 1974 an animation of Harold's Fairy Tale. In 1993, these three animations were packaged with a documentary, and sold as the Harold and the Purple Crayon and Other Harold Stories set. These stories were featured on the popular CBS children's television show Captain Kangaroo , which ran for 30 years from 1955 to 1984 before moving to PBS for six more. There have also been theater adaptations. [5] [6]
In the couch gag for The Simpsons episode "The Bob Next Door", Harold is shown drawing the Simpson family living room during the regular title sequence. Homer also asks Harold to draw him a can of Duff Beer after he finishes with the living room.
In 2011, the story was adapted as an interactive book for the iPad by Trilogy Studios. [7]
In 2019 on Jimmy Kimmel Live! , Jimmy Kimmel presented a parody, Donald and the Magic Sharpie .
The book is spoofed in the Robot Chicken episode "Bugs Keith in: I Can't Call Heaven, Doug".
Harold and the Purple Crayon | |
---|---|
Genre | Fantasy |
Developed by | Carin Greenberg Baker Jeff Kline |
Voices of | Connor Matheus |
Narrated by | Sharon Stone |
Composers | Van Dyke Parks Kevin Kiner |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 13 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Jeff Kline |
Producer | Bob Hathcock |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Production companies | Adelaide Productions Columbia TriStar Television |
Original release | |
Network | HBO Family |
Release | December 1, 2001 – March 23, 2002 |
In 2001, the stories were adapted by Adelaide Productions into a 13-episode television series for HBO narrated by Sharon Stone and featuring Connor Matheus as the voice of Harold. [8] The series won a Daytime Emmy Award for "Main Title Design", and was nominated for an Annie Award and Humanitas Prize. [9] [10] The show was also released on VHS and DVD.
The series focuses on Harold using his purple crayon to explore a new world. Each episode has Harold focusing on life lessons throughout his journeys.
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Harold and the Purple Crayon" | Tom Ellery | Carin Greenberg Baker | December 1, 2001 | |
Harold can't sleep and uses his purple crayon to create a fantastic world. | |||||
2 | "Blame It on the Rain" | Tom Ellery | Eric Weiner | January 5, 2002 | |
Harold wants to know where rain comes from. | |||||
3 | "Fly Away Home" | Sean Song | Don Gillies | January 12, 2002 | |
Harold learns that no matter how small he is, he can accomplish big things. | |||||
4 | "A Dog's Tale" | Andy Thom | Carin Greenberg Baker | January 19, 2002 | |
Harold's stuffed toy comes to life. | |||||
5 | "One Crayon Band" | Sean Song | Jan Strnad | January 26, 2002 | |
Harold learns about music. | |||||
6 | "I Remember Goldie" | Tom Ellery | Carin Greenberg Baker | February 2, 2002 | |
Harold's goldfish dies, so a mermaid helps him understand the meaning of death. | |||||
7 | "Harold's Birthday Gift" | Andy Thom | Melody Fox | February 9, 2002 | |
Harold celebrates his birthday and learns that the true birthday gift is friendship. | |||||
8 | "A Blast from the Past" | Tom Ellery | Don Gillies | February 16, 2002 | |
Harold uses his imagination to travel back to prehistoric times. | |||||
9 | "Harold the Artiste" | Chuck Drost | Stu Krieger | February 23, 2002 | |
Harold can't draw a perfect circle, so he uses his purple crayon to visit a museum and later learns to appreciate his drawings, no matter the perfection. | |||||
10 | "Harold's Walk on the Wild Side" | Tom Ellery | Don Gillies | March 2, 2002 | |
Harold imagines what would it be like if he was an animal. | |||||
11 | "Harold in the Dark" | Andy Thom | Stu Krieger | March 9, 2002 | |
Harold wonders where the moon is gone to. | |||||
12 | "Future Clock" | Sean Song | Thomas Hart | March 16, 2002 | |
Harold wonders what would it be like if he's a grown-up. | |||||
13 | "Cowboy Harold" | Chap Yaep | Stu Krieger | March 23, 2002 | |
Harold refuses to eat squash and imagines if he was a cowboy. |
In February 2010, it was reported that Columbia Pictures was developing a live-action film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, to be produced by Will Smith and James Lassiter, and written by Josh Klausner. [11] In December 2016, it was reported that the film would also be written by Dallas Clayton. [12]
On February 1, 2021, it was reported that Zachary Levi would star in the film, though it was not stated what role he would play. It was also announced that David Guion and Michael Handelman replaced Klausner and Clayton as screenwriters, with John Davis producing. [13] While Zooey Deschanel was added in the cast, it was announced that Carlos Saldanha is attached to direct the new film. [14] The film was originally scheduled to be released on January 27, 2023, [15] but was pushed back to June 30, 2023, [16] and later August 2, 2024. [17] It will also be Saldanha’s first feature film since working on Blue Sky Studios' Ferdinand in 2017.
On March 11, 2022, a Broadway musical adaptation was announced. It will feature an original score by Jack and Ryan Met from the band AJR and will focus on an adult version of Harold facing challenges in everyday life without his magical purple crayon. [18] The musical is set to debut in March 2024.
Harold and the Purple Crayon has consistently been well regarded as a children's literature favorite and has been praised for its combination of themes of childhood imagination and reality. A series of 9 titles followed. [19] Remaining popular amongst children's teachers, it ranked in the National Education Association's "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children," and ranked 16th among School Library Journal's "Top 100 Picture Books" in its 2012 survey. [20]
The book has been used frequently in children's and art education lesson plans, as well as referenced in other children's literature. [21] One of the protagonists in Captain Underpants , Harold Hutchins, is named after the protagonist in the book, with its author, Dav Pilkey, insisting on naming his main characters after his "childhood literary loves." [22] In the book This Thing Called Life: Prince's Odyssey, On and Off the Record by the author Neal Karlen, Prince's mother Mattie Shaw confirmed that his favorite book as a child was Harold and the Purple Crayon and was the reason for Prince's love of the color purple. Karlen, Neal (October 2, 2020). This Thing Called Life: Prince's Odyssey, On and Off the Record. USA: Macmillan USA. p. 43. ISBN 978-1250135247.
The story has also been referenced in TV and cinema. In Rob Reiner's 1999 romantic comedy The Story of Us , Kate (Michelle Pfeiffer) says that Harold and the Purple Crayon is one of her favorite books and an allegory for her marriage with Ben (Bruce Willis). She later explains that Ben just wouldn't "share the crayon", and that she feels she has been living in his world rather than one she had helped create. In Episode 3 of the third season of Legion ("Chapter 22"), Gabrielle Haller reads the book to her infant son, David, who will grow up to be the series' central protagonist. In season 34, episode 15 of The Simpsons , Bart encourages a group of younger children to draw on the library books, and Ralph does so with a purple crayon, drawing off the page and onto the wall, creating a doorway with stairs which he walks through. In an after-credits scene, his father, Chief Wiggum, is seen talking through the doorway, encouraging him to come out and not draw a boat and sail away on it, as he doesn't know where the river it is on goes.
The book inspired programmer Petri Purho to create the computer game Crayon Physics Deluxe . [23] [24]
Barnaby is a comic strip which began April 20, 1942, in the newspaper PM and was later syndicated in 64 American newspapers.
Captain Underpants is an illustrated children's graphic novel series by American author and illustrator Dav Pilkey. The series revolves around two fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, living in Piqua, Ohio, and Captain Underpants, an aptly named superhero from one of the boys' homemade comic books, who accidentally becomes real when George and Harold hypnotize their cruel, bossy, and ill-tempered principal, Mr. Krupp. From the third book onwards, Mr. Krupp also possesses superhuman strength, durability and flight as a result of drinking alien "Extra-Strength Super Power Juice".
David Murray "Dav" Pilkey Jr. is an American cartoonist, author, and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series, Captain Underpants, and its spin-off children's graphic novel series Dog Man, the latter published under the respective writer and illustrator pen names of George Beard and Harold Hutchins, which are also the names of the two protagonists of the Captain Underpants series.
Penny Crayon is a 1989 British children's television series that tells the adventures of a very intellectual and well-meaning schoolgirl from London who loves to draw, and her escapades accompanied by her best friend, Dennis. Using the magic crayons that she always carries with her, she brings everything that she ever draws to life, to either help them on their adventures or to get them out of tricky situations, and usually creating a world of chaos until it is either erased or washed away.
Crockett Johnson was the pen name of the American cartoonist and children's book illustrator David Johnson Leisk. He is best known for the comic strip Barnaby (1942–1952) and the Harold series of books, beginning with Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings is a British children's animated series about the adventures of a young boy named Simon, who has a magic blackboard. Things that Simon draws on the chalkboard become real in the Land of Chalk Drawings, which Simon can enter by climbing over a fence near his home with a ladder. The stories often revolve around the unintended effects that Simon's drawings have on the Land of Chalk Drawings, such as when an upset Simon draws a picture of his angry self, which goes on a rampage.
Carlos Saldanha is a Brazilian animator, director, producer, and voice actor of animated films who worked with Blue Sky Studios until its closure in 2021. He was the director of Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Rio (2011), Rio 2 (2014), Ferdinand (2017), and the co-director of Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005). Saldanha was nominated in 2003 for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Gone Nutty and in 2018 for Best Animated Feature for Ferdinand.
Yoram Jerzy Gross was a Polish-born, Australian producer of children's and family entertainment.
No, David! is a 1998 children's picture book written and illustrated by David Shannon and published by Scholastic Inc. Shannon wrote a story by himself at five years old, and later in his life, he found this story and decided to publish it after re-writing this original work. This short children’s book focuses on the story of a mischievous child named David who misbehaves constantly and is always faced with a reprimanding “No, David!” from his mother. Important themes such as discipline, proper behavior, parental love, and childhood essence are evident throughout this children’s book through words and illustrations. Regardless of the varying receptions from the public, after its original publication, No, David! was recognized with a variety of different awards and honors, and there were many adaptations that were made in the following years based off of this book.
"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Cole, publishing under pen name Felix Summerly, popularized the tale in The Home Treasury (1845), and Joseph Jacobs rewrote it in English Fairy Tales (1890). Jacobs' version is most commonly reprinted today, and is believed to be closer to the oral versions than Tabart's because it lacks the moralizing.
The Purple Crayon of Yale, or the Purple Crayon, is an improvisational theater group at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The group specializes in longform improv, such as the Harold. The Purple Crayon is Yale's second-oldest improv group, after the Ex!t Players, and the oldest collegiate longform group in the country. The Purple Crayon currently consists of twelve members, and is directed by Noam Scully '25 and Amara Neal '26.
Dallas Clayton is an American author and illustrator best known for his children's works in the Awesome Book series.
David Soren is a Canadian director, writer, voice actor, and storyboard artist at DreamWorks Animation. His most notable work are TV specials based on the Madagascar film franchise: Merry Madagascar and Madly Madagascar. He directed the 2013 animated feature film Turbo, which is based on his own original concept, as well as the 2017 animated film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie based on Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants book series.
Vivek J. Tiwary is an American author and theater producer.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is a 2017 American animated superhero comedy film based on Dav Pilkey's children's novel series Captain Underpants, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by David Soren from a screenplay by Nicholas Stoller, and stars the voices of Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Thomas Middleditch, and Nick Kroll. The film was released during the 20th anniversary of the Captain Underpants series. In the film, fourth-grade pranksters George and Harold hypnotize their humorless principal Mr. Krupp into thinking he is a superhero named Captain Underpants. The movie loosely adapts the first, second, fourth, and eleventh Captain Underpants books.
Alan Becker is an American online animator, YouTube personality and artist, best known for creating the Animator vs. Animation web series and the spin-off Animation vs. franchise, in particular the web series Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts and Animation vs. Education.
Pablo is a British children's television series that premiered on CBeebies on 2 October 2017. It was created by Grainne McGuinness. The series follows the adventures of Pablo, a five year old autistic boy, and his imaginary anthropomorphized animal friends, the Book Animals, who go on adventures in Pablo's 'Art World'. It is a hybrid of live action sequences and 2D animation. The series features a voice cast and writing team who are all on the autistic spectrum. The show was also a reboot of Pablo the Little Red Fox.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is an upcoming American fantasy film directed by Carlos Saldanha in his live-action directorial debut from a screenplay written by David Guion and Michael Handelman. Based on the 1955 children's book of the same name written by Crockett Johnson, the film will star Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Zooey Deschanel, and Jemaine Clement. The original book is about a young boy named Harold embarking on a magical adventure with the help of his purple crayon.
The Paperboy is a 1996 children's picture book by American author and illustrator Dav Pilkey. Inspired by Pilkey's own experiences as a paperboy, it tells the story of a paperboy and his dog as they deliver newspapers in the early hours of the morning. The Paperboy received positive reviews from critics and was awarded a 1997 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations.
This timeless classic by Crockett Johnson is about the world a curious four-year-old boy creates by simply drawing it with a purple crayon.
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