Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson was my dad’s favorite picture book when he was a kid. (Published in 1955.) Which means it is an old picture book. It is also a classic. I was excited to see the movie in theaters this past summer, even though I don’t have kids the right age to make this a family outing. It was a book movie! And I am generally a fan of Zooey Deschanel. Despite the abysmal ratings and how quickly this release was swept under the rug of theaters everywhere, my husband and I were baffled. This is the missed opportunity of the summer for families everywhere, because it was cute and straight-forward and imaginative and fun. Enough, anyhow.

In the book, Harold is a four-year-old boy (with no hair. Did Johnson start the trend?) who wants to do things that he can’t. So he uses his magical purple crayon to create the world he sees in his head. He leaves his bedroom and goes on many adventures (in a very short, very sparesely illustrated book) before coming back home and drawing himself back into bed. The movie takes a more meta approach. In it, Harold is a character written by Crockett Johnson who accidentally escapes his fictional world with his two besties (animals who turn into animal-resembling humans), stumbling into the confusing, overwhelming real world. But he’s extremely naïve, basically a child in a grown man’s body. And his crayon still works. He needs to find his way home, but first he is taken in by a single mom and her son, whose lives could use a little magic and fun. An evil librarian happens.

The book is a classic. It is short, imaginative, a great bedtime read for kids through the decades. There’s just not much more to say. If you have a solid picture book library, it should be there on the shelf between Where the Wild Things Are and Make Way for Ducklings. It still feels relevant and fresh after all this time.

I already said it, but my husband and I are baffled by the haters of this movie. So are many other reviewers online. And after taking something like 15 years to get this movie made (!), I can’t believe how fast they panned it. Especially when it was a perfect movie to take kids to in the summer. It’s not movie-making genius, but it is solid in a classic way. Most kids will like it. I thought that most adults would enjoy it enough to sit through it and get something fun from it, even a few laughs, and a reminder that they have an imagination and they should use it. Maybe the haters lack an imagination? It’s one of those movies I can see families watching over and over because their kids love it and they’re fine with it. Like Jumanji or Honey I Shrunk the Kids. I definitely thought it was better than IF, which was another summer release this year that did slightly better and lasted much longer in theaters. Don’t go into it thinking it’ll be a Cannes film. Go into it expecting it to be predictable with cheesy humor and a feel-good message. There are some misses, but certainly no more than in a movie like Sharkboy and Lavagirl (a beloved cult classic that gets abysmal reviews).

As for the world of Harold, there is an AJR musical in production (yes, please!), a handful of other books in the universe (one published posthumously), a short, animated version, and a TV series from the early naughts.

I’ve done my duty, I guess. Not my favorite movie of the year, but a family flick that I think deserves some defending. Stream it for your next pizza night and relax a little, people.