In a world where every bit of IP is being adapted into a movie, one book dares to get a very strange adaptation. Harold and the Purple Crayon starts out as a beloved children's picture book from the 1950s. The film starts by retelling the story as many know it. From there, the film morphs into a live-action sequel of sorts, with Harold now a grown man who still draws things with his magic crayon. For a film about the power of imagination, it's disappointing how little of that this film offers.

Harold and the Purple Crayon feels like a Frankenstein’s amalgamation of many children’s movies we’ve seen before. The movie starts off with the characters as cartoons, and then they escape into the real world where they become realistic versions of themselves. This idea was done in the 2007 Disney film Enchanted and that film did a much better job. Harold (Zachary Levi) begins to wonder where he came from and who his old man is. In order to find his father, he ventures into the real world with Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Richards). Sound familiar? It should, because a childlike man venturing into the real world to find his father is the exact premise of the 2003 comedy Elf.

This film borrows heavily from Elf , especially early on. Scenes where Harold goes up to random older men and yells at them, assuming they're his father, are reminiscent of that scene in Elf where Buddy goes up to a man who looks like Santa Claus and yells, "Santa Claus! Santa Claus! Not Santa Claus." The film borrows so heavily from that film that it even borrows Zooey Deschanel, once again playing a woman with exceptional musical talent who's stuck in a mundane job she doesn't like. She plays Jovie again, but this time she's a single mother with a young son, played by Benjamin Bottani.

Harold and the Purple Crayon tells that classic fish-out-of-water story about someone who is very different but uses his charm to change the lives of those around him. The problem is that many films have done this story much better. This screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman is completely uninspired. The biggest creative risk this film takes is not setting it in New York City, because almost every kid’s movie, from Clifford the Big Red Dog to The Smurfs to Tom & Jerry, finds a way to wedge itself into the Big Apple.