HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON

Here is the good news up front: this is a fun, kindhearted family movie, and you can take the kids without a second thought. Harold is a genuinely loving hero who treats everyone with kindness, and the story is silly and heartwarming in equal measure.

Better still, the whole adventure hangs on a beautiful question — where did I come from, and who made me? Harold sets off to find his creator, and the film is dotted with biblical allusions that hand parents a golden opening to talk with their children about God and Jesus.

It's aimed at younger viewers, so don't expect layered storytelling for grown-ups. But as an afternoon at the movies for the whole family, this one earns its place. Take the kids.

Harold has spent his whole life inside the pages of a book, using a magical purple crayon that can draw anything into being. As he grows older, one question won't let him go: where did he come from?

A narrator tells Harold that he is his creator — and that he lives in "the Real World." So Harold draws a door and steps through, his loyal friend Moose beside him, into a world he's never seen. There he meets a woman named Terry and her son, Mel, who decide to help him on his quest. But the search for his maker won't be simple.

Three stars, and here's what they mean. This is a silly, entertaining movie with real charm — funny moments, heartwarming ones, and a basic, engaging storyline that's easy for children to follow.

That simplicity is both its gift and its ceiling. Younger viewers will have no trouble keeping up, and the sweetness never curdles into cynicism. It's a solidly made family fantasy that knows exactly who it's for, and it delivers for them.

This is a film built on a strong moral foundation, and it's refreshing to say so plainly. Harold is a positive, loving character who treats everyone he meets with kindness — the kind of hero worth putting in front of your children.

What lifts it higher is the question at its center. Harold isn't just looking for adventure; he's looking for his creator, the one who can tell him who he is and what he's for. That search gives the movie its lovely biblical allusions, and the film even makes room for prayer along the way. For a family audience, these are open doors — chances to sit with your kids afterward and talk about the God who really did make them, and about Jesus.

The longing Harold carries is the deepest longing any of us knows: to find the One who made us and to learn our purpose from Him. Scripture answers what the crayon only sketches — "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

This is a warm, silly, kindhearted fantasy with a moral center and a beautiful question at its heart — the search for our Creator. It hands parents a rare gift: a fun afternoon that opens straight into a conversation about God and Jesus. So here's our answer, the same one we started with: worth the trip.