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Title: Not Crockett Johnson's "Harold."
Review: The loneliness, sparkling wit and beautiful simplicity of the original Purple Crayon books (and the quite loyally adapted Gene Deitch animated cartoons - still available from Scholastic) are not to be found here, sacrificed to the treacly situations and inexplicable pastel colors of this confused, frustrating - and to this viewer at least - insulting "interpretation." It's as if Harold were aesthetically reincarnated as one of those hard sugar figurines manufactured for quick decoration of grocery store birthday cakes. I bought this believing that the Emmy bestowers would actually have some sense of taste when awarding their prizes, but in this case, I simply ended up tossing my set away. (I only am posting this as a warning to anyone who might be hoping to find some flavor of the original works in this adaptation; contemporary kids might like this on its own terms, which is "the way things are" -but this is not Crockett Johnson's "Harold.")
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