Columbia Pictures’ Harold and the Purple Crayon is a live action/animation adaptation of Crockett Johnson’s beloved children’s classic about a boy who can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After Harold grows up and draws himself off the book’s pages and into the physical world, he finds he has a lot to learn about real life — and that his trusty purple crayon may set off more hilarious hijinks than he thought possible.
Directed by Carlos Saldanha and produced by John Davis, the film stars Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Benjamin Bottani, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, Alfred Molina and Zooey Deschanel. Sound plays a crucial role in bringing Harold’s whimsical world to life and in making his creations seem palpably real.
The film’s sound editorial team, based at Sony Pictures and led by supervising sound editors Andrew DeCristofaro and Darren “Sunny” Warkentin, spent months crafting sounds for the myriad objects that spring from Harold’s crayon. Re-recording mixers Kevin O’Connell and Jason “Frenchie” Gaya mixed those sounds with dialogue and music to deliver a finished soundtrack that’s both rich and nuanced, blending humor and heart.
DeCristofaro and Warkentin say that the creative approach to the film’s soundtrack came directly from director Carlos Saldanha. While the story centers on Harold and his magical creations, Saldanha’s direction to them was to keep it real.
“He didn’t want anything to sound cartoony,” Warkentin recalls. “He wanted everything organic and grounded. If we needed to accentuate a comic moment, we had to find the beats in organic sound.”
“He also said keep it simple,” adds DeCristofaro, “Don’t do too much, or use sound for sound’s sake. The artwork in Crockett Johnson’s book is very simple, that’s its charm, and we wanted to be true to that.”
The sound team’s first and arguably most challenging task was coming up with a signature sound for the purple crayon itself.
“It was the biggest thing we had to land,” recalls DeCristofaro. “Harold’s literally drawing on air. What does that sound like? We went down many avenues to find the right solution. We tried things that were tonal and fantastical, but that didn’t feel right. Ultimately, we realized that the sound had to connect with something real. We came up with a sound based on chalk, as if he were scratching on an actual surface, and that got us headed in the right direction. The final sound is a mixture. We added texture to give it movement and dust to make it magical.”
Warkentin adds that the chalk sound works in part, because it’s familiar.
“It’s distinctive and you recognize it immediately,” he explains. “A lot of times, there’s music playing while Harold is drawing. The chalk cuts through the soundtrack without distracting. It blends into the flow.”
The sound team also developed a characteristic “pop” that occurs when Harold’s drawings transform into real-world objects.
“Harold draws a bike and suddenly it appears,” Warkentin relates. “A brief transition happens between the drawing and the real object that we punctuate with a pop. But it’s not always the same. When it’s a piano, the pop is high pitched. When it’s a plane, it has a metallic quality.”
The film climaxes in a scene set in a park, where Harold and the film’s villain Gary face off, each one drawing ever more outrageous creations in a struggle for control of the purple crayon.
“The battle sequence is rhythmic,” Warkentin explains. “It’s ‘draw,’ ‘connect,’ ‘throw.’ Beat, beat, beat.’ The artistry, both in sound design and the mix, happens between those beats. We take a moment to feature the axe, the fan, the catapult, the spring and every other thing as it appears. That approach allowed us to support the story without bombarding the audience.”
Final mixing was performed by O’Connell and Gaya in Dolby Atmos in Sony Pictures’ William Holden Theater. According to Gaya, the sessions were loose and spirited.
“Andrew and Sunny did a great job in preparing elements that sounded magical and grounded at the same time, so the mix was never a struggle,” Gaya recalls. “We focused on balance. Although it’s a children’s film, there’s a lot of action. Our aim was to keep it fun and energetic, but never overpowering.”
One of Gaya’s favorite parts of the film is its 2D animated opening sequence, where Harold and his friends Moose and Porcupine are still in the world of the book.
“When the sequence begins, Harold is a toddler. The animation is simple and so is the sound environment,” he notes. “But as it continues, Harold grows older. Things get more complicated, and we add more to the soundscape. But it’s still not fully populated. When Harold leaves the book and enters the real world, we spread out. We hear birds, bugs, people, walla, ambience. The world fills out.”
O’Connell was thrilled with the finished soundtrack and said it was the product of team effort, where every party contributed excellent ideas. He said he was grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Saldanha, DeCristofaro, Warkentin, picture editors Tia Nolan and Mark Helfrich, and composer Batu Sener.
“Carlos had a clear vision for how he wanted to tell this unique and uplifting, family-friendly story,” O’Connell says. “And the whole sound team had fun in taking his lead and running with it.”