Product Details

• Actors: Sharon Stone, Connor Matheus
• Producers: Helen Kalafatic, Jeff Kline
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 12, 2004
• Run Time: 289 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002TSZFQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,849 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Harold and the Purple Crayon - The Complete Series" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A purple crayon and abundant creativity lead a toddler named Harold along a path of imagination and discovery that winds through the contemplation of big questions like "where does the rain come from?" while exploring intense feelings like frustration and loneliness. While this Emmy award-winning HBO Family series is based on the concepts and drawings of Crockett Johnson's books, it is not an exacting, faithful re-creation of those books like the Scholastic Video Collection version. Instead, this series embraces Johnson's overarching theme, that children use creativity and imagination to make sense of their feelings and the world around them, and uses that concept as a starting point for a colorfully animated, musically rich series featuring a curious toddler's imaginary nighttime journeys. In each of the thirteen 20-minute episodes, Sharon Stone narrates as a sleepy Harold contemplates something like the sound of the wind or his own loneliness, grabs his purple crayon, and draws a picture that leads him on a journey of discovery. Along the way, Harold gains a whole new perspective on his place in the world and learns some very important lessons about friendship, feelings, and self-worth. This two-DVD set also includes a 16-page activity booklet. (Ages 2 to 7) --Tami Horiuchi

Product Description

Based on the classic book, these adventures star Harold, an inventive and curious toddler with thoughts, desires, and feelings typical of any child his age. In his Crayon World, Harold can muse on questions that all young children naturally wonder about,

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful fun! June 11, 2005

By Biblioholic Beth VINE™ VOICE

My 3 1/2 year old son loves this set. He has watched it repeatedly and begs for more! It's wonderfully made, not done in the current style of too much going on. It takes after the books just like it should and is wonderful to watch on a rainy day. One of the best purchases I've made in the video department!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 3 year old loves it. May 1, 2007

By E. DeJesus

Amazon Verified Purchase

My daughter loves this DVD but I wish they showed only the actual segments and not the opening and closing credits for each episode. It's almost like watching a DVD with commercials - it should have been edited out.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great series;however, beware the moonless night November 5, 2006

By E. Clark

My son absolutely loves Harold. Overall, the shows are great; they integrate music and images really nicely. The only caution I have to parents with young children is this: One of the episodes is about Harold losing the moon so that he is left in the dark. My three year old was never afraid of anything until he watched this episode. He wanted to watch it over and over after he saw it the first time. Then, at night in his bed, he was freaking out saying he saw an eye on his bed (a piece of metal on his bed that shone in the light of the night light) and he has been afraid of being in a separate room from me from time to time since. Anyway, I would highly recommend the series; it is great wholesome fun- just don't let your child watch the one when Harold loses the moon. Also, be sensitive to the fact that there is one sad episode where a goldfish dies.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll LOVE Harold! October 23, 2004

By C. Carroll

My three-year-old daughter LOVES this series and watches it OVER and OVER. The series is great, and even my wife and I enjoy watching it with her. (How many parents can say that?) The songs by Van Dyke Parks are really wonderful (including the Emmy-winning, "Blame it on the Rain" - I'd buy the CD of just the Harold songs if there were one!) There is another series (not this HBO series) which are not nearly as entertaining as this one. Sharon Stone is just perfect as the narrator of these tales, and the animation is top notch. You will be glad you have the entire series - they're GREAT!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous for artistic development March 25, 2006

By Todd Brehmee

I recently bought this DVD for my 2 yr old. She absolutely

loves it. The music is wonderful. Since she has been watching

it, we have seen her interest(and ability) in drawing grow

considerably. I recommend this Dvd wholeheartedly.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My son rates it EIGHT stars! October 8, 2004

By Liz Long

Amazon Verified Purchase

We haven't seen the dvd yet, but we have all the episodes saved on our Tivo because he asks for them by name. He loves loves loves Harold and the Purple Crayon, and so do his friends. He watches it every night before he goes to bed and it helps him get more ready for bed. DH and I like it more than a lot of other kids series' because it isn't annoying for us.

Did I mention that my 2 1/2 year old son loves this series?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Case of the Cutes March 27, 2012

By watchit

Amazon Verified Purchase

After loving the books as a kid, I now read them to my own children, yet wanted the video version on hand to see how the producers made the adaptation. (Sigh). Emmy-winning or not, the HBO Family adaptation replaces the child's imagination with that of the animation company and pads the storylines to fill 22 minutes for each episode. The pan-and-scan version that Captain Kangaroo ran back in the 50s seemed so much better because it stuck to the drawings and text of the book and let the child do the extrapolating. I know this is how it's done today, but it's so sad. I think I'll keep the DVDs on the shelf for now.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well done! February 26, 2007

By Benny Rietveld

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have a 3.25 year old boy. We got the book, and I thought "okay, cool, nice. rather limited premise, though..." then we caught these on HBO On Demand, and i was amazed at how much they could get out of that simple concept. Sharon Stone's narration is lovely, the songs are really cool, the stories are excellent guides of emotional development and problem-solving for kids, the animation is simple and clean, yet still very eventful and engaging visually. It's one of the very few programs that my son is thoroughly engaged in when he watches it.

So much better than that annoying Dora. Buy two copies!