Harold's Walk on the Wild Side is the tenth episode of the series Harold and the Purple Crayon that aired on March 2, 2002.
Summary[]
It was once again, bedtime for Harold. After his mother tucks him in and shuts his light off, Harold gets up as he couldn't sleep, and wanted to go play with his animal toys. Harold enjoyed his stuffed animals, in fact, he sometimes wished he could be an animal himself, but he didn't exactly know what. There was a hopping kangaroo, a roaring lion [1] [2], and even a slithering grass snake. To find out what he truly wanted to be, Harold gets his purple crayon and draws his imagination.
First, Harold draws an elephant. The elephant blows it's trunk, and Harold attempts to mimic it pretending that he has a trunk too. The elephant takes Harold to a puddle. With it's trunk, the elephant can drink up the water and squirt it, obviously something that Harold couldn't do. Harold draws a hose and shoots out water as well, accidentally getting the elephant wet. The elephant shoots water back at him. Harold decides that maybe he should see what other animals are there, then draws the neck of a giraffe [3]. The giraffe uses it's long neck to reach leaves on the tree, so Harold draws a little plant and nibbles the leaves, but a leaf doesn't taste as good to him as it does to a giraffe. He hands the leaf to the giraffe, and walks off in the desert.
The next animal Harold creates is an unspecified species of camel, who could walk anywhere in the desert without food or drink, as it was all stored in their humps. Harold obviously, had no hump, so he drew his own backpack to be as ready as he could for a trip. The camel however, didn't want to start walking. Harold hops off it and gives it a push, making it walk off without Harold. The desert was really hot, but luckily Harold had a bottle of water packed, but even after drinking it he was still hot, so he drew an oasis to drink out of. Suddenly, racing cheetahs pass Harold, and seeing them run so fast makes Harold want to run fast too. He starts to run but he thinks that he's not going as fast as a cheetah, so he sketches running shoes on his feet. They still aren't fast enough, but wheels are the finishing touch, and Harold and the cheetahs race around the desert.
After a while the tired cheetahs take a nap, and even though Harold was tired too, it was no time for napping for him. He still wanted to find the perfect animal to become. Feeling a bit hot especially after the race he draws a cooler environment with snow, and meets some little penguins. Penguins were for sure the animal for Harold, but now he was getting really cold, as he didn't have what penguins had. He solves this problem by drawing a winter outfit on himself, then proceeds to slide down a hill that the penguins slide down, but to Harold it was pretty bumpy. The second time he goes sliding, he gets a sled and eventually the penguins get on it too. However, after the ride the penguins steal the sled, but Harold didn't mind, as the life of a little penguin was too frigid, and needed something more tropical.
He draws a sun to get rid of the snow, and finds himself where monkeys live. The monkeys see Harold's winter clothes and are delighted to have them, so he gives them to the three monkeys and they wear them on themselves. Harold couldn't climb up the tree, so he draws steps to get up. The monkeys pick up Harold and swing him around, until he stands on a branch that breaks and he falls to the ground. Harold was positive that being a monkey wasn't a good idea either. The monkeys wander off to the cheetahs' napping place and disturb them, causing them to get up and chase the monkeys, and Harold chases after them too. The chase takes them to the snowy mountains where they all get on the penguins' sled. They slide down swiftly until they fly in the air, and are bound to all fall to the ground. With quick thinking Harold draws a snow cloud that causes it to snow, cushioning everybody's fall safely. While the snow was perfect for the penguins, the monkeys and cheetahs were shivering. Harold draws the savanna again and the cheetahs try sleeping again. To distract the monkeys Harold draws a tree and a banana bunch falls, containing three bananas for three monkeys. After a number, Harold thinks that he is better off as a human being instead of an animal, and goes back to his bedroom. While he thought about picking up his animal toys tomorrow, he couldn't forget his favorite animal, Lilac the Old English Sheepdog.
Trivia[]
Moral: It’s fun to pretend to be an animal, but also remember how lucky you are to be a human.
Errors[]
When Harold eats a leaf, his eyebrows are missing for a few seconds.
The monkeys are unidentified in this episode, as are the little penguins and Harold's favorite stuffed English Sheepdog, Lilac.