Writer: Lim Chang Moh

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Watch this if you liked: “The Goodbye Boys”, “Lilo & Stitch” and “Talentime”

"CRAYON" appears to be schizophrenic in its marketing strategy. At the start, it seems to be aimed at adolescents, with its plot involving two university students, but later, it degenerates into being a kiddie movie. This indecisiveness over its target audience can only spell trouble in terms of tone and box-office appeal as no teenager wants to be caught dead at a kiddie flick.

Those eager for a slice of Malaysiana, however, may find some funny moments, courtesy of the bubbly Adibah Noor, one of Malaysia's top comediennes.

Room-mates Adam (Hon Kahoe) and Rafaat (Ariff Faisal Abdullah) are students at a university in Singapore. Adam, a Chinese from Malaysia, is a high-achiever, while Rafaat, a Singaporean Malay, is the typical computer nerd. As part of their course syllabus, they are required to volunteer for a social programme during their term holidays. The duo then decides to volunteer as helpers at an orphanage in the East Coast of peninsular Malaysia.

At the orphanage, they meet its kindly and jovial matron Mak Engku (Adibah Noor) and her multi-racial charges including the playful Afiq (Joshry Adamme). However, as they try their utmost to improve conditions at the home, certain forces are at work to destroy all that they and Mak Engku had worked for...

There are some interesting and repetitive jokes about Malaysia as the backwaters of Singapore. Adam and Rafaat are duly introduced as typical 'spoilt brats' who think that the rural areas of Malaysia are without water and electricity, and that toilets are located outside the buildings. First-time director Dean A. Burhanuddin (who wrote the script) also manages to wring a few jokes out of the boys adapting to their rural surroundings. The real fun starts when we meet Mak Engku, the home's owner and caregiver whose effervescent personality and zest for life hides her weakness at financial management. Adibah Noor is in her element at a role she can play in her sleep.

Not so for the other leads though. Hon and Faisal strain to portray their college-buddy rapport and only manage to look convincing towards the end of the movie. Joshry is cute and sometimes steals the scene. The most juvenile - and annoying - performances come from two adults who play bouncers trying to get Mak Engku to sell her home. The cry-baby act by one of them can only be funny to kids under five and we wonder why director Dean sees it fit to repeat the 'gag'.

Another sequence that seems to have been written for the under-fives is the concert segment where the kids sing the kindergarten number "Ibu, ibu, engkau-lah ratu hatiku". A livelier choice of song (and dance) would have helped to give more meaning to the fund-raising concert aimed at lightening the pockets of the villagers. Also, the plot about corporate greed is cliched, tired and rather predictable but the movie closes well enough, with its message of hope and charity ringing clearly. Now if the movie had been aimed squarely at the youths, then it need not have been so rough at the edges. It could have been cool and student-friendly.

Cinema Online, 26 October 2010