Home Alone (franchise)

Home Alone
Official franchise logo
Created by	John Hughes
Original work	Home Alone (1990)
Owner	20th Century Studios
Years	1990–present
Films and television
Film(s)	Home Alone (1990) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Home Alone 3 (1997) Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
Television film(s)	Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002) Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)
Games
Video game(s)	Home Alone (1991) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Home Alone (2006)

Home Alone

Home Alone is primarily a coming-of-age story about an 8-year-old boy named Kevin McCallister (

Set one year after the events of the first film, Kevin McCallister loses track of his family at the airport to which he accidentally gets on a plane headed for New York City while the rest of the McCallisters fly to Florida. Now alone in one of the largest cities in the world, Kevin cons his way into a room at the Plaza Hotel and begins his usual antics, such as purchasing exorbitant amounts of sweets and junk food, or renting a limousine. When Kevin discovers that the Wet Bandits (now the Sticky Bandits) Harry and Marv are on the loose again, he stops them from robbing charity money from Duncan's Toy Chest on Christmas Eve by setting up booby traps in his uncle's partially renovated house.

Home Alone 3 (1997)

Home Alone 3 does not center on Kevin or any of the original cast and characters, but is instead focused on Alex Pruitt, a young boy who is left home alone with chickenpox. At the same time, four international criminals are sent to steal a top-secret microchip that can act as a cloaking device for a missile. They succeed in stealing it and hide it in a remote controlled car, but due to a luggage mix-up at an airport with the Pruitts' neighbor Mrs. Hess, the car ends up in the hands of Alex who is given the car for shoveling the snow in her driveway. After realizing their mistake, the thieves begin systematically searching every house on his street. Once they realize that Alex has the chip, they invade his house. He devises elaborate traps and bamboozles the four crooks with the help of his pets and some intricate tripwires, all the while monitoring them with a video camera on the toy car. The film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, eventually losing the award to Speed 2: Cruise Control.

Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002)

The fourth installment was directed by

Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)

On March 15, 2012,

In August 2019, following the

In March 2020, filming on all Disney projects, including Home Alone which had begun filming in Canada, were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and industry restrictions worldwide.^[11] In July 2020, Ally Maki, Kenan Thompson, Chris Parnell, Aisling Bea, Pete Holmes, Timothy Simons, and Mikey Day had joined the cast. By November 2020, filming on all the movies that had been postponed by the coronavirus had resumed filming, and in some cases completed principal photography.^[12]

The film stars Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Archie Yates, Aisling Bea, Kenan Thompson, Tim Simons, Pete Holmes, Ally Maki, and Chris Parnell.^[13]

Stoned Alone

In July 2018,

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1992 to coincide with the film. The "point" version, which have the same storyline, was also novelized by A.L. Singer. It has an ISBN of 0-590-45717-9. An audiobook version was also released read by Tim Curry (who played the concierge in the film).

A

Home Alone was released in 1991 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, Amiga, MS-DOS, and Game Boy. The objective is to escape the Wet Bandits while bringing all the McCallister's fortunes from the house down to the safe room in the basement. Once all items have been sent down the chute to the basement Kevin must make it past rats, bats, and ghosts he encounters in the basement, then fight the spider king so he can make it to the safe room to lock away all his families riches.

Home Alone is an action game based on the first film and released in Europe only.^[32][33] The game was published by Blast! Entertainment Limited and released for the PlayStation 2 on December 1, 2006.^[33] The game features 10 levels, each taking place inside a house. The player chooses from one of four playable characters: Carl, Carly, Kelly or Kevin. The player's goal is to use objects to defeat burglars attempting to break into the house. The game includes a two-player option.^[32]

Advertising

In an advertisement short film titled Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant for the Google Assistant published on December 19, 2018, Macaulay Culkin reprised his Home Alone role as Kevin McCallister. The ad recreates scenes from the original 1990 film, where Kevin shaves his face, jumps on his parents bed, and decorates a Christmas tree all while asking the Google Assistant to set reminders for him. The advertisement quickly went viral.^[34] Ralph Foody, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern also appear in their Home Alone roles via archival footage.^[34] In addition, Joe Pesci appears present-day in a version of the commercial made for Super Bowl LIII involving his character hosting a fictionalized watch party for the Super Bowl with the commercial coming on.^[35][36]

Film

In the 2019 film Detective Pikachu, the lead character Tim Goodman (played by Justice Smith) enters his father's apartment and discovers the TV on with the movie Angels with Filthy Souls playing on it. Regarding its inclusion, director Rob Letterman stated, "Truth be told, we were just looking for the perfect placeholder...Mark Sanger, our editor, dropped it in, and it just fit perfectly."^[37]

See also

• Bushwhacked
• Bone Alone

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Home Alone (franchise).