Disney +

Home Sweet Home Alone | Hollow Remake Is The Worst Christmas Present Imaginable

Published

2 years ago

December 6, 2021

If there was ever an argument against the merciless and never-ending re-hashing of classic film franchises, Home Sweet Home Alone is the smoking gun. The only point you need ever raise and the personification of everything wrong with corporate filmmaking. Utterly devoid of charm, creativity, or intelligence, this Disney+ original desecrates the legacy of Chris Columbus’ 1990 Christmas gem with a barrage of distasteful characters, lazily recycled plot elements, and fart jokes.

Max Mercer (Archie Yates) is a privileged child whose house is riddled with unwanted uncles, aunts, and cousins, and all he wants is some peace and quiet. Meanwhile, Jeff (Rob Delaney) and Pam (Ellie Kemper) are a struggling pair of young parents who are looking to sell their house to keep their young family afloat. When they find an antique doll worth over $200k, it seems as though their problems are solved. However, it looks as if Max has taken the doll for himself, meaning holiday hijinks are surely just around the corner.

Director Dan Mazer attempts to hit all the key beats of the 90′ original without any of the essential character development and emotional moments that made Columbus’ film a success. Max is a pale imitation of Kevin McCallister; a failed copy that retains only his least likeable elements (his smarminess, selfishness etc), without any of his quirks or sentimentality. Even Max’s familial problems are left entirely undeveloped and seem trivial compared to the hyperbolised chaos of Kevin’s kin. Regrettably, while Archie Yates is clearly trying his best, his performance ends up markedly wooden. However, the young performer has already proven his talent for comedic timing in Taika Waititi’s JoJo Rabbit, so this failure rests firmly on the shoulders of Mazer’s direction.

Yates is in good company, as the film doesn’t offer a single compelling performance. Even The Office veteran Ellie Kemper, who charmed viewers of later seasons as the strange-but-sweet Erin delivers a flat, lifeless performance as the ironically named Pam. Indeed, Pam and Jeff are the closest things to protagonists the film has, and it spends the majority of its time with them, leaving Max with very little time to develop a fulfilling arc. Furthermore, though the film positions them as the antagonists, their plight is inextricably more relatable and sympathetic than that of the greedy and brattish Kevin clone.

Home Sweet Home Alone completely misses the point of the original, and then remembers it in the final ten minutes, as it hastily tries to make us care about Max’s relationship with his Mum. This sluggish recycling of the 90′ film’s ending is made more apparent by the inclusion of John Williams’ iconic Home Alone theme, which is sad to hear against a backdrop of fart jokes and some of the laziest character writing in recent memory. This misguided tone is made even more stark by the profoundly unfunny pranks, which seem more vindictive than humorous this time around. Though the slapstick of the original film veered towards the cruel, the fact that Jeff and Pam have no intention of harming or robbing Max makes his sadistic torture of them altogether unpleasant to watch.

The unnecessary intertextuality of Home Sweet Home Alone only makes matters worse. The inclusion of Devin Ratray as Kevin’s brother Buzz as a local police officer is superficial and only serves to retroactively make the charming Kevin seem petty and vengeful, as he apparently pranks Buzz each year by calling in to the force to let them know a child is home alone. Making the protagonist of a nearly thirty-year-old film seem unlikeable without him ever appearing on-screen is quite an accomplishment, and not one Home Sweet Home Alone should be proud of.

However, this element did provide the film’s one and only laugh; in a recreation of the film-within-a-film in the 1990 original via a shallow remake that transposes the characters into a new sci-fi setting. Max’s family practically winks at the audience and asks why studios keep recycling the old classics, as they’re never as good as the original. That joke was a nice touch, though the amount of self-awareness apparently on display at Disney is both tear and laugh inducing.

Is this the worst film this year? Perhaps. Young kids may enjoy it for its slapstick gags and juvenile humour, but that’s about it. For anyone over five, it’s the kind of film you feel embarrassed to put on with your family after a Christmas roast. The kind that makes people doubt your taste in entertainment altogether and sees your remote privileges removed until next year. Perhaps “The Ghost of Home Alone Past” would’ve been a more apt title, as that’s what it feels like; the ghost of a better film. It’s a hollow shell that hits all the same beats and appropriates the same music and archetypical characters, but without any of the festive joy and witty commentary on middle-class family drama that made the original film so endearing. Give yourself the best Christmas present possible this year by skipping this nauseating cash grab.

FILM RATING

Related Topics:Archie Yates disney+Home Alone HomeSweetHomeAlone Remake Review

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Disney +

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 | Official Trailer

Just released at Star Wars Celebration: Watch the new trailer for Star Wars Visions: Volume 2, featuring nine new shorts from nine celebrated animation studios from across the globe. Streaming May 4 on Disney+.

Published

2 months ago

April 10, 2023

Staff

Genre:

Action, Adventure, Star Wars, Animation

Release Date:

May 4, 2023

Plot Summary:

Disney +

Title: “Sith”

Studio: El Guiri

Writer-director: Rodrigo Blaas

Rodrigo Blaas is an Emmy Award®-winning director who has spent more than 20 years in animation. After co-founding Stromboli Animation in 1997, Blaas joined Blue Sky Studios in 2000, working on the feature film Ice Age, before transitioning to Pixar Animation Studios. There, he worked on such projects as Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Wall-E (2008) and on the Oscar®-nominated short film La Luna (2011). More recently, Blaas partnered with Guillermo del Toro to develop the award-winning series Trollhunters, served as creative director for Mikros Animation Paris and, in 2021, created El Guiri Studios in Madrid with his partner, Cecile Hokes. He also wrote and directed 2009’s award-winning short film Alma.

Title: “Screecher’s Reach”

Studio: Cartoon Saloon

Director: Paul Young

Paul Young is a co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, an IFTA winner and Oscar®, Emmy® and BAFTA nominee. He produced the animated features My Father’s Dragon, WolfWalkers, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and The Breadwinner as well as award-winning TV series including Puffin Rock, Dorg Van Dango, and Viking Skool.

Title: “In the Stars”

Studio: Punkrobot

Writer-director: Gabriel Osorio

Gabriel Osorio majored in Fine Arts at Universidad de Chile, later specializing in 3D animation. After working in commercials, movies and television series, he founded Punkrobot Studio. Since 2008, he has directed projects for children’s television including Flipos, Muelin y Perlita, Soccer Girls, and television spots. In 2016, his short film Bear Story became the first Latin American project to win an Oscar® in the animated short category.

Title: “I Am Your Mother”

Studio: Aardman

Director: Magdalena Osinska

Magdalena Osinska is an award-winning director who has been with Aardman for eight years. She has directed stop-motion, CGI, 2D and live-action commercials including Wallace & Gromit’s “The Great Sofa Caper” and “Share the Orange.” Osinska directed development of the children’s series Joyets and has also directed films including Spirits of the Piano and Zbigniev’s Cupboard. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, as well as the Polish Film School in Lodz and Art College in Warsaw, Osinska is currently developing the feature film Jasia, based on her grandmother’s memories of WWII Poland.

Title: “Journey to the Dark Head”

Studio: Studio Mir

Director: Hyeong Geun Park

Rising star Hyeong Geun Park had already made a name for himself when he entered the Korean animation industry in 2017, thanks to his strong drawing and animation sensibilities. He has directed animation for dozens of cinematic game trailers and has since expanded into animated series, working on projects including Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Book 3 (2022) and Lookism (2022). Journey to the Dark Head is the first title he has executive produced from start to finish.

Title: “The Spy Dancer”

Studio: Studio La Cachette

Writer-director: Julien Chheng

Julien Chheng is CEO of Studio La Cachette, an Emmy Award®-winning French animation studio he co-founded in 2014 with fellow Gobelins school’s alumni Oussama Bouacheria and Ulysse Malassagne. Chheng was trained in visual development at Disney and has worked as a character animator on acclaimed 2D animated features The Rabbi’s Cat, Mune, and the Academy Award®-nominated Ernest and Celestine. In 2021, he won an Emmy Award® as animation executive producer of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, for which he also served as animation supervisor. In 2022, Chheng directed with Jean-Christophe Roger the Cesar-nominated feature Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia.

Title: “The Bandits of Golak”

Studio: 88 Pictures

Director: Ishan Shukla

Ishan Shukla started his career as a CG artist in Singapore. For more than a decade, he spearheaded projects ranging from TV commercials to series and music videos. His 2016 animated short, “Schirkoa,” was long listed for the Academy Awards® after receiving dozens of awards and playing at 120 international festivals, including SIGGRAPH Asia where it was named Best in Show. He then set up his own animation studio to work on adult-oriented animated feature films including a feature-length version of Schirkoa, set to hit festivals in summer 2023.

Title: “The Pit”

Studios: D’art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Writer-director-executive producer: LeAndre Thomas

Co-director: Justin Ridge

LeAndre Thomas is an award-winning writer and director from Oakland, Calif., whose most recent film won Best Director at the Pasadena International Film Festival. In addition to his independent films, Thomas is a part of the franchise studio team at Lucasfilm Ltd. where he has worked for more than 11 years being credited on recent titles such as Light & Magic, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, and many more.

Justin Ridge executive produced the Emmy®-nominated series Star Wars Resistance. His credits also include Star Wars Rebels, Storks, The Cleveland Show, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Title: “Aau’s Song”

Studio: Triggerfish

Writer-directors: Nadia Darries and Daniel Clarke

Nadia Darries is a director, animator and co-founder of Goon Valley Animation, with an avocation for songwriting. Born in the Cape Flats in South Africa, Darries has worked on high-end animated film and motion design as an animator, project manager, creative director and director since 2015. Her experience includes animating at Triggerfish Animation Studios on the award-winning BBC films Stick Man, Revolting Rhymes, and Highway Rat.

Daniel Clarke is a Cape Town-based director and artist working in animation, film and illustration. He started his career in animation in 2008 at Triggerfish Animation Studios, where he has served as production designer, art director and director on projects such as the feature film Khumba, BBC’s Stick Man, and The Snail and the Whale. In 2018, along with James Clarke and Daniel Snaddon, he completed the graphic novel Kariba.

via: StarWars.com