There’s nothing The Walt Disney Company likes more than a sequel! Virtually every film released by the Hollywood juggernaut has received either the follow-up treatment or been turned into a full-on franchise! The 2003 hit “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” went on to spawn four additional movies. The animated classic “Toy Story” has been given three follow-ups since its 1995 debut, with a prequel currently in the works set to chronicle the origin story of action figure Buzz Lightyear. And just this year, the House of Mouse released yet another “Home Alone” feature, pre-production on which got underway in 2019, shortly after the media conglomerate acquired 20th Century Fox (now renamed 20th Century Studios) and the rights to the hit 1990 comedy along with it.
Titled “Home Sweet Home Alone,” the Disney+ original is actually the franchise’s fifth installment following 1992’s “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” 1997’s “Home Alone 3,” 2002’s “Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House,” and 2012’s “Home Alone: The Holiday Heist” (all of which are also currently streaming on Disney+). Directed by Dan Mazer with a script penned by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell of “Saturday Night Live” fame, the new film stars Archie Yates as Max Mercer, a young boy accidentally left behind when his family takes a trip to Tokyo for the holidays, who winds up having to defend his house from down-on-their-luck couple Pam (Ellie Kemper) and Jeff McKenzie (Rob Delaney) as they attempt to retrieve a very valuable doll they believe Max has stolen from them.
Although “Home Alone’s” initial four sequels bombed with both audiences and critics alike, news of the 2021 follow-up was primarily met with eager anticipation. One person not thrilled over the announcement? Director Christopher Columbus, who helmed the first two installments. As he candidly informed Insider, “Nobody got in touch with me about it, and it’s a waste of time as far as I’m concerned. What’s the point? I’m a firm believer that you don’t remake films that have had the longevity of ‘Home Alone.’ You’re not going to create lightning in a bottle again. It’s just not going to happen. So why do it? It’s like doing a paint-by-numbers version of a Disney animated film — a live-action version of that. What’s the point? It’s been done. Do your own thing. Even if you fail miserably, at least you have come up with something original.” Ouch!
When the film was finally released this past November (after several production delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic), most critics echoed Columbus’ sentiments, with Richard Propes of The Independent Critic deeming it “just plain excruciatingly bad” and “one of the worst films of 2021″ and Shaun Munro of Flickering Myth espousing, “Slop-bucket cinema at its most transparently cynical, ‘Home Sweet Home Alone’ offers no reason to exist beyond lazily rehashing a brand name for a new generation of viewers while making some truly bizarre tonal miscalculations.” James Croot of Stuff also humorously took issue with the production’s “gratingly repeated use of the wrong plural for Lego.” It’s certainly a far cry from the praise garnered by the original, which has the distinction of being the highest-grossing domestic comedy in movie history!
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Image Credit: Google At the very least, the grand estate featured at “Home Sweet Home Alone’s” center is memorable! For the original movie, Columbus told Entertainment Weekly he sought out “a house that would work for the stunts and also a house that was visually appealing and, if this makes sense, warm and menacing at the same time. It’s the kind of house if you were a kid it would be fun to be left home alone.” For the recent film, production designer Rusty Smith (who was also behind the look of “Elf”) went for an entirely different aesthetic. As he explained to French-language digital Canadian newspaper La Presse, “I was looking for something big, with stature. When we found the residence, the director said, ‘It looks like a castle.’ It was perfect. After all, the boy is turning his house into a fortress that burglars are trying to enter.”
The production team scouted properties from Outremont to Mount Royal before landing on their “perfect castle” in Blainville, an upscale suburb about 25 miles outside of downtown Montreal in southwest Quebec. Said to be at 36 Beechtree Ln. in Winnetka, Illinois, in truth, the Mercer house can be found at 36 Rue de Braine in the exclusive Fontainebleau District. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
When the team initially scouted the pad in late 2019, showing up in a van filled with 20 people, the homeowner was outside, very fittingly in the middle of hanging Christmas lights. In a fortunate twist of fate, he happened to be a fan of the original “Home Alone” and agreed to lease his home out to the production largely because he knew his grandchildren would enjoy it.
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Image Credit: Google Oddly, the dwelling’s measurement details are non-existent online, but according to a listing for a neighboring residence, Rue de Braine is the “most sought-after street in Blainville.” The neighborhood, which sits nestled against the prestigious Club de Golf Rosemere, is certainly chock full of picturesque properties, all bearing the same look and size of the “Home Sweet Home Alone” house.
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Image Credit: Disney+ Only the exterior of the property appeared in the production. The interior of the Mercer home was a set created by Smith inside of a soundstage at MELS Studios in downtown Montreal. As supervising art director Nicolas Lepage explained to La Presse, “In comedy, it’s much easier, with all the gags, to film in a controlled fashion in a studio.” The majority of the inside of the residence was also (spoiler!) destroyed at the end of the movie – an effect that would have been nearly impossible to accomplish at a privately-owned home.
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Image Credit: Disney+ The back of the Mercer home, which makes several appearances in the film, was a set, as well – one that looked remarkably different from that of the actual residence, as evidenced by Google aerial views. According to La Presse, portions of the front of the property and the adjacent street were also re-created on a soundstage for the shoot. It was quite a lot of work by the production team for a film that is largely being written off as forgettable, but that’s show biz for you!