Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe came along and redefined the wider notion of what a superhero movie is, Pixar was bossing that particular zeitgeist with an utterly incredible picture that would go on to nab a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the 77th Academy Awards. It would then tease a sequel for 12 long years that, admittedly, was always going to live in the shadow of its predecessor.
And before he made a name for himself as a walking, talking(?) tragedy and a foremost conduit of humanity’s fear and evil, Donald Trump was taking a five-second break from being a failed businessman and sleazy celebrity to give Kevin McCallister directions in New York’s Plaza Hotel. Such is the stage being set for the latest Disney Plus chart battle.
Per FlixPatrol, The Incredibles and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York have both debuted on the United States’ Disney Plus charts at the time of writing, with Brad Bird’s mighty animated juggernaut shoring up sixth place, while the edgier younger brother of the Macaulay Culkin-led Christmas classic is sitting pretty at fourth place. Both are powerless against the first-place The Santa Clause, in which Tim Allen is bullied by the North Pole judicial system into reindeer-enabled community service.
The Incredibles follows the Parrs, a family of superheroes who wind up going rogue to save the world from a conspiratorial villain, while Home Alone 2: Lost in New York follows plight number two of one Kevin McCallister, a 10-year-old boy who accidentally gets separated from his family in an airport, and must now navigate the streets of New York City while being hunted by two criminals that have a very personal beef with him.
What makes The Incredibles so profoundly special is that it trusts its audience to be as intelligent as the story that the film presents, and even when the audience isn’t, The Incredibles believes that they can still rise to the occasion and have fun doing so. This a commendable feat as both a superhero movie and a children’s movie, both of which can be a bit too notorious for plopping nonsense onto the screen in hopes of engineering a xerox of an audience response.
Indeed, not every child in the audience is going to understand The Incredibles‘ complex worldbuilding nuances like the adults will, and not every adult is going to be hooked by the colorfully choreographed action sequences or kinship-rooted gags like the kids will. Both, however, will resonate with the inherent emotion in the story, and will most likely find a new handful of things to appreciate with every rewatch.
As for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, it’s the exact same movie as its predecessor — right down to the story beats, emotional nuances, and even a fair shake of the set pieces — wrapped up in a much more expansive setting. That is, unless you ignore the film’s implications that Kevin discovered quantum mechanics at some point.
You see, it’s revealed that a year has passed since the events of Home Alone, in which we know Kevin to be eight years old, and yet it’s revealed in Lost in New York that Kevin is somehow 10 years old. Maybe he has a very specific December birthday, or maybe Kevin counts his age by the hour he was born rather than the year. The most likely scenario, however, is that writer John Hughes simply did not give a hoot about Home Alone continuity, and frankly, he’s valid for that.