Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Plot

In Chicago, Illinois, the McCallister family is preparing for a Christmas vacation in Miami. On the night before their departure, the entire family gathers at Peter and Kate's home, where their 10-year-old son Kevin sees Florida as contradictory to Christmas, on his opinion of the lack of Christmas trees in Florida. During the school Christmas pageant, Kevin's older brother Buzz humiliates him during his solo, causing Kevin to retaliate. Refusing to apologize for his actions, Kevin goes up to the third floor of the house. During the night, Peter unknowingly causes the alarm clock to reset; consequently, the family once again oversleeps. In the confusion and rush to reach the airport on time, Kevin boards a flight bound for New York City while trying to replace the batteries for his tape recorder, carrying Peter's bag containing his wallet and a large amount of cash; upon arrival in Miami, Kate realizes that Kevin is missing again. In New York, Kevin tours the city and convinces the staff at the Plaza Hotel into renting him a room using his father's credit card. During a visit to Central Park, Kevin is frightened by the appearance of a homeless woman tending to pigeons.

On Christmas Eve, Kevin tours the city in a limousine and visits a toy store where he meets its philanthropic owner, Mr. Duncan. Kevin learns that the proceeds from the store's Christmas sales will be donated to a children's hospital. Duncan offers Kevin a pair of ceramic turtledoves as a gift, instructing him to give one to another person as a sign of eternal friendship. After running into Harry and Marv, who have recently escaped from prison and now called "Sticky Bandits", Kevin retreats to the Plaza. The hotel's concierge Mr. Hector confronts Kevin about the credit card which has been reported stolen. Kevin flees after evading Mr. Hector, but is captured by Harry and Marv. The duo discuss plans for breaking into the toy store that night, before Kevin escapes.

Kevin's family travels to New York after tracking the whereabouts of the stolen credit card and Kate searches the city for Kevin. Meanwhile, Kevin goes to his uncle Rob's townhouse only to find the house vacant and undergoing renovations while Rob and his family are in Paris. In Central Park, he encounters and befriends the pigeon lady. At Carnegie Hall, the pair watch an orchestra perform "O Come, All Ye Faithful." The pigeon lady explains how her life collapsed and how she dealt with it by taking care of the pigeons in the park. Kevin gives the pigeon lady some advice and promises that he will be her friend.

Kevin, after remembering what the bandits said, returns to the townhouse and rigs it with numerous booby traps. Kevin arrives at the toy store during Harry and Marv's robbery, throws a brick through the window, setting off the store's alarm. Kevin then lures the duo to the townhouse, where he springs the traps and Harry and Marv suffer various injuries. When the duo chase Kevin around the townhouse, he escapes and calls the police. Harry and Marv catch him take him down to Central Park to kill him, but the pigeon lady sneaks in and incapacitates the duo with birdseed before they can do anything, and Kevin sets off fireworks he had bought earlier to signal the police. The police arrive and arrest Harry and Marv. At the toy store, Mr. Duncan finds a note from Kevin attached to the brick explaining his actions.

Kate remembers Kevin's fondness for Christmas trees. After observing Kevin making a wish at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Kate meets him there and they reconcile. On Christmas Day, a truckload of gifts arrive at the McCallisters' hotel room from the toy store. Kevin and Buzz reconcile and Buzz allows him to open up the first present. Kevin goes to Central Park to give the pigeon lady the second turtledove. At the Plaza, Buzz receives the bill for Kevin's stay from Cedric and shows it to Peter. Peter suddenly calls out, "Kevin, you spent $967 on room service?!" at which point Kevin runs off.

Marketing

Numerous video games based on Home Alone 2 were released by THQ for such systems as the Sega Mega Drive, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and personal computers, mostly in late 1992. A separate hand-held game was released by Tiger Electronics. Numerous board games were also released, some based around play cards, while another was a close emulation of the classic Mouse Trap.

The Talkboy cassette recorder was produced as a tie-in for the movie by Tiger Electronics (currently under Hasbro) based on specifications provided by John Hughes and the movie studio, and sold particularly well after the film was released on home video.

American Airlines again had product placement in the film with the McCallisters making their trip on the airline's two Boeing 767-200s. In the first film, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was used. For the release of the first two films on home video, the airline became a sponsor..

Coca-Cola products make several appearances in the film, including in scenes when Kevin rides a limousine and when Kevin's cousin Fuller wakes up at the Plaza Hotel. Notably, Pepsi products appeared in the first Home Alone film instead.

Box office

Home Alone 2 opened to $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site. While it started off better than Home Alone, the final box office gross was much less. $173.6 million was taken in the United States and a total of $359 million worldwide. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 11, 1992, and topped the country's box office that weekend.

Critical reception

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 27% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10 and an audience score of 61%. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars and stated that "cartoon violence is only funny in cartoons. Most of the live-action attempts to duplicate animation have failed, because when flesh-and-blood figures hit the pavement, we can almost hear the bones crunch, and it isn't funny."

Home media

The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc on July 27, 1993. It was re-released in 1997 along with Home Alone on VHS. It was later released on DVD on October 5, 1999 as a basic package, with no special features other than theatrical trailers for the film and its predecessor and successor. The film was released on Blu-ray in 2009 with no special features, and was released alongside Home Alone in a collection pack the following year. The film was reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013 and 2015. After the September 11 attacks of 2001, a scene of Kevin visiting the observation deck of the World Trade Center was edited out of the film.

Music

John Williams returned from the first installment to score Home Alone 2. While the film featured the first film's theme song "Somewhere in My Memory", it also contained its own theme entitled "Christmas Star". Two soundtrack albums of the film were released on November 20, 1992, with one featuring Williams' score and the other featuring contemporary Christmas songs featured in the film. Ten years later, a 2-disc Deluxe Edition of the film score soundtrack was released.

Original Score

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Score is a 1992 soundtrack composed by John Williams, who also scored the first installment in the franchise. While the soundtrack is mostly a repeat of the first film's material, there are a few new prominent themes such as "Christmas Star" and "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store". Ultimately, the soundtrack fell out of print.

1. "Somewhere in My Memory" (3:49)
2. "Home Alone" (2:01)
3. "We Overslept Again" (2:46)
4. "Christmas Star" (3:18)
5. "Arrival in New York" (1:41)
6. "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store" (3:45)
7. "Concierge and Race to the Room" (2:04)
8. "Star of Bethlehem" (3:28)
9. "The Thieves Return" (4:35)
10. "Appearance of Pigeon Lady" (3:19)
11. "Christmas at Carnegie Hall" ("O Come All Ye Faithful" / "O Little Town of Bethlehem" / "Silent Night") (5:02)
12. "Into the Park" (3:49)
13. "Haunted Brownstone" (3:01)
14. "Christmas Star and Preparing the Trap" (4:17)
15. "To the Plaza Presto" (3:22)
16. "Reunion at Rockefeller Center" (2:36)
17. "Kevin's Booby Traps" (3:41)
18. "Finale" (3:55)
19. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:51)

Original Soundtrack Album

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Soundtrack Album is a 1992 soundtrack album that contains music from or inspired by Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The album eventually was discontinued and later re-released as Home Alone Christmas in 1997 by Sony BMG with an alternate track listing. Both versions feature tracks of John Williams' score, though the tracks are of different songs between the original album and its re-release.

1. "All Alone on Christmas" (4:14) (Darlene Love)
2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (2:14) (Alan Jackson)
3. "Somewhere in My Memory" (3:58) (Bette Midler, composed by John Williams, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse)
4. "My Christmas Tree" (2:35) (Home Alone Children's Choir, composed by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman)
5. "Sleigh Ride" (3:44) (TLC)
6. "Silver Bells" (4:15) (Atlantic Starr)
7. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:40) (John Williams)
8. "Jingle Bell Rock" (2:09) (Bobby Helms)
9. "Cool Jerk (Christmas Mix)" (2:39) (The Capitols)
10. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (2:14) (Johnny Mathis)
11. "Christmas Star" (3:16) (John Williams)
12. "O Come All Ye Faithful" (3:26) (Lisa Fischer)

1. "All Alone on Christmas" (Darlene Love)
2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (Alan Jackson)
3. "My Christmas Tree" (The Fox Albert Choir)
4. "Somewhere in My Memory" (John Williams)
5. "Silver Bells" (Atlantic Starr)
6. "Sleigh Ride" (TLC)
7. "Christmas All Over Again" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
8. "Please Come Home for Christmas" (Southside Johnny Lyon)
9. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (John Williams)
10. "Carol of the Bells" (John Williams)
11. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Mel Torme)
12. "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Lisa Fischer)

The Deluxe Edition

On the film's tenth anniversary, Varèse Sarabande released a two-disc special edition soundtrack entitled Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – The Deluxe Edition. The soundtrack contains John Williams' cues found on the previous releases as well as additional compositions that were left out from the final film. This release is also known for resolving a mastering error that caused the music to be inaccurately pitched.

1. Home Alone (Main Title) (2:07)
2. This Year's Wish (1:47)
3. We Overslept Again / Holiday Flight (3:19)
4. Separate Vacations*(1:58)
5. Arrival in New York**(2:59)
6. The Thieves Return (3:28)
7. Plaza Hotel (3:04)
8. Concierge (1:31)
9. Distant Goodnights (Christmas Star) (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:05)
10. A Day in the City (:59)
11. Duncan's Toy Store (2:41)
12. Turtle Doves (1:29)
13. To the Plaza, Presto (3:27)
14. Race to the Room / Hot Pursuit (4:08)
15. Haunted Brownstone (3:02)
16. Appearance of the Pigeon Lady (3:21)
17. Christmas at Carnegie Hall (5:15) O Come, All Ye Faithful / O Little Town of Bethlehem / Silent Night

1. Christmas Star - Preparing the Trap (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (4:22)
2. Another Christmas in the Trenches (2:33)
3. Running Through Town (1:16)
4. Luring the Thieves*(4:02)
5. Kevin's Booby Traps (7:23)
6. Down the Rope / Into the Park (5:06)
7. Reunion at Rockefeller Center / It's Christmas (5:21)
8. Finale (2:00)
9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Traditional) and Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:51)
10. End Title (1:32)
11. Holiday Flight (alternate) (2:32)
12. Suite from "Angels with Filthy Souls II" (:56)
13. Somewhere in My Memory (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:57)
14. Star of Bethlehem (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:32)
15. Christmas Star (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:23)
16. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (orchestra) (2:23)

Novelization

Home Alone 2 was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1992 to coincide with the film. It has an ISBN of 0-590-45717-9. An audiobook version was also released read by Tim Curry.

As in the novelization of the first film the McCallisters live in Oak Park, Illinois and the crooks are named as Harry Lime and Marv Merchants.

In the beginning of the novelization, a prologue, which ends up being Marv's nightmare in prison, he and Harry sneak away from the cops and return to Kevin's house to seek revenge on Kevin. Kevin bolts into the garage with Marv and Harry in hot pursuit. Harry and Marv end up triggering extra traps that Kevin had set up in the garage. Kevin watches as Marv ends up triggering a trap where a running lawnmower falls on his head (This was a trap featured in Home Alone 3).

Sequels

A second sequel, Home Alone 3, followed in 1997. Two additional television movie sequels, Taking Back the House and The Holiday Heist, would follow in 2002 and 2012, respectively.