Home Alone, the perennial holiday movie about a mischievous boy defending his home from opportunistic burglars, has its story continued in the new Disney+ original, Home Sweet Home Alone.
Star Aisling Bea [ASH-ling bee], who plays the protagonist’s mother, told ABC Audio the film is “not a remake” of the original 1990 movie — it’s a sequel. That’s a small relief for the Irish comedian, who admits a reboot would mean she’d be compared to Catherine O’Hara, who played Macaulay Culkin‘s on-screen mom.
“The character is so different of the mother,” said Bea, “which I think gives it a new energy and why it makes it a different film. And takes the pressure off ‘Oh, you’re reprising Catherine O’Hara’s role.'”
She further teased, “All of the characters sort of spin on their head in terms of who’s good and who’s bad.”
Bea, who was about six when the first Home Alone movie came out, explains why the original movie was formative for her.
“I remember when I first saw it,” Bea recalled. “I sort of felt like, ‘Oh, this is a film for me like that. It’s from my point of view,’ which was a rarity to see something that felt like a sort of adult movie in a way or comedy that that was told from the child’s eyes.”
So, what would happen if the Wet Bandits broke into her home during the holidays?
“They’d be really disappointed,” she laughed, because her valuables consist of a collection of fridge magnets and modestly priced jewelry. “Maybe they’d take my one of my 94 pillows and cushions that I have adorning every of every surface and a lot of Irish paraphernalia!”
Home Sweet Home Alone is streaming now on Disney+.
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