'Home Sweet Home Alone' Brings Christmas Early To Disney+ With November Release Date

Much of the northeastern United States is currently baking amid an excessive heat warning, wildfires are raging out of control, and that pandemic shows no signs of abating anytime soon. Oh, and it's only August too. So why not cheer up with some Christmas news! You may have heard before that Disney is loosely remaking the holiday classic Home Alone, whether you like it or not, and now we have some more confirmation on when exactly we can expect the very imaginatively titled Home Sweet Home Alone to hit streaming.

Disney is pulling out all the stops to turn this revival into the most star-studded holiday movie that you will probably watch once as background noise at your family's insistence around Christmastime and then never think about again. The cast of Home Sweet Home Alone includes Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Archie Yates (Jojo Rabbit), Aisling Bea (Living with Yourself), Kenan Thompson (Saturday Night Live), Tim Simons (Veep), Pete Holmes (The Secret Life of Pets 2), Devin Ratray (Home Alone), Ally Maki (Toy Story 4), and Chris Parnell (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues).

Written by Mikey Day & Streeter Seidell (Saturday Night Live), the film is directed by Dan Mazer (Dirty Grandpa), the film will hit the Disney+ streaming service on November 12.

Helpfully, the Disney+ Twitter account tweeted out these details along with some festive pictures of the cast. Check it out below:

Three months until we're #HomeSweetHomeAlone. The all-new Original Movie starts streaming November 12 on #DisneyPlus and stars Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Archie Yates, Aisling Bea, Kenan Thompson, Tim Simons, Pete Holmes, Devin Ratray, Ally Maki, and Chris Parnell. pic.twitter.com/kXhI7qzAk5

— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) August 12, 2021

The film is described as:

"Max Mercer is a mischievous and resourceful young boy who has been left behind while his family is in Japan for the holidays. So when a married couple attempting to retrieve a priceless heirloom set their sights on the Mercer family's home, it is up to Max to protect it from the trespassers...and he will do whatever it takes to keep them out. Hilarious hijinks of epic proportions ensue, but despite the absolute chaos, Max comes to realize that there really is no place like home sweet home."

If that synopsis sounds just different enough from the original movie to justify pouring all these resources into yet another movie that plays around with the same premise, that was very likely the intention all along. As it happens, those of you reading this aren't the only ones wondering what the point of this remake is. Back when the project was first announced, none other than Chris Columbus (the director of the first movie, not that other guy) spoke out aggressively against the very idea of it. As he put it at the time,

"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."

In any case, this is all very amusing, and here's hoping someone asks Columbus about the remake when it finally releases. We could all do with some holiday cheer, after all.