5 Ways Home Alone Is The Greatest Christmas Movie Ever (& 5 Ways Its Elf)

5 Ways Home Alone Is The Greatest Christmas Movie Ever (& 5 Ways It’s Elf)

When it comes to the greatest Christmas movies ever made, two films are often brought up in discussion – Home Alone and Elf. Here’s how they compare.

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When it comes to the greatest Christmas movies ever made, two films are continuously brought up in discussion – Home Alone and Elf. While both are family-friendly comedies, they couldn’t be more different. One concerns a child defending his house from burglars, and the other follows a man child who fails to fit into wider society in New York City (but who eventually lends New York the Christmas spirit it needs to save Santa).

Both movies certainly have their values, and both are fantastic in their own unique ways.

10 Home Alone: Macaulay Culkin

Some movies suffer under child actors, but not Home Alone. In fact, Macaulay Culkin makes the movie. Culkin had a lot of heavy lifting to do throughout the movie, as 90% of it is just him doing things around the house and the local town.

He also has to convey a wide range of emotions, including his bratty disposition in the opening sequence, his elation over finding his family gone, and his eventual sadness over their absence. Culkin nailed it all, and he helped make Home Alone the classic it is today.

9 Elf: Will Ferrell

With that said, Will Ferrell also proves a commanding lead throughout Elf. Ferrell typically plays some type of man child character, and that is taken to its literal extreme here.

Luckily, he proves a complete natural in the role. His manic energy and childish enthusiasm for Christmas is infectious, but he also nails Buddy’s social awkwardness and his complete inability to fit in. Elf wouldn’t work without Ferrell – at least not to the degree that it does.

8 Home Alone: The Burglars

As great as Macaulay Culkin is, he is aided throughout by a wonderful Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. Both perfectly cast in their respective roles, the burglars Harry and Marv are some of the most beloved antagonists in the Christmas movie canon.

Pesci proves surprisingly family-friendly as Harry, and Stern proves remarkable as the dimwitted and clumsy Marv. They’re properly menacing, but their slapstick goofiness also proves hilarious to kids and adults alike.

7 Elf: The New York City Setting

Part of what makes Elf so magical is its New York atmosphere. New York proves a beautiful time in the Christmas season, and Elf captures it wonderfully with its decorated department stores, snowy Central Park, and the giant tree at Rockefeller Center.

Even if a viewer has never been to New York, they can feel the city’s unique Christmas atmosphere throughout the film. While Home Alone 2 also went to New York, the first was mostly contained to Kevin’s house and neighborhood.

6 Home Alone: The Climax

The climax to Elf is great (Buddy helps Santa in Central Park and New York gets its festive spirit), but nothing beats Home Alone in that regard. Kevin defending his house from Harry and Marv has become an iconic sequence, and it’s one of the most famous endings in modern movie history.

Some of the traps prove hilariously inventive (like heating up the doorknob), others prove far more menacing and wince-inducing (nail through the foot, iron to the face, blowtorch to head). Either way, it makes for ten minutes of glorious slapstick comedy.

5 Elf: The Supporting Cast

The supporting cast of Home Alone is great, what with the inclusions of Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, and John Candy. But the supporting cast of Elf is simply extraordinary.

James Caan as Walter Hobbs, Mary Steenburgen as his wife Emily, Zooey Deschanel as Jovie, Bob Newhart as Papa Elf, Andy Richter and Kyle Glass as Morris and Eugene, and Peter Dinklage as Miles Filch. There’s simply no going wrong with a cast of that caliber, and every character is both perfectly cast and performed.

4 Home Alone: Sentimentality

Sentimentality can be annoying, but Home Alone deftly manages to strike the right balance. Despite being a goofy slapstick comedy about a kid defending his house from idiot burglars, Home Alone is about the importance of family – especially around the holidays.

The movie isn’t afraid to explore that theme in somewhat obvious manners, like the sentimental church scene between Kevin and Marley and Kevin telling “Santa” that he wants nothing more for Christmas than his family’s return. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with a little sentimentality around the holidays.

3 Elf: The Unique Character Interactions

Home Alone is a great movie, and it plays its story quite straight. On the other hand, Elf contains numerous unique interactions that make it work on multiple levels. Children can view it as a relatable story about the magic and wonder of Christmas.

Adults can enjoy the unique character interactions as everyone treats Buddy like an insane person. Both can enjoy the sentimentality of the ending wherein Buddy inspires the magic of Christmas in the citizens of New York. No matter how a fan views it, Elf is a great movie.

2 Home Alone: The Music

John Debney’s work on Elf is certainly memorable. But Home Alone was scored by John Williams, and there’s simply no beating John Williams.

Part of what makes Home Alone such a magical Christmas film is its warm and inviting music. Many pieces of music from the film have become iconic, including Somewhere In My Memory, The House, Holiday Flight, and Setting the Trap. In fact, Williams earned Home Alone its only two Academy Award nominations – Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

1 Elf: The Unique Concept

Home Alone has a good story, but Elf has a unique concept. A human baby crawls into Santa’s sack and is inadvertently taken to the North Pole where he is raised as an elf.

He then travels to New York to meet his father, doesn’t fit in due to his time in the North Pole, and everyone treats him like a crazy person. It’s an ingenious concept, and it helped Elf stand out from the literally countless Christmas movies that came before it.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/5-ways-home-alone-is-the-greatest-christmas-movie-ever-5-ways-its-elf/

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