Disney Rebooting 'Home Alone' and Other Fox Films — and Twitter Has Thoughts

Proving there are no new ideas and that nothing is sacred, Disney announced on Aug. 6 that they would be rebooting several recently acquired Fox properties for eventual distribution on their upcoming streaming platform, Disney+. Among the titles up for a little re-imagineering are Home Alone, Night at the Museum, Cheaper By the Dozen, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

The internet is overflowing with examples of why Home Alone as a concept is flat-out impossible in a modern setting. Like this evergreen cartoon by Jen Lewis. The list of modern technological advancements that would make the concept ludicrous is longer than my arm.

Setting aside the obvious question of "who asked for this?" fans of Home Alone in particular erupted on Twitter, wondering how you could even remake the 1990s classic. They quickly got to work contemplating what these reboots might look like in the year 2019 and beyond.

A lot of people pointed out that the very concept of Home Alone is kind of impossible in the 21st century, which is a point that has been made countless times about this and other beloved 1990s movies. With the ubiquity of social media, smartphones, and other smart tech, it's kind of impossible to imagine a scenario in which an 8-year-old boy would find himself alone with no way to reach his parents or vice versa.

Execs alluded to a "series" reboot, and it's unclear whether they meant a series of movies or an episodic TV show, but some folks had ideas about what we might get if Disney gave it the ol' prestige-television treatment. This concept sounds like American Crime Story: Home Alone. Someone get Ryan Murphy on the blower!

There is already one sequel to the movie starring Macaulay Culkin (with a surreal cameo from the current POTUS), a third wide-release film that had none of the original cast, and two subsequent made-for-TV movies. They all sucked, but sure, let's try again! 

Actually, I kind of love this guy's idea, though...

OK, that's a brilliant concept. Macaulay Culkin showed he's willing to reprise his role with the Google Assistant commercial he did last year, and though largely retired from acting, Joe Pesci seems to be willing to sign on to select projects. OK, this probably isn't as enticing as working with Scorsese and De Niro again (as with next month's highly anticipated release, The Irishman), this is a chance to revisit a beloved classic!

While it hasn't quite reached the classic status of Home Alone, fans of the 2006 film Night at the Museum trilogy also objected to relaunching the series, which honestly feels even weirder given the fact the third movie was released in 2014. 

As someone who trucks in viral news in the year 2019, I can assure you this is 100 percent how a Night at the Museum scenario would go down if it happened today. The night guard would document everything on social media and then when the post went viral, he'd promote his Soundcloud and get interviews on morning television and Ellen.

Honestly, some things are really better left alone.