History YMMV / HomeAlone1

* InformedWrongness:
** It's debatable as to how wrong Uncle Frank was meant to be, but at the beginning of the first movie, his not letting Kevin watch a violent gangster movie is treated as another example as to why he's a [[EvilUncle terrible uncle]] even though Kevin later watches said movie and ends up getting the fright of his life. It can come off less like another example of Uncle Frank being a {{Jerkass}} and more him trying to prevent Kevin from being traumatized.

* TheWoobie: Marley, who not only has to deal with scary rumors being made about him, but also had a falling out with his own son, leaving him only able to see his granddaughter while she's singing at the local church. Fortunately for him, Kevin's advice convinces him to try and reconnect with his son, and the ending shows that the two have made up.

* BrieferThanTheyThink: It can be a real surprise for people to discover that there really isn't a whole lot of HomeAloneAntics. They're pretty much entirely confined to the climax, which is about fifteen minutes long. It's certainly not a short scene, but from the way people remember it, you'd think pranking the bandits was the entire plot, or at least that there were pranks occurring throughout the film. This is likely due to most of the following films using that structure instead.

* BrokenAesop: Old Man Marley. It's supposed to be a "Don't believe everything you hear" aesop, but if an old guy with a notorious reputation just stared at you sinisterly without saying a word, you'd be creeped out, too. Let alone if you were an 8-year-old who was by himself.

* {{Narm}}: The scene where Kevin meets Marley outside of his house for the first time. It's meant to serve as a reminder that Kevin shouldn't tempt fate, but his over-the-top screaming makes it hard to take seriously.

* SpiritualAdaptation: The ending is considered to be basically a kid-friendly ''Film/DieHard''. Need some proof? Take a look at [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19710_6-movies-inadvertently-remade-as-other-movies.html this article]] from ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', and also consider that HomeAloneAntics is a SubTrope of ProtectThisHouse, which itself is a SubTrope of DieHardOnAnX.

** It's debatable as to how wrong Uncle Frank was meant to be, but at the beginning of the first movie, his not letting Kevin watch a violent gangster movie is treated as another example as to why he's a [[EvilUncle terrible uncle]] even though Kevin later watches said movie and ends up getting the fright of his life. It can come off less like another example of Uncle Frank being a {{Jerkass}} and more him trying to prevent Kevin from being traumatized..

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: After setting up traps in his home for the burglars, Kevin sits down to enjoy a fancy macaroni and cheese dinner only for his alarm clock to go off and alert him about the burglars. He blows out the candles, leaves his dinner to go cold and waits for the burglars, and it's never mentioned again. Even the film's creator is stumped by the macaroni dinner's relevance.

** It's debatable as to how wrong Uncle Frank was meant to be, but at the beginning of the first movie, his not letting Kevin watch a violent gangster movie is treated as another example as to why he's a [[EvilUncle terrible uncle]] even though Kevin later watches said movie and ends up getting the fright of his life. It can come off less like another example of Uncle Frank being a {{Jerkass}} and more him trying to prevent Kevin from being traumatized.
** Kevin is treated as being in the wrong for attacking Buzz. Granted, he did make a mess in the process, but no one calls out Buzz for stealing Kevin's plain slice of pizza.

** The [=McCallister=] family as a whole is seen by some viewers as abusive monsters who are actively malevolent toward Kevin.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Many fans wished Mitch Murphy has more screen time, as it would been interesting to see Kevin's reaction to him being partially responsible for him being left behind, and Mitch teaming up with Kevin to take down Harry and Marv.

* {{Fanon}}: Kevin's (unintentional) theft at the pharmacy is never brought up again despite lingering chances that the police might be able to identify and send him to juvenile detention as he continues to roam around town unsupervised. There's a generally accepted theory among fans that it was Old Man Marley himself who paid for the stolen toothbrush, apologized on Kevin's behalf, and begged the store owner not to press charges, having understood why Kevin ran away. Given the [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold kind of person]] Marley turns out to be, this isn't far-fetched at all.

* {{Squick}}: Gus Polinski tries to get Kate to play his clarinet on the drive to Chicago - right after taking it out of his mouth. Keep in mind 1. he has just met her that day, and 2. the clarinet is a woodwind instrument, which means it has a reed that has been soaking in his saliva, probably for a while. Kate is clearly put off by it in-universe and sternly refuses, and anyone watching this post-COVID will find it very jarring.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: If you're a parent, Kate harassing the airport employees and patrons in the first film (not so much the hotel employees in the second, as they actively antagonized Kevin) is acceptable because she just wants to get home to her son. If you work with the public, she's an asshole, with or without [[FreudianExcuse a vulnerable kid stuck at home]].

** Kevin and his family are equally at fault: Kevin was being a brat when his parents told him nicely to pack his suitcase while stressing about the trip and not glue up his dad's fishing hooks, and Kate missed the whole debacle with the pizzas to send Kevin to the attic without dinner while being unsympathetic when he says everyone hates him. They both suffer karma as a result: Kevin realizes that being on his own isn't that great when you have to do all the chores and groceries with dangerous men breaking into your house, and the whole family sans Buzz feels super guilty when they realize Kevin's still in Chicago. Kate goes OhCrap when she remembers mid-flight ("KEVIN!") and MyGodWhatHaveIDone since the last thing he said to her was he didn't want to see any of them again. She makes up for it by flying home immediately, and most of his siblings can't sleep out of worry about their little brother. Meanwhile, Kevin destroys Buzz's room, stealing his money and rifle, which seems like a fair punishment for Buzz getting him in trouble and eating his dinner.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: [[BigBrotherBully Buzz]] at the end of the second film, considering that he was the one to acknowledge the fact that it was because of Kevin that the [=McCallister=] family is able to have a hotel room full of wonderful Christmas presents and insists that Kevin opens the first one.

** At one point, Peter is struggling to talk to a Frenchman who doesn't speak English, before losing his patience and delivering this gem: "I'm looking for my son! You know where he is?!" Peter knows ''exactly'' where Kevin is, having only said it due to the stress. In [[Film/HomeAlone2 the next film]], Peter really ''doesn't'' know where his son is.

** Two years after the first movie, Hillary Wolf (Megan) would star in another film about a dysfunctional family, ''Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even''. In that movie, she's the ButtMonkey of a dysfunctional family and runs away.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The movie is supposed to be about Kevin learning AnAesop about how he needs his family and should learn to appreciate them, but the main thing most people remember from it is how ''awesome'' all the stuff Kevin gets up to while his family are away looks.

* SpecialEffectsFailure:

** According to Creator/ChrisColumbus, during an interview with Creator/AlecBaldwin on Baldwin's podcast "Here's the Thing", Creator/JohnHeard was unhappy about working on the film, feeling that the film was going to be terrible. However, upon seeing the finished film and its subsequent success, Heard apologized to Columbus when they were shooting his scenes on the film's sequel, having broken character before his first take to tell Columbus. Columbus says he still has footage of Heard's apology on video tape.

* GenreTurningPoint: The first movie made live-action family-oriented films a much more attractive proposition for studios, in tandem with the animation revival the previous year's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' inspired.

* GenreTurningPoint: This made family-oriented film-making a much more attractive proposition for studios, in tandem with the animation revival the previous year's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' inspired.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The film is a movie that really could only have been set in the early 1990s.
** One of the plot points is the phone lines going down, making it impossible for the family members to reach Kevin. Nowadays, the [=McCallisters=] could've used their cell phones to call Kevin, one of their neighbors, or even child services to check on Kevin and take care of him until they came home, but even in 1990, cell phone use was restricted even among well-to-do families.
** Hell, the plot could've been solved with computers. Kate could've booked Kevin a second flight to Paris online as well as a shuttle service to escort him. Of course, in the 1990, the World Wide Web was still in its infancy, and it wouldn't be until the mid-to-late 90s that upper middle class families would start to own computers with Internet connections.
** Kevin is shown watching ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson''. Carson would go off the air two years after the movie's release.