Although “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” is now showing on The Hallmark Channel, the original “Home Alone” remains the most popular Christmas movie among Missourians. Researchers identified the five most popular titles in the Show-Me State over the past five Christmases.
It’s been more than three decades since “Home Alone” was released in theaters, but Missouri residents haven’t forgotten Kevin McCallister. Viewers already know all about John Williams’ iconic Oscar-nominated score and the Rube Goldberg-esque booby traps laid by Kevin McCallister as he protects his house for a pair of dimwitted home invaders but may be unaware of a major controversy surrounding the film.
The year before “Home Alone,” a French film called “3615 Peré Noël” — or “Deadly Games,” as it is more commonly known today — appeared in theaters in Europe. That movie also is about a young boy who must fight off theft on Christmas Eve. The similarities are so blatant that the French filmmaking team threatened to sue. The lawsuit never went anywhere, and “Deadly Games” was recently restored and is widely available on streaming.
“How The Grinch Stole Christmas” is the second-favorite Christmas movie in Missouri. The film’s art department scored a number of Oscar nominations for their work recreating the fantastical world of Dr. Seuss’ Whoville; including best art direction, best costume design and best makeup. Lead actor Jim Carrey said he consulted with an expert in torture from the CIA to prepare for the marathon make-up sessions he had to endure to become the Grinch.
Tied for the third-most-popular Christmas movie in Missouri are “Elf,” starring Will Ferrell as a human mistakenly raised as one of Santa’s elves, and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” which shares a screenwriter with the number one film, “Home Alone.” That would be John Hughes, who in addition to the two Christmas movies on the list, Hughes can also be thanked for writing the films “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”
The next film on the list, “The Polar Express,” was rendered entirely with CGI. The popular 2004 computer-animated tale about a group of kids on a train ride to the North Pole is tied with “A Christmas Story” as the fifth-most-popular Christmas movie in Missouri.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice