What do Harry Potter and Kevin McCallister have in common? This holiday season, I invite you to think about the most epic childhood crossover that never happened.
It’s the holidays, and we’re all going back to watch one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time: Home Alone. But if you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’ll immediately catch a ton of similarities in tone and style between Home Alone and The Sorcerer’s Stone… understandably, since they were both directed by Chris Columbus, who is responsible for many childhood classics.
Both movies are very different from each other in terms of plot and the scope of what they attempt to do, but there’s something adorably similar about 11-year-old Harry and eight-year-old Kevin’s approaches to the challenges in life.
They might have had very different upbringings, with Harry growing up an orphan with nothing to his name in a household that hated him, and Kevin growing up in comfort with a large family that loved him (despite their many faults), but their personalities are still very similar. Both have a clever knack for getting out of sticky situations and an intense desire to discover who they are. Kevin felt held back by the pressures of his stifling family, while Harry was held back by his family’s lack of interest in him.
The adults in both films stand out for not being very bright. Even Dumbledore, the greatest wizard who ever lived, is mostly absent when it comes to Harry and the trio’s dangerous adventures. Kevin’s parents start out by completely missing every injustice piled upon their son, then promptly forget him at home… and Kevin’s mom’s journey back to find him, though pure-hearted, definitely isn’t the most efficient of methods she could have taken.
In both cases, it’s up to the kids to get things done when adults don’t listen… and in true Ferris Bueller style, their ambitious plans to defeat thieves (of the house-robbing sort and the Sorcerer’s-Stone-robbing sort!) all manage to succeed because of their intelligence and determination in the face of conflict.
Is it too crazy to imagine a pre-Sorcerer’s Stone crossover, where Kevin gets lost in the U.K. (because of course he does) with pre-Hogwarts Harry (while the Dursleys are on holiday somewhere, and left him behind), and both have to defend Harry’s house from criminals… while keeping the house intact for the Dursleys, and maybe pranking Dudley along the way?
There’s something special in both these films that makes them ideal for a comforting movie night in with hot chocolate. They remind us of what it was like to be a kid, when even the most well-intentioned adults didn’t always get us, and sometimes things were downright unfair, but we couldn’t stand up for ourselves the way we wish we could. This childhood frustration is perfectly depicted in both films, making Harry and Kevin’s ultimate triumph particularly satisfying.
In the end, the recognition they both get from people who didn’t believe in them — in Kevin’s case, his family; in Harry’s case, the school — is the perfect childhood fantasy we all had of being like superheroes among our friends, against all expectations.
In a way, both boys eventually get their revenge over the injustices they’ve suffered. Harry finally gets to be victorious after the Dursleys’ attempts to keep him away from the magic he should have been exposed to all along, and Kevin finally gets to be independent and prove that he’s an asset to his family by defending his home from robbers.
As adults, we might not have exactly the same idea of triumph that we had as kids, but there’s something fiercely satisfying about seeing Kevin successfully defend his home from the bad guys, and Harry successfully defeat Quirrell/Voldemort (…well, for the first time).
Home Alone is an obvious Christmas movie, but a lot of the same Christmas magic appears in Sorcerer’s Stone. Columbus does a great job of capturing Harry’s experience as he finally enjoys a holiday in which he’s surrounded by love.
In both films, despite the young age of the characters, the charm and emotions of the Christmas season are captured with an unusual amount of wisdom. It’s about the characters’ internal experience much more than it is about the gifts or the Christmas trees. The holidays are a method through which the characters discover their own inner life and their value as people when they are on their own.
They aren’t exactly coming-of-age stories, but they stand out in their genre for being a particularly profound depiction of the late childhood years (even without taking into consideration the emotional rollercoaster that the rest of the Harry Potter series is!).
So why not watch the movies back to back, and imagine these two ridiculously capable little boys get up to some crazy shenanigans, unbeknownst to their unappreciative families? It’s not a crossover that could ever happen, but it’s great to think about while enjoying two of Columbus’ best feel-good adventure films.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.