Home Alone 2 - 35mm Scanning Project Opportunity

This is something I’ve been working towards for awhile now, but I want to finally announce that I am working on a project to produce a 35mm scan of “Home Alone 2”. I have an original 35mm release print of the film in excellent condition. This has always been one of my favorite Christmas films, and since I have the print anyway I’d love to get it scanned and out into the public.

I originally planned to begin this project back in 2018, but at the time my daughter had just been born. She developed a milk allergy and had to have expensive formula (nearly $500 a month!) so it went on the back burner. Recently the print drew my attention again and I decided to try to move forward with my project. I’ve located a scanner who is willing to work with me, and the film is prepared for shipment.

I’m curious if any other fans of this film are interested in contributing to the scanning project which will run about $1200 with shipping, etc. Any contributors will receive access to a “Preview” release of the scan as soon as I get the hard drive back and can render a rough Grindhouse style version. I anticipate the process from shipping the film out to preview release to take 2-3 months based on the information provided by the scanner. My goal is to ensure that this isn’t one of those projects that drag on forever before anyone gets to see results. The “Grindhouse” style preview will be available to contributors as soon as reasonably possible. Obviously tweaking and full editing of a “final” release will take some time to perfect, but major contributors can also get access to the original high resolution scan files if you would like to tweak or do your own restorations using them.

If anyone is interested in contributing please PM me.

Out of curiosity, is there anything wrong with the blu-rays or Home Alone?

stwd4nder2 said:

Out of curiosity, is there anything wrong with the blu-rays or Home Alone?

Home Alone 2 on Blu Ray has a rather low bitrate and the transfer is ok, not great. I have the UK Blu Ray and I think that looks fine but I’d love to see a film scan of it. HA2 has only had one release in HD in 2009 but the original has had three different remasters.

The 2015 Mastered-in-4K 1080p Blu Ray of Home Alone (the original) got raved about on Blu Ray.com but personally I thought it was a bit too dark and over-saturated. The UHD 4K disc (from what I’ve seen) seems to be more accurate. I remember the “Family Fun Edition” DVD being quite accurate to how I grew up watching it on TV/VHS and I assume the original 2008 Blu Ray used that same master.

Is there still a chance for this project to keep going/growing? I would love to see a 4K Scan/Restoration of Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. I love both movies but, I like this one a little better.

Sneak Peak?

Any update on the project

Hello. Is this project still in development or is it finished? I love Home Alone 2. It would be wonderful to see it in 35mm format.

RU.08 said:

This print is gone long gone guys, if you want to scan HA2 you’ll need to source another print for scanning.

That’s unfortunate. Thanks for letting us know.

SpacemanDoug said:
I never understood honestly why Fox has skewed several of its masters to the yellow spectrum but my friend theorizes it’s their attempt to recreate what an image would look like projected through a bulb.

It well could be more accurate to how it looked in theaters. So it may not be skewed at all, the blue stuff you see is what might actually have been altered and skewed.

It’s worth mentioning that there’s a 4K remaster out in the wild…

I’ve never seen Home Alone 2 in HD. All I have is the Australian PAL DVD which by judging the video quality, seems to be a Laserdisc transfer. It’s not sharp and colours aren’t as vibrant as the US NTSC DVD which I managed to find a copy of in ISO format online. The only positive thing is that the audio is 2.0 Dolby Surround which seems to be the original theatrical mix. Don’t know why Australia never got a Blu-ray release for 1&2.

Interested. Is there an update on the project?