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Classic New York Movies: Watch Out for the Sticky Bandits!

Visit our Classic New York Movies map to plan your own weekend, er, getaway.

We're admittedly stretching the definition of "classic" to feature 1992's "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." It's personal, though. It was this movie, along with Disney's "Oliver and Company," that shaped our understanding of New York City as kiddies. (And it's really hard to pick out locations when you're distracted by a Billy Joel-singing cat.)

"Home Alone 2" is a perfect example of how most New York-set movies are made: studding the shoot with a few classic New York locales that non-New Yorkers can recognize. Thus, trouble-maker Kevin McCallister stays at the Plaza Hotel, where no one we know has ever stayed (possibly because they were freaked out by Tim Curry's scary concierge), swings by the Twin Towers and prays that his family will find him at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

What we know now: Kevin's uncle must have been loaded, because his Upper East Side townhouse, however dusty, is now probably inhabited by a "Gossip Girl" follower, and no bum is as friendly as the pigeon lady Kevin runs into near the Gapstow Bridge in Central Park.

Sadly, the movie's primo toy store Duncan's Toy Chest is fictional, but it's based on the real-life across-from-the-Plaza store FAO Schwartz, which has also made appearances in movies like "Big" and "Mighty Aphrodite." It's still a great place to take kids; last we checked, there were several larger-than-life armored stuffed bears to celebrate the release of "The Golden Compass," though sadly no stuffed Daniel Craig.