The basic them of Home Alone may have been Infant Jeopardy, but by the -time the sequel came around it was clear that the producers were homing in on the aspect that was really ringing bells with the juvenile audience - Revenge On The Grown-ups.
In Three Ninjas, which announces itself with the line "Imagine Bruce Lee's grandchildren are home alone," it's reached the pitch where a trio of pre-teens can take apart whole armies of gun runners with just a pair of white jim jams and a succession of well-aimed flying drop kicks. By stretching credulity until you can clearly hear the seams beginning to go, the writers have contrived to bless Martial Arts master Victor Wong with three remarkably un-Oriental grandchildren whom he trains up into a thoroughly accomplished killing machine at the service of their FBI agent pop as he attempts to arrest the evil Snyder, head of hundreds of high-kicking baddies.
In a move that makes one question his evil genius status, Snyder entrusts the kidnapping of the three Ninja kids to a trio of Bill & Ted-alikes who descend upon the family home and blunder into a series of elaborate man traps, culminating in a poetic ruse with an industrial strength laxative and the use of pop's CD collection as deadly weapons.
Brazenly exploitative stuff, stirring in anything which has done the business in kids' movies previously, this, of course, should have its target audience laughing like drains.