dragonfire88's Full Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks
I remember watching many cartoons on Saturday mornings when I was growing up. I have found memories of many of those and I will still watch many of them if I find them on television. One of the cartoons I remember watching for years and enjoying was Alvin and the Chipmunks. After seeing previews for Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), the new movie version, I thought it looked like the movie would be cute and I was interested in seeing it.
David Seville had a job he didn't really like and hoped to become a successful song writer. Ian, a record executive, hated Dave’s newest song and even told him to give up on song writing. That evening, Dave discovered three talking chipmunks in his house. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore managed to convince Dave to let them stay by showing off their singing ability. Dave wrote a Christmas song for the chipmunks that Ian loved. The chipmunks quickly became very popular and Ian wanted to push them to do more so he would make more. Ian also started to drive a wedge between Dave and the chipmunks by giving the brothers all sorts of expensive gifts.
Ross Bagdasarin created the characters of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore in 1958. He also wrote the two songs, The Chipmunk Song and Witch Doctor, that made the singing chipmunks popular. Since then, the chipmunks released many records. I don’t know how many more original songs Bagdasarin wrote. The majority of the songs I remember hearing the chipmunks sing were songs originally made popular by other performers. I did recognize one or two other popular songs that the chipmunks sang during the movie. The chipmunks were always singing popular songs on the cartoon that I watched back in the 1980's.
Music played an important part in Alvin and the Chipmunks like it did in the cartoon. Dave was only shown writing one song during the movie and there wasn’t a lot of time focused on that aspect of music. More attention was given to the singing and dancing that the chipmunks did. The chipmunks did perform The Chipmunk Song and Witch Doctor during the movie. The songs, especially Witch Doctor, were changed around a little bit to give them a more modern sound which worked well. I did enjoy the music that was in the movie since it was fun.
The plot for Alvin and the Chipmunks wasn’t complicated and really didn’t offer any suspense or surprises, so it was predictable overall. That didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the movie though. It was just a fun, entertaining movie. Time was taken to establish the relationship between Dave and the chipmunks before some conflict arose once the brother became so popular. Ian did his best to add to that conflict for his own reasons. That did help to keep things interesting even though I never doubted how things would work out.
I did think that Alvin and the Chipmunks was funny. Once again, several of the funniest parts were shown in the trailer, but I did feel like there was enough other humor added in. There were a few gross jokes that I could have done without but the children in the theater loved them. Some of the humor was silly, but I expected that before seeing the movie. It was about talking, singing chipmunks after all. Frankly, I would have been surprised if it hadn’t been silly. The movie was rated PG, so there really wasn’t anything too objectionable in the movie. I didn’t think there were a lot of the innuendos aimed at adults like there have been in several other family movies. Once scene when Dave and his former girlfriend were having dinner had a few slightly suggestive lines but they weren’t explicit.
The chipmunks were created with CGI and made to interact with the human characters instead of making just an animated movie. I did think the animation for the chipmunks was well done and they interacted with the people and different objects believably. They did look like chipmunks even though they weren’t completely realistic looking. The brothers each had their own look. Their voices, especially for Theodore, ended up sounding a lot like I remembered them from the cartoon. I don’t know exactly how the voices were done. I do know that different actors provided voices for each chipmunk. I think the recordings were sped up to achieve the unique sounding voices.
Alvin and the Chipmunks was sort of a Christmas movie in my opinion. It wasn’t too long before Christmas when the brothers ended up with Dave. The first song he wrote for them to perform, The Chipmunk Song, was a Christmas song. That song launched the singing careers of the brothers, so Christmas was important to what was going on even though it wasn’t the main focus of the movie. Decorations were around in several scenes and it was cute to see the brothers helping to decorate Dave’s tree with their unique ornaments.
Dave and the chipmunks were the characters that had the most to do throughout the movie. Dave was a struggling song writer who wasn’t sure what to think when he first met the chipmunks. He was a nice guy who didn’t always handle things the best way. Jason Lee handled the part fine. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore all had different, unique personalities. Alvin acted like their leader and thought he was really cool. He did cause a lot of mischief. Theodore was very intelligent and more precise in how he did things. Theodore was almost always eating something, so he was a little chubby. Theodore was also a bit more timid than his brothers. Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Jesse McCartney provided the voices for the chipmunks.
Ian was the villain in the movie and like tends to happen in many family movies with the villain, he was a rather flat character. That worked out for the movie though. He wasn’t a nice man and was only concerned with how much money he could make. He was rather rude to Dave about his song writing ability early in the movie. He thought the chipmunks were unique enough to make him buckets of money, which was the only reason he paid them any attention. He didn’t care about them or their well being. David Cross was great in the part. Claire and Dave had dated in the past and Dave was trying to win her back. She wasn’t around too much, so she wasn’t developed that much. Cameron Richardson was fine in the part.
Main Cast
David Cross - Ian Matthew Gray Gubler - Voice of Simon Jason Lee - Dave Justin Long - Voice of Alvin Jesse McCartney - Voice of Theodore Cameron Richardson - Claire
Tim Hill - Director
Alvin and the Chipmunks was a cute movie that children will probably enjoy. There wasn’t anything serious about the movie. It was just a fun, entertaining movie to watch for some mindless entertainment. It will probably be too silly for some people though. This is a decent choice for families.
This is a movie that I would have given three and a half stars if I had the option. Since I don’t, I decided to round up to four stars.
Already adored by generations of fans around the world, Alvin and the Chipmunks have plenty to sing about in their big-screen debut - a hilarious holi...More at eCOST.com
This live-actioncomputer-animated update of Ross Bagdasarian's squeaky-voiced cartoon characters finds the chipmunks in CGI form transported from thei...More at Family Video
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