Blu-ray Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (2009)

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Public squeaking may not scare Alvin, Simon and Theodore as the world famous singing sensations The Chipmunks but when it comes to high school and especially bullies who have a penchant for swirlies, Dave's three “boys” are so petrified that they're ready to call the humane society rather than return on day two.

Unfortunately, their temporary guardian – a grown man who refers to himself as “The Tobester” (Chuck's lovable Zachary Levi) -- is under strict orders from both the Parisian hospital-bound Dave (Jason Lee) and the boy's popcorn gifting elderly aunt he accidentally put into the hospital as well, to follow orders in ensuring they have a normal adolescence.

Yet, when the three stand up for themselves and get in trouble for fighting jocks at West Eastman High, their closeted Chip-groupie principal forgoes suspension in favor of requesting that Alvin and his brothers will perform at a school contest to help save their Eagle classmate's music education program.

With Alvin adhering to the “if you can't beat 'em, join 'em,” approach by becoming the football team's Most Valuable Player, it's left to Simon and an increasingly alienated Theodore to not only try to maintain some semblance of normalcy but also prep for the competition.

Never one to have doubts about his talents, Alvin's attitude implies that he believes it's in-the-bag. Yet when their old unscrupulous manager Ian Hawke (David Cross) swoops in with three cute musically gifted girls dubbed The Chipettes who enroll in the exact same high school, all bets are off as the two groups -- evenly matched right down to color and personality -- square off for the championship.

With Jason Lee benched for a majority of the sequel aside from brief bookend appearances, the task falls to a surprisingly natural Levi to fill in which he does with gusto, proving to have a natural ability to play an extreme slacker version of the live-at-home, video game fan Chuck, by acting opposite air that will later be filled in with the CG musical animals.

Learning only after the fact that female comediennes Christina Applegate, Amy Poehler, and Anna Faris were the ones lending their voices to the roles of Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette Chipette since the original rhythms of their speech are disguised by the trademark fast-forward sounding squeak, the film also benefits from additional girl power as blockbuster director Betty Thomas takes over the reins of the franchise.

Still it has little in common with the original characters created back in 1958, save for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it homage to the date by making the numbers the street address where the the three live. Nonetheless, the sequel remains a superior effort by comparison with the prequel since it keeps its scope narrower, its plot far more focused on relatable elements like school and friendship and also benefits from the appeal of not only Levi's charm but also the welcome introduction of '80s TV series favorites The Chipettes.

Despite this, it's still a far cry from the far more original animated work coming out of Hollywood today and indeed from Alvin's home of Fox Studios via 2009's wonderful Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

And even though the bar was set fairly low by the first movie and this one has its shortcomings overall, it's ultimately a benign, lukewarm effort filled with sing-alongs, featurettes and a plethora of goodies especially in the eye-popping Blu-ray Combo Pack that boasts a DVD and Digital Copy as well so you can easily take the movie on the road with you for its young fans.

Likewise, it should no doubt appeal to its target demographic and their parents thanks to a healthy blend of classic and contemporary musical selections like “You Really Got Me” and “Stayin' Alive,” along with “Put Your Records On,” “Hot N Cold,” and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” as well as the all-too familiar, universal terrain of high school bullies and cliques that will make you wish you were at the humane society.

Text ©2010, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

TV on DVD: Alvin and the Chipmunks -- The Very First Alvin Show

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I've always had a fondness for the Chipmunks, whether they were touching our heartstrings with their famous rendition of their "Christmas Song," taking part in memorable holiday specials, or entertaining fellow 1980s babies like yours truly who grew up watching Alvin and the Chipmunks in the various evolutions of their Saturday morning cartoon series including their reenactments of popular movies such as in Paramount's recent Star Wreck release.

Having reviewed numerous Chipmunks titles in the past, I was especially thrilled to go back further in history of the Ross Bagdasarian created characters to explore The Very First Alvin Show which was broadcast back in 1961 especially considering that the television premiere had never been previously released in any format including VHS.

Remastering the 35mm film print that aired almost fifty years ago in high definition before transferring it to DVD, Paramount devoted great attention to the soundtrack as well by redistributing the original mono track to a crisp and beautiful stereo balance to accentuate the music we'd come to know and love. Although format-wise, it's very 1960s and the plot is all over the place, two musical highlights include songs I'd never heard before as the Chipmunks put their own spin on "O Sole Mio" in Italy and Alvin tries to use musical "ooh la la" to seduce gorgeous French women.

While the musical creativity is at an all time high, most of the humor comes from the Rocky and Bullwinkle-esque yet pre Pinky and the Brain version of pompous television personality Clyde Crashcup and his long-suffering miniature assistant Leonardo as they "invent" baseball. Moreover, the characters are so unique that the DVD comes with an insert featuring those two alone which made me wonder if there was ever a spinoff or if they'll be used in anything down the road.

Production wise, the DVD release opted to stick with the same mono sound that was utilized for the broadcast in the two bonus episodes of the roughly 74 minute work. And although it's a nice trip back to era of Fresh Prince as Will Smith hosts a celeb-filled, dated look at five decades of music with the Chipmunks in 1991's "The Chipmunks Present Rockin' Through The Decades" that shows Alvin, Simon and Theodore's take on everyone from Elvis to Springsteen, it's a rather weak mixture of music videos and celebrity footage.

However, much like the original Alvin Show, it's worth a peek just to glimpse the far too brief footage of the Chipmunks in puppet form on The Ed Sullivan Show in a nice set-up gag to perform their signature tune. Going right back into the familiar warmth of the '80s style animation with a sweet middle 1985 episode titled "A Chipmunk Reunion," the three assert their independence and disappear in the middle of the night to track down their birth mother to find out when exactly their birthday is and why she came to leave them on Dave's doorstep.

Horrified that something will happen to them, despite the fact that Alvin and the boys asked their female counterparts to look after Dave while they're gone, Dave ventures out into the forest to track down his family in a nice episode that could also serve as an allegory about adoption and a child's desire to know their true origins.

Admittedly the selection of episodes make an unlikely trio as thematically they don't have much holding them together aside from a very loose thread about the history of the series and characters. And although I would've preferred a longer and more in-depth look at the vintage Alvin Show to hear more songs with which I am unfamiliar and view more wacky shenanigans of Clyde Crashcup and the adorable Leonardo, overall I was grateful that so much care, dedication, and love was taken in ensuring the very best presentation of the world's first introduction to the Chipmunks as TV stars.

As Paramount keeps unveiling more quality releases of the Chipmunks line that are sure to appeal to Generation X and now the Baby Boomers as well, I remain hopeful that along with other Paramount titles debuting in tandem with Nickelodeon such as SpongeBob SquarePants, the next generation will latch onto the red, blue, and turquoise singers for many years to come.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Classic Holiday Gift Set

Christmas, Christmas time is here—
arriving September 23,
thanks to this wonderful collection.

If you’re of a certain age and not so cynical that you won’t admit it, the lyrics, “Want a plane that loops the loop/Me, I want a hula-hoop,” still sends shivery excitement down your spine as nostalgic visions of holidays past dance in your head. Additionally, memories of youth for pop culture enthusiasts such as yours truly usually come with not just a soundtrack but an endless reel of classic television shows, video games, magazines, comic books, commercials, and movies seen when we came of age.

For my generation, it’s the mid to late '80s and early '90s that had the greatest impact on me and while new animated shows like Spongebob and Dora seem cute enough, there’s no replacing the vintage classics like Alvin and the Chipmunks. This month Paramount Home Entertainment has delivered a plethora of Alvin-related items to DVD with individual discs as well as sets and they do much, much more than wipe away the atrocious memory of witnessing the big screen live version of the film starring Jason Lee.

More importantly and especially in the case of Alvin and the Chipmunks Classic Holiday Gift Set, they whisk us back down memory lane. Quickly into the episodes, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only did I recall the words to some of their most classic songs like “Christmas Don’t Be Late” (as well as the show’s theme) but entire episode plots came flooding back.

A holiday-themed, three disc set, beautifully boxed together, it’s divided into the titles Trick or Treason, Alvin’s Thanksgiving Celebration, and A Chipmunk Christmas, each of which offer bonus episodes fitting to each holiday’s theme as well as stunning Dolby Digital surround sound and closed captioning for the hearing impaired. Transferred in their full screen glory, Trick or Treason kicks off the set with the titular episode and four additional ones as Dave Seville’s “fellas” learn valuable lessons about withstanding peer pressure as Alvin tries to join the gang-like, Halloween frat pack entitled the “monster club” and Theodore becomes unlikely friends with their neighborhood’s adolescent version of Boo Radley, cruelly ridiculed for looking different.

Primarily fear and trickery play a role in the rest of the disc’s shows, especially as the long suffering Theodore and Simon decide to give prankster Alvin — whose mischievous code of ethics is “what are brothers for?” — a taste of his own medicine in “Theodore’s Life as a Dog,” and the boys scare themselves silly at the movies in “Nightmare on Seville Street.” However, one of the standouts includes an ingenious plot set-up in “Babysitter Fright Night,” as, instead of the gorgeous babysitting babe they were hoping Dave had hired when he had to work late (or as the boys initially feared had decided to run away from home), they get an authoritative disciplinarian who entertains them with, as they amusingly call it, “hard labor” and “prison food.” Rounding off the disc with the funny moral of “be careful what you wish for,” Trick or Treason culminates with the episode “No Chipmunk is an Island,” as the boys — tired of sharing a room — all have the opportunity to have their own individual lair in the Seville household. Of course, ultimately they realize what we’ve known all along which is, when it comes to The Chipmunks, “brother” is just another word for “friend."

Perhaps the weakest entry in the three disc collection but still far above average for animated shows is Alvin and the Chipmunks: Alvin’s Thanksgiving Celebration which begins with the passable offering “A Chipmunk Celebration” as the gang finds themselves all cast extraordinarily against type in a local community theatre production. Namely, this means that brainy Simon hams it up a la Alvin, Alvin makes costumes like the sensitive Theodore, and Theodore tries to master Simon-style technical wizardry behind the scenes. Educational yet a bit dry, “Celebration” is followed up with the perfunctory “Food for Thought” as Alvin and Simon tutor Theodore on American history, leading to Chipmunk fantasy sequences starring not just the boys but their female counterparts, The Chipettes. However, the last two episodes are far superior and strengthen the disc as a whole, although plot-wise, they should’ve been flipped as the two shows reference things that would’ve made more sense the other way around while the boys discover the joys and trials of having a pet in “Cookie Chomper III” and realize they have to learn to let adults make their own mistakes in “Dave’s Getting Married,” which borrows from The Parent Trap.

Yet, the old school admirer in me appreciated A Chipmunk Christmas above all the rest, not only because the DVD’s three episodes are filled with holiday cheer and enough Chipmunk caroling for us to realize why the group earned Grammy awards but also because they’re extraordinarily sweet-natured, wholesome and emotionally rich. With phenomenal writing — even when admittedly borrowing from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Frank Capra’s classic It’s a Wonderful Life — the three digitally enhanced shows including “A Chipmunk Christmas,” “Merry Christmas Mr. Carroll” and “Dave’s Wonderful Life,” are episodes you actually want to hug. While there’s no topping the sentimental title favorite, not only for its usage of “Christmas Don’t Be Late, but also, like the follow up “Mr. Carroll” in dishing up the true meaning of the holiday and importance of giving, the DVD ends on an especially beautiful note with “Dave’s Wonderful Life.”

Dave Seville — so often a supporting character in the series — is usually shortchanged. Of course, he’s most memorable for shouting “Alvinnnn!” at the top of his lungs and perhaps making the boys work more than a legal guardian should (hello, child labor laws!) yet he was a supremely caring and selfless parent and the third episode is a tribute to that as he struggles through a bout of truly bad luck and fears that his beloved chipmunks would be better off without him. It offers a much needed window into a parent’s role as each chipmunk magically appears in his dreams like Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life to remind him how very much he’s valued and loved.

Likewise, it’s a touching fitting end of not just that particular disc but the entire set as well in celebrating the character who “raised” such a wonderful trio, thus honoring The Chipmunks creator and Seville alter-ego Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. at the same time. With a release date scheduled for September 23, Alvin and the Chipmunks Classic Holiday Gift Set arrives with plenty of time to spare so your Christmas won’t “be late.”

Alvin and the Chipmunks Go to the Movies: Daytona Jones and the Pearl of Wisdom

When Harrison Ford is too busy,
it's time to call Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

In order to give America’s favorite high-pitched animated singing group a social life, three girlfriends were added to the '80s series Alvin and the Chipmunks, aptly named The Chipettes. Shortly following their introduction, the show continually evolved from simply Alvin and the Chipmunks to its final season incarnation in its eighth year on the air in 1990 as the show’s concept morphed once again and the title changed to The Chipmunks Go to the Movies. Spoofing everything Alvin style from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to King Kong, our three beloved rodents offered child-friendly versions of Hollywood blockbusters, dropping objectionable material, shortening the running time to suit youthful attention spans and instead inserted their own blend of mischievous mayhem and musical numbers.

Following the release of a wonderful collection of vintage episodes of the original '80s series with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Alvinnn!!! Edition, Paramount Home Entertainment, transferred yet another in a series of excellent DVDs consisting of all things Alvin. Featuring a trio of three of the most popular movie-themed episodes, they’ve now served up Alvin and the Chipmunks Go to the Movies: Daytona Jones and the Pearl of Wisdom. Including not just the titular episode (modeled primarily after Raiders of the Lost Ark) but also Batmunk and Robomunk (Batman and Robocop, respectively), these highly energetic, fast-paced and funny takes on '80s blockbusters are a must for fans of not only the films themselves but especially Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

While the animation appears as though it hasn’t been touched--now playable in Dolby Digital Surround-- the show sounds better than ever and additionally works with closed-caption-equipped televisions for the hearing impaired and, despite the lack of extra features, the full screen episodes can alternatively be played one at a time or all in a row so they flow continuously together for a mini 68-minute Alvin marathon.

Setting each episode up with a gag fitting to the tone and plotline with each as the trio introduces the “movies” directly to their audience, the writing of this final season is particularly a high point, talking up to the viewer rather than down despite their targeted age demographic. Alvin, who of course is up to his old tricks as Daytona opens, chides his brother with the warning, “Never rush a rescue, Simon-- especially a dramatic one,” before the show launches headfirst into a Raiders spoof so impressive that it’s a wonder Steven Spielberg didn’t invoke legal action.

While for my money, the first episode is the standout-- as an avid fan of all things Batman, I was particularly impressed by its follow-up Batmunk which refreshingly gave Simon a chance to shine as Brice Wayne who must go head to head with Alvin’s Jokester as they fight over who can create the best toys, as if playing on Jack Nicholson’s line from the film which asked, “Where does he get such wonderful toys?” With literally a roller-coaster ride for a finale and utilizing a great Top Gun musical classic cue, it’s Chipmunk gold and manages to keep us still smiling long into the entertaining but less successful Robomunk, which relies too much on the Chipettes and lackluster humor, feeling less in the spirit of the original show than the rest. Still, it’s a great DVD sure to bring back memories of childhood for Generations Y and X and I’m definitely staying tuned for Paramount’s next Chipmunk-themed DVD releases planned for the rest of the month.

TV on DVD: Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Alvinnn!!! Edition

Featuring fourteen of Alvin's wildest adventures from the classic Emmy nominated 1980s cartoon series Alvin and The Chipmunks, this deluxe two-disc collector's set from Paramount Home Entertainment is a must-own for both devotees of the musical trio as well as those who grew up with the show. Although the full-screen animation doesn't appear to have been retouched for its DVD transfer, this wonderfully retro set sounds better than ever complete with Dolby Digital sound and is additionally compatible for closed caption equipped televisions.

Honoring the musical origins of the beloved animated stars created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., each mini-episode features a catchy performance by Alvin and the Chipmunks with such song selections as “Surfin Safari,” “Born to be Wild,” “Bad to the Bone,” “Footloose,” “Three Little Maids,” and “Goodbye to You.” However, any true fan of the series will tell you that the music was always just a bonus (possibly with the exception of one of my favorite holiday songs ever, the original, irreplaceable “Chipmunk Song”) and it's the characters that kept us tuned every week. The '80s incarnation of the Chipmunks was the second series following The Alvin Show of the early 1960s and this newer cartoon ran successfully from 1983-1990.

Original Theme Song (Courtesy of YouTube):

The group is headed up by the mischievous, ambitious daredevil Alvin (named after Liberty Records president Alvin Bennett), the brainy bespectacled Simon (founder and owner Simon Waronker), and the gullible, sweet yet food obsessed Theodore (chief engineer Theodore Keep). And thanks to their adopted father, record producer, and tour manager, the long-suffering and loving David Seville (derived from Bagdasarian's original stage name), the chipmunks have become international musical sensations.

Although, as a childhood fan, I mostly remember the trouble-making Alvin testing Dave's nerves until he'd frequently shout “Alvinnn!!!” as the DVD title denotes, watching the series now, I realize that in addition to the wild adventures, Alvin and The Chipmunks is a remarkably brainy, sophisticated, and morally sound children's program. Whether the boys are starting their own Chipmunk Fire Station or dealing with first crushes, studying Kabuki theater or taking part in Alvin's latest schemes for greater fame, the fun, witty, and fast-paced show is far more than just passively entertaining.

Emphasizing honesty and friendship and filled with useful lessons in everything from peer pressure to fire safety, the show plays equally well to adults with cinematic references to E.T. and Easy Rider and this set's so good you'll long not just for more episodes but also more '80s cartoons (like my favorite, The Muppet Babies) to make their debuts on DVD. However, one thing's for certain — whether you're feeling nostalgic for decades past or introducing the series to a new generation — you won't do much better than Alvinnn!!!